Some tips to make your workplace an LGBT-friendly space
Having happy and committed LGBT+ staff in one’s teams is an asset for companies, but they need to know how to create a welcoming and inclusive environment.
Many people eagerly look forward to their lunch break. For LGBT+ people concealing their sexual orientation from their colleagues, it’s another story. They have to talk about their personal lives without revealing the name or gender of their partner, not say too much about their activities or pretend to be single. It can be a heavy burden. “Hiding and being isolated isn’t easy”, says Marie-Aline Millot, one of the organisers of the Lesbians Who Tech association that increases the visibility of and equips lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals who work in the tech sector.
Fortunately, many women feel safe enough in their company to out themselves. For Marie-Aline Millot, LGBT+ people’s situation in the world is generally fairy positive. “I’ve met a lot of people who work in supportive companies in which heterosexual colleagues listen to their needs” she insists. But even in these companies, LGBT+ staff face challenges that their heterosexual colleagues don’t have to face. “For a lesbian couple, having a child means artificial insemination, possibly abroad”,Marie-Aline Millot explains. “It means taking time off from work to travel to Belgium or Spain and having access to a health insurance policy that covers part of the expense”.
To help LGBT+ staff flourish at work, their challenges need to be taken into account rather than favouring a universalism that excludes them. “Being inclusive means accepting each person’s differences”, says Marie-Aline, “and that’s not something we’re always accustomed to in society”.
On 21 March, Le Plateau hosted the third Mandala meeting, part of a series of conferences and a media devoted to inclusion enabling us to meet people who are working towards greater diversity.
Marie-Aline Millot was this meeting’s guest. Here are some tips to make your company a more welcoming place for LGBT+ people.
Envisage the unseen
Do you not know any LGBT+ people in your company? It doesn’t mean they’re not there. “Before discrimination, there’s self-discrimination”, Marie-Aline Millot explains. She meets lots of women who don’t want to be outed at work because they’re worried about being judged or discriminated against. They put their career ahead of their personal lives. Some of them say that they’ll be able to be themselves later on, when they’ve already proven themselves and climbed the corporate ladder. “It’s years of personal resignation”, Marie-Aline Millot says sadly. If you want your company to be a place for everyone, ask yourself whether your workplace is an environment in which LGBT+ staff would feel comfortable.
Show that you’re interested
If you’re in a position of power, you can express your desire to make your company more inclusive. Stand firm in the face of homophobia, condemn homophobic remarks and insults. Assert your intention of being LGBT-friendly both within your company and elsewhere. This should make everybody think. A positive signal such as this could enable your LGBT employees to feel safe and maybe stop hiding their sexual orientation.
Listen to your employees and colleagues
If you have colleagues who have already outed themselves, give them the floor. “We have to consult with others to understand their experience, their view of life”, Marie-Aline Millot insists. It is by listening that companies have begun to provide concierge services and crèches to make women’s lives easier, and it is in this way that good HR policies will emerge that facilitate the arrival of a child in same-sex families or the transition process of a transgender person, for example. If the people concerned are not incorporated within the thought process, any action risks being clumsy at best and counterproductive at worst.
Think about your recruitment and your strategy
For Marie-Aline Millot, inclusiveness needs to be a topic that is taken onboard from the recruitment process onward. “It’s great if LGBT people feel comfortable in their company”, says the member of Lesbians Who Tech, “but the issue is also one of what we can do to attract such people”. If you fail to show that you are a welcoming company for everyone, in your job ads and recruitment process, you run the risk of always attracting the same type of people from the same schools and universities.
Get your inspiration from companies at the forefront of this issue
In North America, many companies are making considerable efforts to encourage diversity, including Google, Facebook and Shopify. They have taken a public stance on the matter, like when Mark Zuckerberg climbed onboard the company’s official float at the Gay Pride parade in San Francisco in 2013. They adapt their internal communication by featuring both heterosexual and homosexual couples in their training. They involve LGBT+ people at every level of the decision process, so that each product and service they produce is LGBT-friendly (choice of gender, taking into account of their safety, etc.). Their practices extend to their European offices, and are inspiring companies with a more European culture. At Heetch, this can be seen in its external communication. “You don’t just see white heterosexuals in their communication. It reflects the diversity that exists in our world today”,Marie-Aline Millot explains.“It’s great to see”, she says with relief.
Let communities come together
These North American companies are also known for setting up specific groups devoted to their minorities. These groups allow the people concerned and their supporters to meet, talk and even recommend actions to HR, communications, sales, engineering… every department. At Google, members of the LGBT group even offer training in how to use Google tools to LGBT retailers.
Organise awareness-raising events
If nobody within the company is able or willing to talk about the issue, bring in people from outside the company. It will help increase teams’ awareness and send out a strong signal. For Marie-Aline Millot, it’s a way of indicating that it is an open issue without identifying a person within the company. Some organisations provide training, like Autre Cercle, a leading French homosexual voluntary association.
Get involved
Lastly, if you want to help LGBT+ people benefit from a “safe space” outside the company and equip themselves to better evolve within the company, you can support associations like Lesbians Who Tech and LGBTech in the tech sector. These two associations organise meetups and look for companies in which such events can be hosted.
You know what to do!
The full meeting is available on YouTube
#LePlateau is a third place dedicated to Open Innovation within Societe Generale. It’s a 1,000m² space that hosts, under one roof and for periods of up to 6 months, Societe Generale teams and ecosystem start-ups. Each resident works on their own disruptive or innovative project in large open spaces where teams commingle. #LePlateau provides an environment enabling this work to be undertaken in a single place, but also and more importantly methodological support to accelerate projects, the organising of the residents and premises to enable them to exchange and share their expertise and experience.
