Five things your company can do to become more inclusive to their LGBTQ+ Employees

At VERCIDA We love when pride month comes around it gives us a chance to celebrate one of the most underrepresented communities, LGBTQ+ and to honour our allied champions of diversity & inclusion. We know that many of our partners are working hard every day to make the world a better place for all and this starts with what businesses can do internally to make this change. 

LGBTQ+ Allies can be found across many organisations around the world and they are often hidden in plain sight. They're the ones who stand up with great pride, ready to challenge that may be waiting for them with their authentic self. Passionate, self-motivated and authentic is just scratching the surface of ways to describe the many talents of the LGBTQ+ community. 

The World is constantly changing and evolving. At VERCIDA we want to illustrate how our allies are changing the workplace to be a more inclusive place for all including the LGBTQ+ community. 

A real life example of how being allies can make a difference

Accenture began to encourage its employees around the world to declare their sexuality in their email signatures as a way to support their LGBTQ+ staff and allies. It's a simple change that has had a positive effect on many employees lives. Gradually Indian colleagues started to follow suit, ignoring the criminalisation of same-sex relationships in their country. This lead a colleague to come out to their team. The following week they attended Bangalore Pride. There they met colleagues with their families - all wearing supportive t-shirts. This shows the power of allieship and this is what Vercida wants to support happening in the LGBTQ+ community on a global scale

VERCIDA can help companies  and organisations to build an LGBTQ+ Inclusive workspace by: 

1. Promoting LGBTQ+ focused functions for internal and external networks with clear responsibilities, aims, objectives and internal support that engages the majority. The importance of this cannot be understated, opportunities like this allow a wider group of employees to contribute in a safe setting. Without it, engagement will be unfocused and inconsistent. 
2. Making policies LGBTQ+ inclusive by updating language and terms clearly shows management support for diversity and inclusion. This can be as simple as changing phrasing from husband/wife to partner/spouse in all communication channels.
3. Reflecting the company’s respect for the individual across all existing policies. That includes communications, training and line management discussions.
4. Creating an Allies programme that provides support and reassurance for LGBTQ+ staff across the organisation.
5. Supporting diverse role models from teams at every level to have visibility in what you do and how you work. Creative newsletters are a good way to present these persons in a more informal manner – reinforcing the organisations approachability.

These are simple changes at the management level, but they can change an organisations attitude and subsequently employees lives. We believe in the power of people to drive the necessary change as we believe everyone has the right to bring their whole self to work.