June is LGBTQ+ pride month and an extremely important time to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community around the world. If you are an employer who wants to show your support to pride month and help take steps to be more LGBTQ+ inclusive in your workplace, then have a read of our guide below. We have broken the article into two sections to show how you can support pride inside and outside your organisation.
Supporting LGBTQ+ Members of Staff
The most important thing you can do to support the LGBTQ+ community during pride is to ensure that you are an equal and inclusive employer. And that you are doing everything you can to support your LGBTQ+ members of staff.
Using Pronouns in Emails and Meetings
It is becoming more and more common for companies to encourage staff to give their gender pronouns on emails and in meetings to ensure that nobody is misgendered. Sharing pronouns also helps to remove the false idea that you can tell somebody’s gender identity by simply looking at them, and will create a more inclusive culture for transgender, gender non-conforming and non-binary people.
Having Clear Diversity and Inclusion Policy
A simple way to support your LGBTQ+ staff is by having a clear and robust Equality, Diversity and inclusion policy. One which staff members and the public can access. This can help set your workplace tone and ensure that everyone knows you are committed to having better LGBTQ+ representation.
Take Discrimination and Bullying Seriously
Finally, if you want to support LGBTQ+ staff members, you must take discrimination and bullying seriously to ensure that nobody mistreats someone else due to their gender identity or sexuality. This may come in the form of LGBTQ+ training, severe consequences for those who mistreat others, or simply calling out unacceptable behaviour in the workplace when it happens.
Supporting LGBTQ+ Charities
The second way you can support pride month as an employer is by directly supporting LGBTQ+ charities.
Donating Money
One of the simplest and most valuable ways to support a charity is by making a monetary donation. This could be a one-off donation from a fundraiser event or a regular monthly donation. There are many different LGBTQ+ charities across the UK making a difference at both local, national and global level. Some of our favourites include Stonewall, AKT and Mind Out.
Having Staff Charity Days
The second way you can support LGBTQ+ charities is by donating your time instead of your money. More and more business are choosing to offer charity days as part of their staff contracts. These allow staff members to spend a day volunteering for a charity, and you pay them for this time. You could find a local pride project that needs some extra support and offer your staff the opportunity to work with them for one day.
For more information on supporting LGBTQ+ members of staff, head to our website Aspiring to Include for more information.
