Many organizations recently celebrated Pride month, which marks a global celebration of LGBTQ+ people who, in many places, are still fighting for basic rights. In recent years, many organizations have been hoisting their rainbow colors to the mast in a welcome sign of acceptance to their LGBTQ+ clients and staff. Moreover, organizations who embrace equality are generally more profitable, and enjoy added benefits of better staff retention and vital exposure amongst a key demographic.
You may ask yourself: What’s the point of businesses supporting LGBTQ+ events, such as Pride?
When organizations celebrate events like Pride, it can have significant impact on company morale and on the company’s reputation. Last year at Brighton Pride, the hardware chain Wickes sponsored a float at the annual festival. Displayed across the banner for all to see were two key messages: “No LGB without the T” and “Ban Conversion Therapy for All.”
Those slogans refer to efforts in some reactionary quarters to divide transgender people from the wider LGBTQ+ community, and the still unbanned practice of conversion therapy — which refers to the unlicensed “therapists” attempting to change people’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity, often causing great harm to those individuals in the process.
But Wickes’ efforts were not a cynical networking ploy. In fact, the slogans came from the organization’s internal LGBTQ+ network. Wickes, as an organization, offered a supportive environment for their LGBTQ+ staff to express important issues to the community, which was well-received amongst the audience at Brighton Pride and went a long way to cement the organization as a progressive, welcoming employer and a place where discrimination against anyone would not be tolerated.
Assess Your Pride Maturity
While the example above shows an organization ready and willing to let their LGBTQ+ employees take the lead and embrace solidarity, Pride month can also prove fraught for some brands who engage in the practice called “pinkwashing.” This refers to businesses that make performative overtures to the LGBTQ+ community on the one hand, but does the opposite with the other.
The most frequently cited example of corporate pinkwashing is when a brand changes their logo during Pride month to a rainbow motif… but only in certain, gay-friendly parts of the world. Luxury vehicle manufacturer Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) was accused of this when they changed their logo around Europe, but not in the Middle East region or Russia.
Your organization might want to do something for events such as Pride month, but it’s important to take time and get it right, rather than rush into a hastily put-together campaign that leaves the organization embarrassed, rather than proud. A better, more considered approach is to think through the key steps that inclusive organizations take to authentically support LGBTQ+ events, and think through what works in your organization.
How Supportive Is Your Organization of LGBTQ+ People?
In a recent VinciWorks survey, two-thirds of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) managers had themselves witnessed discrimination against LGBTQ+ staff at work. These statistics are seen again and again. It’s been reported that over one-half of Irish workers who identify as LGBTQ+ feel discriminated against at work.
What’s more concerning is the fact — according to the ViniciWorks survey — 57% of human resources (HR) and DEI managers think their organization provides a significant level of support to LGBTQ+ employees in the workplace, yet over one-half (56%) are not yet delivering any training around sexual orientation within their workplaces.
What these figures suggest is a gap between what DEI managers believe, and what LGBTQ+ employees experience. This gap is large enough for organization not only to trip over but fall right into if they jump on a Pride bandwagon without taking a serious look at their own practices first.
What Should Organizations Be Doing?
A strong anti-discrimination, anti-harassment and anti-bullying policy that explicitly includes LGBTQ+ people is fundamental. Beyond that, organizations should also have a positive-looking DEI policy that is inclusive of all LGBTQ+ people. Events such as Pride month and National Inclusion Week are a good time to reflect on these policies and ensure the language they are written in is inclusive. For instance, using words like “parents” instead of “mothers” and “fathers,” and “spouses” or “partners” instead of “husbands” and “wives” is a good start.
If your organization is global, then those LGBTQ+ policies should also be global. Just because your operations might exist in a country where someone can be terminated or discriminated against for being gay, doesn’t mean your organization should behave like that. A single, global approach to DEI which sets out the standards all employees should aspire to is a far better goal than a myriad of opt-outs and exclusions.
Next is training on sexual orientation, and diversity training in general. All policies should be supported by training, after all, how else can these policies and standards of behavior be communicated? Particularly with diversity and equality, training is vital given the risks of getting it wrong. Incidents of discrimination that go unchecked and unaccounted for will, inevitably, balloon into larger cultural troubles which can affect the organization long-term. Like with policies, training should be rolled out to all staff, at least annually, and ideally should center the lived experience of LGBTQ+ people instead of simply hitting the points of legal minimums. The idea with sexual orientation training, and diversity training in general, is to build a workplace of empathy and inclusion, where people aren’t just tolerated, but feel accepted.
Once these things have taken place, organizations can begin to identify, train and support diversity champions. Ideally these individuals will be at all levels of the organization and be communicated throughout internal channels. The idea is if one can see it, they can be it. A newer employee who is LGBTQ+ seeing someone like themselves open and thriving in senior-level or long-term positions is incredibly powerful.
LGBTQ+ networks are also powerful places for supporters and allies to gather, foster mutual inclusion, respect and community, and from which to guide the organization toward an authentic celebration of LGBTQ+ people at work.
