Beyond policies and after Pride Month….

Uncovering Blind Spots: Outlook on Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DI&B) in Indian Workplaces (2022) shares 40% of employers do not have a formal policy or approach to DI&B and lack of leadership vision or using a one-size-fits-all approach is holding back organizations from being inclusive.

By 2030, 70% of workforce mix will comprise of Generation Z and millennials and 70% of them have said D&I as a key criterion while choosing an employer. Organizations will struggle to attract and retain people irrespective of their gender, race, caste, orientation, etc.

Given that LGBT+ people make 7-10% of any population, they are still a marginalized community and access to education, housing, jobs, pay parity, and leadership roles is a struggle. While the Pride month may be over, now is the time to look at all the touch points and ensure they are welcoming and inclusive.

Making all employee touch points inclusive and welcoming

Avni Chauhan in her master’s thesis focused on “Career Development of LGB People” says, Employee engagement is summation of work environment + leadership + team and co-worker + training and career development + compensation + organizational policies + workplace wellbeing.

There is more to be done beyond turning your logos in rainbow colors and talking about policies on your website.

1. Attracting LGBT+ talent - People who experience you brand must naturally become your ambassadors - Participate in diversity job fairs, provide internships and mentoring opportunities for LGBT+ candidates, be a part of/sponsor LGBT+ events in your community, make LGBT+ people your ambassadors, and invest CSR funds towards development and empowerment of LGBT+ community, join hands with customers and suppliers to build an inclusive supply chain/ecosystem
2. Recruitment process – Make it fair, respectful, and equitable - Ensure you offer several diversity candidates (LGBT+ one of them) resumes for all roles, have a diverse/inclusive interview panel, and take feedback from candidates on what went well and what can be improved, ensure policies are shared along with offer letters and provide an opportunity to connect without out colleagues and allies,
3. Onboarding process – Inclusive, explicit and showcase the end-to-end of employee life cycle - Ensure diverse candidates are a part of the onboarding process, explicitly showcase organizational efforts to create diversity, inclusion (ERGs), belonging (pride events), and equity including policies, etc., give a view of steps taken to ensure equity, talk about PoSH committee and redressal of grievances and ensure LGBT+ people have representation in PoSH committee, understand what more you can do to make it equitable (for ex: housing and transport for transgender colleagues) for marginalized community
4. Learning and development - Strive to be an equitable opportunity employer and not just an equal opportunity employer. LGBT+ awareness and ally onboarding sessions for employees, training sessions for people managers, lived experience sharing internships opportunities technical, skill and leadership development programs for LGBT+ people
5. Rewards, recognition, and benefits – It is key to driving behaviour change and sustaining an inclusive culture – study compensation of LGBT+ and ensure fair pay, reward bystanders for turning into allies, recognize vocal and visible allies, turn LGBT+ colleagues into role models
6. Performance and progression – Sustainable inclusion is key - build diverse teams and make inclusion a key criterion for promotion; ensure there is adequate LGBT+ representation at various levels of management including corner offices and boards, offer mentoring opportunities for LGBT+ people, study career paths of LGBT+ people, launch surveys to get feedback from LGBT+ people
7. Retain and exit – Measurement at exit – Use 3rd party surveys and exit interviews to ask if exclusion/lack of belongingness was a reason for exit; find out what needs to be improved and use inputs to recalibrate people, systems, and processes

Organizations must use the next 300 days to ensure every touch point is inclusive, musical, magical (keep heteronormativity/heterosexism in check), welcoming and equity at every step. Let's get started now...