What Workplaces Can Do To Create Trans Inclusion
Business
By Nikolaos Koutrakis, VP Reward at Colt
This transgender awareness week, Colt has collaborated with customers and suppliers to improve transgender and non-binary inclusion in the industry, producing a set of practical recommendations.
Nikolaos has put together best practices that workplaces can implement to stand by the trans community
We teamed up with Pride at ServiceNow,
Oracle Pride Employee Network (OPEN) from Oracle, Rainbow Network from
euNetworks, Pride Network from BT, Equal! from Nokia, and PRIDE@CSG from CSG to
gain a better understanding of the experience of transgender and non-binary
employees within the sector in a bid to drive a more supportive, inclusive
environment.
The recommendations produced were informed
by feedback from transgender and non-binary people within the industry
following a listening session for those with lived experience. Here are some of
these, and you can read more in the full
report.
- Provide communications and guidance on the importance
of correct pronouns, including examples in other languages
- Publish guidance on how to support team
members and colleagues who are transitioning
- Build in requirements within systems to
support name changes and non-binary identities, ensuring this is consistent
across the organisation
- Review policies to ensure they are gender-neutral, including parental leave policies
- Ensure that LGBTQ+ awareness or allyship
training includes transgender and non-binary inclusion and examples of how to
be an ally to these communities
- Consider introducing transition leave to
allow people to take time to focus on their needs
- Publish a Transition at Work policy
- Introduce ID cards with multiple sides so
that both gender identities can be reflected for a gender-fluid person
An increasing number of transgender and
non-binary people come out and make the decision to navigate the workplace
authentically. However, across the industry, tech companies remain at very
different maturity levels regarding LGBTQ+ inclusion, and therefore the ability
to support employees differs.
According to our findings, LGBTQ+ employees
themselves often shoulder the burden of educating their employees, and this is
even more difficult in smaller organisations or where their employee networks
are less supportive. However, at Colt, we believe that collaborative action and
learning from each other is the key to improving the experience of employees
across the sector, forming an informal working group called Pride Matters in
Tech in June 2023.
This a group of LGBTQ+ employee networks
and allies in the technology sector dedicated to creating a safe space, supporting
others, and sharing best practices and experiences.
These recommendations are Pride Matters in
Tech’s first collaborative initiative, and we aim to do more.
If you would like to find out more about
our cross-industry collaboration, Pride Matters in Tech, drop a note to [email protected]