Leading the Rainbow Community
Culture
"I’ve
learned that when a person feels safe enough to “come out”, to live their lives
authentically, they are much happier and more productive"
Teri Albert
Quality Engineer, DIBU Quality & Program
Excellence & Global Lead, LGBT+ Employee Resource Group
Texas, United States
Teri, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
My name is Teri Albert and my pronouns are whatever
you want. I’m a Quality Engineer with the DIBU Quality & Program Excellence
team and the Global Lead for the LGBT+ Employee Resource Group also known as
the Rainbow Connection. I identify as non-binary, queer, homoflexible and
polyamorous. I’ve been with Hitachi for 11 years. I’m based just outside of
Dallas, TX in the small community of Princeton where I live with my cat Sebi
and my lizard Phinn.
How did you get involved in creating the Rainbow
Community – ERG?
It
all started out with a survey. 2 years ago, I took a survey on employee
support and ERGs. It asked about interest in supporting or leading an ERG. I
thought “Why not!” A week later I got a call asking if I’d be interested in
leading an ERG. I’d recently come out to my co-workers that I’m queer, so I
thought why not lead an LGBT ERG? The rest, as they say, is history.
Why
are our Employee Resources Groups so important to our employees?
I’ve
learned that when a person feels safe enough to “come out”, to live their lives
authentically, they are much happier and more productive. ERGs provide many
types of support for employees. They are a place where employees can meet to
discuss their challenges and get support, they provide a communication conduit
between the group and leadership and can develop programs that benefit the
minority group and company. I’ve always felt if a company takes care of their
employees, then their employees will take care of the business and overall make
the company successful.
What drives Hitachi’s commitment to DEI and do you
feel we are making good headway?
I definitely think things have changed for the
better regarding DEI at Hitachi. When I first started here, I never would have
considered coming out. I think our leaders are very committed to valuing
employees and their diversity. When I have senior leaders wanting to attend our
happy hour sessions, I know we have grown in a much more positive DEI direction.
It’s the younger generations that are changing the
face of DEI as an overall movement. Gone are the days when you had to hide
being LGBT. More and more people are identifying as non-heteronormative either
in their sexual orientation and/or gender representation. For the LGBT
community, DEI is a transition point to facilitate understanding of who and
what we are, and that we have as much right to be here as anyone else. This is
both generational and cultural awareness. There are currently only 11 countries
where being LGBT is protected, and there are still many more countries where
being LGBT is illegal and even warrant the death penalty. Until being LGBT is
legal everywhere we still have work to do.
What can our employees
and Rainbow community look forward to in the future?
Our
biggest goals in FY23 are to deploy a pronouns program and an Ally-to-Advocate
program and create a Transition Handbook. The Pronouns program is designed to
facilitate conversations around gender and gender identity in a safe manner.
The Ally-to-Advocate (A2A) Program will be an interactive learning program to
certify non-LGBT employees as allies and safe people. Our goal with both
programs is to create a safer environment, especially in at-risk countries, for
our LGBT employees. The Transition Handbook will help transgender employees as
they transition in the workplace. This will include how to change their
name/gender marker, what kind of gender affirmation benefits are available to
them, and how to successfully deal with any negative situations that might
arise.
We
want to continue the success we had with our Pride events from last year into
the future, and eventually hope to have Hitachi booths at some of the larger
Pride festivals. We will continue to provide speakers both during Pride month
and throughout the year to help facilitate conversations about important LGBT+
topics.