Joseph Williams is in the LGBTQ+ community and set up an inclusive hiring platform Clu to drive inclusivity and diverse HR practices after experiencing bias and discrimination in past jobs. His top tips on how HR can play their part for trans and non binary employees.
Pronouns in your email signature
One way to model inclusive behaviour is to include your preferred pronouns in email signatures, org charts, and slack names, such as 'Candice Mitchell, she/her,' or 'Jameson Alex, he/they/them.' This signals your awareness of and respect for preferred pronouns and is welcoming to genderqueer and nonbinary employees. So HR needs to encourage their organisation to include gender pronouns in company email signature templates for widespread adoption.
Create opportunities for conversation
Let's face it: No matter how woke we think we are, we never stop learning new things about the people around us. Your employees likely have strong relationships with their immediate teammates, but how well do they know their other colleagues?
Encourage a workplace culture of inclusivity by making opportunities for employees to mix and chat. This could take a formal structure, like town hall meetings. But don't underestimate the authenticity of a casual setting like company-wide lunches, happy hours, volunteer days, or cross-team activities.
Provide a forum for introverts to shine
It's no secret that traditional corporate culture rewards extroversion. Those who speak up in meetings, take charge of projects, and advocate for themselves climb the ladder in leaps and bounds over their skilled (but quieter) co-workers.
As part of your inclusivity initiatives, train managers to make space in meetings to hear employees who may be more inclined to hang back, or might feel anxious arguing a salient point. Offer to fund noise-cancelling headphones and opportunities to give non-verbal feedback, such as suggestion boxes.
Finally, designate solitary spaces to work and eat so that these thoughtful, talented workers can recharge and keep giving you their best.
Emphasise inclusivity in diversity training
You know that diversity and inclusivity aren't the same thing ' but do your employees? It's possible to have a diverse workplace that isn't inclusive. Minority employees, though present, may feel excluded or like they aren't represented in the workplace culture. Raise awareness of that nuance explicitly in training so that employees can fully embrace the diversity around them, and develop the soft skills to thrive in a diverse environment.
Write gender-neutral job descriptions
It's too easy to fall into the trap of using old-school terms to write job descriptions, such as rockstar, salesman, foreman, waitress, etc. Or even using 'his' or 'hers' as a generic term meant to apply to both genders. If you're not paying attention, these common-place terms in job descriptions can turn away top candidates. Why? Gender-polarising words can leave a candidate thinking, 'I guess this job isn't for me,' thanks to these subtle gender references. Use gendered language decoders like this to help write unbiased and gender-neutral job descriptions.
