How to Celebrate Pride at Work in 2023
For many, Pride Month is a time of celebration. But it’s also an important time to reflect on what companies can do to support their LGBTQIA+ employees.
Diversity continues to be a priority for organizations, but the numbers don’t lie. LGBTQIA+ employees are continuing to face discrimination and barriers in the workplace.
- 31% of LGBTQ Americans reported that experiences of discrimination have affected their ability to get promoted or attain their desired salary.
- 1-in-3 LGBT employees have reported leaving their jobs because their organization did not accept LGBT People.
- About 50% of LGBT workers in the U.S. are not out to their supervisors, with about 25% not being out to anyone in their workplace.
Organizations can (and should) do better.
June—Pride Month—is a great time to take a good hard look at what your organization is doing to proudly and loudly celebrate LGBTQIA+ employees in your workplace. The good news is that there’s a lot that you can do!
Not sure where to start? We’ve got some ideas that will help you spark meaningful change this Pride Month and beyond.
Table of Contents
- Understanding the History of Pride Month
- How to support LGBTQIA+ employees in your organization during Pride Month
- What your company can do beyond Pride Month
- How employees and managers can be effective allies for LGBTQIA+ co-workers
- Companies need to show their support for LGBTQIA+ more than ever
Understanding the history of Pride Month
Today, Pride Month is marked by lively parades, month-long celebrations, and activism in the U.S. and Canada.
But before we can really celebrate, it’s important to understand where Pride comes from. And it wasn’t always colorful parades and rainbow flags.
To understand the history, we need to go back almost half a century to the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in New York City. At the time, the bar was a safe haven for LGBTQIA+ people. It was a place where they could be themselves in a world where kissing and holding hands with someone of the same gender was illegal.
In 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn. This led to almost a week of protests where protesters clashed with the police. Pride in America started with a riot.
One year later, in 1970, people marched from the Stonewall Inn to Central Park to commemorate the riot and kicked off what we know as Pride today.
How to support LGBTQIA+ employees in your organization during Pride Month
While support for LGBTQIA+ employees needs to be a year-long affair, Pride is an important time for the LGBTQIA+ community. As an organization, it’s a great time to do the work to make a positive impact in the lives of your LGBTQIA+ employees and the community as a whole.
Here are some things you can do to recognize and celebrate Pride Month as an organization.
1. Give your employees time to celebrate
It sounds simple. But giving your employees the space to celebrate and participate in Pride Month activities is one of the best ways to support your employees. We spend so many hours of our lives at work that the gift of time is invaluable.
Giving employees time out of their workweek to dedicate to their chosen Pride activities is an easy, yet meaningful way to show your support.
Some equitable ways to give time off during Pride month include:
- Blocking off time for all employees to attend the local Pride parade.
- Giving all employees paid time off to carry out LGBTQIA+ and Pride-related volunteer work.
- Dedicating a day for the whole organization or office to celebrate Pride together.
2. Donate to and volunteer at LGBTQIA+ organizations
Pride is a celebration of identity. But it’s also an acknowledgment of history and the current challenges the LGBTQIA+ community still faces.
Joining in the festivities and making statements is a welcome start. But sometimes the best thing you can do is make a monetary contribution to charities that are working to break down barriers and support the LGBTQIA+ community.
There are plenty of causes at local and national levels that work toward improving social, legal and health outcomes for LGBTQIA+ folks. The Charity Navigator has a guide specific to LGBTQIA+ Pride Month where you can find organizations to donate to. You can also search by social and legal causes to find one that is aligned with your organization’s mission.
Some well-known and respected national organizations your company can donate to include:
- The Trevor Project: An organization that offers crisis counseling and advocacy for LGBTQIA+ youth.
- Transgender Law Center: A legal nonprofit led by trans people.
- GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation): GLAAD uses news and media to promote the acceptance of LGBTQIA+ people.
There are also local guides, like this one for organizations in Chicago, that provide a list of community centers that are supporting the LGBTQIA+ community locally.
If you’re not sure which charitable organization to contribute to, consider inviting your employees or your LGBTQIA+ employee resource group to make a suggestion. This way, you’re supporting a cause that really matters to the people on your team.
3. Kick off an LGBTQIA+ mentorship program
Mentorship is a proven way to improve career outcomes and elevate underrepresented groups.
A mentorship program dedicated to young LGBTQIA+ professionals can boost the representation of LGBTQIA+ employees in your workplace and set them up to be leaders in the company.
While mentorship is something you should invest in year-round, Pride Month is a great time to put a program in place.
Need a glimpse into the positive impact of an LGBTQIA+ mentorship program? The Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry is proof that it works.
Researchers studied an LGBTQIA+ mentorship program that paired two to three medical students with a physician. The program met with all participants twice, and mentees and mentors met up to five times during the school year.
The feedback the researchers got in an email survey from mentees and mentors was overwhelmingly positive and spoke to the value of mentoring young LGBTQIA+ professionals:
- “It makes it easier to envision a future for myself as a bi and trans physician, which means a lot to me.”
- “It’s nice to know I’m not alone, and to have people who understand to talk to and vent with when faced with overt or implied prejudice.”
- “I feel that it is good for medical students, some who have not been out for long and others who are struggling with the coming out process, to see people who are ‘comfortable in their skin’ so to speak. I feel like I have been able to provide guidance and support to both students and residents in various aspects of their academic and personal lives.”
Organization-wide mentorship programs seem challenging to implement, but it’s easier than you might think. Platforms like 10KC make launching and running a mentorship program a breeze. Get automated mentee-mentor matching with our Smart Match algorithm and have a curriculum with conversation starters that are relevant to the program you’re trying to launch—including LGBTQIA+ mentorship programs.
What your company can do beyond Pride Month
Embracing Pride celebrations during the month of June is great. But Pride should only be the starting point. It’s an opportunity for leaders to create a solid foundation for fostering an inclusive workplace all year round.
There’s still much work to be done to make the workplace inclusive—whether your team works remotely or in person. Here are some things you can do as an organization to support your LGBTQIA+ employees beyond Pride Month.
1. Support an LGBTQIA+ employee resource group
Employee resource groups (ERGs) are employee-led groups that create safe spaces for employees who share similar life experiences and characteristics.
Most major organizations already have an ERG in place to support LGBTQIA+ employees. But if yours doesn’t, it’s a great place to start.
ERGs are a space for employees of similar identities to meet regularly and talk about the challenges they face in the workplace. They foster trust between communities and the organization to help companies build diverse and welcoming workplaces. Group leaders also organize regular programming to create a better sense of community.
Many ERGs also welcome allies (those who don’t identify as LGBTQIA+ but support the community) to join and serve as both listeners and advocates.
Here are some tips for establishing an effective LGBTQIA+ ERG:
- Establish a mentoring program to enhance leadership skills, particularly for younger employees.
- Push for the company’s chief executive officer to publicly endorse LGBTQIA+ inclusive legislation.
- Identify opportunities for businesses to engage LGBTQIA+ consumers (e.g., obtaining a booth at an LGBTQIA+ pride event, launching an LGBTQIA+ inclusive advertising campaign, and strategic philanthropy to LGBTQIA+ organizations).
- Identify opportunities to recruit LGBTQIA+ employees (e.g., LGBTQIA+ recruiting fairs, working with LGBTQIA+ groups at local universities, and strategic philanthropy to LGBTQIA+ organizations).
- Appoint an executive champion to strengthen a group’s voice and impact. This is usually a senior leader who can bring the concerns and ideas of the group to upper management.
Organizational support is key, whether the group is six months or five years old. Companies need to prioritize giving time, space, and if necessary, funding, for the ERG to make an impact.
2. Support ongoing education about LGBTQIA+ issues in the workplace
When it comes to LGBTQIA+ issues, we often don’t know what we don’t know.
As a company, you have the responsibility to your LGBTQIA+ employees to provide the support and resources necessary for all employees to understand the issues facing the community.
Some ways you can elevate education regarding LGBTQIA+ issues in the workplace include:
- LGBTQIA+-specific anti-harassment training: While many organizations already participate in regular anti-harassment training, it’s important that you’re not only covering all-encompassing topics like racism or sexism. There should be dedicated sessions or parts of the programming related specifically to LGBTQIA+ harassment.
- Gender identity and expression workshops: As an employer, you never want your employees to feel bullied or outcasted. So it makes sense that best practices should be to offer training that educates all employees about sexual orientation as well as gender identity and expression. Identities can be complex, but acceptance and respect for these differences, above all, should be emphasized.
- Management and leadership training: Your people leaders play a huge role in making LGBTQIA+ employees feel comfortable in the workplace. Prioritize regular training about how to reduce discrimination and bias as a leader. This includes the importance of using the right pronouns or decentering heteronormativity, and also how not to discriminate in the hiring process as well as in performance reviews and promotions.
3. Make LGBTQIA+ inclusion a part of company culture
You should also understand how LGBTQIA+ folks perceive company culture and how you can do better. When it comes to employee satisfaction and retention, a positive company culture is often more important than salary.
A positive and diverse company culture is more than just saying that you value diversity. It includes prioritizing LGBTQIA+ inclusion, for example:
- Implementing diverse and inclusive hiring and onboarding practices.
- Reviewing policies to ensure they’re standardized for groups from all different backgrounds.
- Making allyship and LGBTQIA+ support known.
- Using inclusive language in internal and external communication.
How employees and managers can be allies for LGBTQIA+ co-workers
Pride Month centers on LGBTQIA+ people, but allies and non-LGBTQIA+ people also have an important role to play in June and beyond.
Here are some ways that you can encourage your teams to be better allies in the workplace.
1. Share pronouns in all communications and settings
Pronouns are used by individuals to express their gender identity. It’s how an individual wishes to be identified. When we assume pronouns, we can often find ourselves misgendering employees, which is uncomfortable for everyone involved.
Make sharing pronouns a common practice in your workplace. It’s one of the best ways to create an inclusive environment and demonstrate allyship.
Good places to share and include pronouns include:
- During introductions at meetings and conferences
- Email signatures
- Name tags at events
- Name labels on virtual meeting platforms
“As a team leader, I want to use correct pronouns with my team members,” said Michelle Blanchfield, technical product owner at CAET Chat Applications. “I feel that this is how I can show them that they matter and that I respect who they are and how they want to be addressed. Just like our name is something that is ours and ours alone, our pronouns are an extension of that.”
Want to take it a step further? Make it a point to incorporate gender-neutral language in all internal and external communications, so you’re never excluding anyone.
Here are some examples of places where you can use gender-neutral language:
- Job listings and other documents should use “they” instead of “she/he”.
- Greetings in emails and at meetings that address groups should use neutral language, too, and employ terms like “everyone” or “team” instead of “ladies and gentlemen”.
- Avoid employee surveys/communications that only include binary gender options like “female” or “male”.
By using gender-inclusive language in all aspects of your organization, you’re making inclusive language the standard across your teams.
2. Avoid making assumptions about sexuality
Many of us are pre-programmed to see the world through a heteronormative lens, meaning we can accidentally assume that a woman is dating or married to a man and vice versa.
Well-intentioned pleasantries like “Do you have a wife or boyfriend?” may seem harmless, but it assumes the other person’s sexuality. And when you assume wrong, it puts the burden on the other person to correct you.
Instead, trade these assumptions for neutral language. When referring to someone’s significant other, “partner” or “spouse” is a safer bet. Or avoid asking questions that can reveal their sexuality altogether. Let them take the lead on how much they want to share.
It might feel like a small practice, but it has a significant impact on deconstructing heteronormative environments. It also actively shows that you’re creating a safe space for queer co-workers to express their full selves.
3. Create an intentionally diverse network
We tend to gravitate toward people who look like us. It’s part of human nature.
Being an ally means working to move past this and develop a network of professionals from diverse backgrounds at work.
“When you get to know and build relationships with a more diverse group of people, you can help everyone come by the opportunities they deserve by referring and recommending them,” said Marietta Gentles Crawford in an article for the Muse. “You can support efforts to diversify your company and industry. And by connecting with people from all different backgrounds and perspectives, you can gain valuable insight that will make you better at your job, no matter what you do.”
As an employer, you can make this easier by taking advantage of unbiased networking tools and resources. It means opportunities to build relationships are more inclusive and equitable across the organization.
10KC makes it easy to meet people from all backgrounds at work.
Our Introductions feature matches people based on shared career goals and interests—and even their differences. It’s carefully designed to re-create the in-office water cooler experience virtually, so employees can share ideas and aspirations with colleagues they don’t already know.
Plus, it’s less formal than an organized mentorship program.
Companies need to show their support for LGBTQIA+ more than ever
Despite marriage legalization and a wider cultural acceptance of LGBTQIA+ folks compared to 10 years ago, the community still faces persistent challenges. There has been a rise in anti-trans legislation in the U.S. And LGBTQIA+ people continue to experience discrimination and microaggressions in their day-to-day lives.
While the challenges faced by the LGBTQIA+ community won’t disappear overnight, you can make an impact by elevating opportunities for people of all backgrounds.
How to Celebrate Pride at Work in 2023
For many, Pride Month is a time of celebration. But it’s also an important time to reflect on what companies can do to support their LGBTQIA+ employees.
Diversity continues to be a priority for organizations, but the numbers don’t lie. LGBTQIA+ employees are continuing to face discrimination and barriers in the workplace.
- 31% of LGBTQ Americans reported that experiences of discrimination have affected their ability to get promoted or attain their desired salary.
- 1-in-3 LGBT employees have reported leaving their jobs because their organization did not accept LGBT People.
- About 50% of LGBT workers in the U.S. are not out to their supervisors, with about 25% not being out to anyone in their workplace.
Organizations can (and should) do better.
June—Pride Month—is a great time to take a good hard look at what your organization is doing to proudly and loudly celebrate LGBTQIA+ employees in your workplace. The good news is that there’s a lot that you can do!
Not sure where to start? We’ve got some ideas that will help you spark meaningful change this Pride Month and beyond.
Table of Contents
- Understanding the History of Pride Month
- How to support LGBTQIA+ employees in your organization during Pride Month
- What your company can do beyond Pride Month
- How employees and managers can be effective allies for LGBTQIA+ co-workers
- Companies need to show their support for LGBTQIA+ more than ever
Understanding the history of Pride Month
Today, Pride Month is marked by lively parades, month-long celebrations, and activism in the U.S. and Canada.
But before we can really celebrate, it’s important to understand where Pride comes from. And it wasn’t always colorful parades and rainbow flags.
To understand the history, we need to go back almost half a century to the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in New York City. At the time, the bar was a safe haven for LGBTQIA+ people. It was a place where they could be themselves in a world where kissing and holding hands with someone of the same gender was illegal.
In 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn. This led to almost a week of protests where protesters clashed with the police. Pride in America started with a riot.
One year later, in 1970, people marched from the Stonewall Inn to Central Park to commemorate the riot and kicked off what we know as Pride today.
How to support LGBTQIA+ employees in your organization during Pride Month
While support for LGBTQIA+ employees needs to be a year-long affair, Pride is an important time for the LGBTQIA+ community. As an organization, it’s a great time to do the work to make a positive impact in the lives of your LGBTQIA+ employees and the community as a whole.
Here are some things you can do to recognize and celebrate Pride Month as an organization.
1. Give your employees time to celebrate
It sounds simple. But giving your employees the space to celebrate and participate in Pride Month activities is one of the best ways to support your employees. We spend so many hours of our lives at work that the gift of time is invaluable.
Giving employees time out of their workweek to dedicate to their chosen Pride activities is an easy, yet meaningful way to show your support.
Some equitable ways to give time off during Pride month include:
- Blocking off time for all employees to attend the local Pride parade.
- Giving all employees paid time off to carry out LGBTQIA+ and Pride-related volunteer work.
- Dedicating a day for the whole organization or office to celebrate Pride together.
2. Donate to and volunteer at LGBTQIA+ organizations
Pride is a celebration of identity. But it’s also an acknowledgment of history and the current challenges the LGBTQIA+ community still faces.
Joining in the festivities and making statements is a welcome start. But sometimes the best thing you can do is make a monetary contribution to charities that are working to break down barriers and support the LGBTQIA+ community.
There are plenty of causes at local and national levels that work toward improving social, legal and health outcomes for LGBTQIA+ folks. The Charity Navigator has a guide specific to LGBTQIA+ Pride Month where you can find organizations to donate to. You can also search by social and legal causes to find one that is aligned with your organization’s mission.
Some well-known and respected national organizations your company can donate to include:
- The Trevor Project: An organization that offers crisis counseling and advocacy for LGBTQIA+ youth.
- Transgender Law Center: A legal nonprofit led by trans people.
- GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation): GLAAD uses news and media to promote the acceptance of LGBTQIA+ people.
There are also local guides, like this one for organizations in Chicago, that provide a list of community centers that are supporting the LGBTQIA+ community locally.
If you’re not sure which charitable organization to contribute to, consider inviting your employees or your LGBTQIA+ employee resource group to make a suggestion. This way, you’re supporting a cause that really matters to the people on your team.
3. Kick off an LGBTQIA+ mentorship program
Mentorship is a proven way to improve career outcomes and elevate underrepresented groups.
A mentorship program dedicated to young LGBTQIA+ professionals can boost the representation of LGBTQIA+ employees in your workplace and set them up to be leaders in the company.
While mentorship is something you should invest in year-round, Pride Month is a great time to put a program in place.
Need a glimpse into the positive impact of an LGBTQIA+ mentorship program? The Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry is proof that it works.
Researchers studied an LGBTQIA+ mentorship program that paired two to three medical students with a physician. The program met with all participants twice, and mentees and mentors met up to five times during the school year.
The feedback the researchers got in an email survey from mentees and mentors was overwhelmingly positive and spoke to the value of mentoring young LGBTQIA+ professionals:
- “It makes it easier to envision a future for myself as a bi and trans physician, which means a lot to me.”
- “It’s nice to know I’m not alone, and to have people who understand to talk to and vent with when faced with overt or implied prejudice.”
- “I feel that it is good for medical students, some who have not been out for long and others who are struggling with the coming out process, to see people who are ‘comfortable in their skin’ so to speak. I feel like I have been able to provide guidance and support to both students and residents in various aspects of their academic and personal lives.”
Organization-wide mentorship programs seem challenging to implement, but it’s easier than you might think. Platforms like 10KC make launching and running a mentorship program a breeze. Get automated mentee-mentor matching with our Smart Match algorithm and have a curriculum with conversation starters that are relevant to the program you’re trying to launch—including LGBTQIA+ mentorship programs.
What your company can do beyond Pride Month
Embracing Pride celebrations during the month of June is great. But Pride should only be the starting point. It’s an opportunity for leaders to create a solid foundation for fostering an inclusive workplace all year round.
There’s still much work to be done to make the workplace inclusive—whether your team works remotely or in person. Here are some things you can do as an organization to support your LGBTQIA+ employees beyond Pride Month.
1. Support an LGBTQIA+ employee resource group
Employee resource groups (ERGs) are employee-led groups that create safe spaces for employees who share similar life experiences and characteristics.
Most major organizations already have an ERG in place to support LGBTQIA+ employees. But if yours doesn’t, it’s a great place to start.
ERGs are a space for employees of similar identities to meet regularly and talk about the challenges they face in the workplace. They foster trust between communities and the organization to help companies build diverse and welcoming workplaces. Group leaders also organize regular programming to create a better sense of community.
Many ERGs also welcome allies (those who don’t identify as LGBTQIA+ but support the community) to join and serve as both listeners and advocates.
Here are some tips for establishing an effective LGBTQIA+ ERG:
- Establish a mentoring program to enhance leadership skills, particularly for younger employees.
- Push for the company’s chief executive officer to publicly endorse LGBTQIA+ inclusive legislation.
- Identify opportunities for businesses to engage LGBTQIA+ consumers (e.g., obtaining a booth at an LGBTQIA+ pride event, launching an LGBTQIA+ inclusive advertising campaign, and strategic philanthropy to LGBTQIA+ organizations).
- Identify opportunities to recruit LGBTQIA+ employees (e.g., LGBTQIA+ recruiting fairs, working with LGBTQIA+ groups at local universities, and strategic philanthropy to LGBTQIA+ organizations).
- Appoint an executive champion to strengthen a group’s voice and impact. This is usually a senior leader who can bring the concerns and ideas of the group to upper management.
Organizational support is key, whether the group is six months or five years old. Companies need to prioritize giving time, space, and if necessary, funding, for the ERG to make an impact.
2. Support ongoing education about LGBTQIA+ issues in the workplace
When it comes to LGBTQIA+ issues, we often don’t know what we don’t know.
As a company, you have the responsibility to your LGBTQIA+ employees to provide the support and resources necessary for all employees to understand the issues facing the community.
Some ways you can elevate education regarding LGBTQIA+ issues in the workplace include:
- LGBTQIA+-specific anti-harassment training: While many organizations already participate in regular anti-harassment training, it’s important that you’re not only covering all-encompassing topics like racism or sexism. There should be dedicated sessions or parts of the programming related specifically to LGBTQIA+ harassment.
- Gender identity and expression workshops: As an employer, you never want your employees to feel bullied or outcasted. So it makes sense that best practices should be to offer training that educates all employees about sexual orientation as well as gender identity and expression. Identities can be complex, but acceptance and respect for these differences, above all, should be emphasized.
- Management and leadership training: Your people leaders play a huge role in making LGBTQIA+ employees feel comfortable in the workplace. Prioritize regular training about how to reduce discrimination and bias as a leader. This includes the importance of using the right pronouns or decentering heteronormativity, and also how not to discriminate in the hiring process as well as in performance reviews and promotions.
3. Make LGBTQIA+ inclusion a part of company culture
You should also understand how LGBTQIA+ folks perceive company culture and how you can do better. When it comes to employee satisfaction and retention, a positive company culture is often more important than salary.
A positive and diverse company culture is more than just saying that you value diversity. It includes prioritizing LGBTQIA+ inclusion, for example:
- Implementing diverse and inclusive hiring and onboarding practices.
- Reviewing policies to ensure they’re standardized for groups from all different backgrounds.
- Making allyship and LGBTQIA+ support known.
- Using inclusive language in internal and external communication.
How employees and managers can be allies for LGBTQIA+ co-workers
Pride Month centers on LGBTQIA+ people, but allies and non-LGBTQIA+ people also have an important role to play in June and beyond.
Here are some ways that you can encourage your teams to be better allies in the workplace.
1. Share pronouns in all communications and settings
Pronouns are used by individuals to express their gender identity. It’s how an individual wishes to be identified. When we assume pronouns, we can often find ourselves misgendering employees, which is uncomfortable for everyone involved.
Make sharing pronouns a common practice in your workplace. It’s one of the best ways to create an inclusive environment and demonstrate allyship.
Good places to share and include pronouns include:
- During introductions at meetings and conferences
- Email signatures
- Name tags at events
- Name labels on virtual meeting platforms
“As a team leader, I want to use correct pronouns with my team members,” said Michelle Blanchfield, technical product owner at CAET Chat Applications. “I feel that this is how I can show them that they matter and that I respect who they are and how they want to be addressed. Just like our name is something that is ours and ours alone, our pronouns are an extension of that.”
Want to take it a step further? Make it a point to incorporate gender-neutral language in all internal and external communications, so you’re never excluding anyone.
Here are some examples of places where you can use gender-neutral language:
- Job listings and other documents should use “they” instead of “she/he”.
- Greetings in emails and at meetings that address groups should use neutral language, too, and employ terms like “everyone” or “team” instead of “ladies and gentlemen”.
- Avoid employee surveys/communications that only include binary gender options like “female” or “male”.
By using gender-inclusive language in all aspects of your organization, you’re making inclusive language the standard across your teams.
2. Avoid making assumptions about sexuality
Many of us are pre-programmed to see the world through a heteronormative lens, meaning we can accidentally assume that a woman is dating or married to a man and vice versa.
Well-intentioned pleasantries like “Do you have a wife or boyfriend?” may seem harmless, but it assumes the other person’s sexuality. And when you assume wrong, it puts the burden on the other person to correct you.
Instead, trade these assumptions for neutral language. When referring to someone’s significant other, “partner” or “spouse” is a safer bet. Or avoid asking questions that can reveal their sexuality altogether. Let them take the lead on how much they want to share.
It might feel like a small practice, but it has a significant impact on deconstructing heteronormative environments. It also actively shows that you’re creating a safe space for queer co-workers to express their full selves.
3. Create an intentionally diverse network
We tend to gravitate toward people who look like us. It’s part of human nature.
Being an ally means working to move past this and develop a network of professionals from diverse backgrounds at work.
“When you get to know and build relationships with a more diverse group of people, you can help everyone come by the opportunities they deserve by referring and recommending them,” said Marietta Gentles Crawford in an article for the Muse. “You can support efforts to diversify your company and industry. And by connecting with people from all different backgrounds and perspectives, you can gain valuable insight that will make you better at your job, no matter what you do.”
As an employer, you can make this easier by taking advantage of unbiased networking tools and resources. It means opportunities to build relationships are more inclusive and equitable across the organization.
10KC makes it easy to meet people from all backgrounds at work.
Our Introductions feature matches people based on shared career goals and interests—and even their differences. It’s carefully designed to re-create the in-office water cooler experience virtually, so employees can share ideas and aspirations with colleagues they don’t already know.
Plus, it’s less formal than an organized mentorship program.
Companies need to show their support for LGBTQIA+ more than ever
Despite marriage legalization and a wider cultural acceptance of LGBTQIA+ folks compared to 10 years ago, the community still faces persistent challenges. There has been a rise in anti-trans legislation in the U.S. And LGBTQIA+ people continue to experience discrimination and microaggressions in their day-to-day lives.
While the challenges faced by the LGBTQIA+ community won’t disappear overnight, you can make an impact by elevating opportunities for people of all backgrounds.
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