June is Pride month – and the celebration brings with it the flying of flags and waving of banners. It’s a deliberately joyful and exciting time. But is the reality in the workplace for LGBTQ+ employees as happy and embracing?

While some organisations are very proactive and offer an inclusive workplace, many still have work to do. Pride should remind us that being seen isn’t enough: being HEARD is what brings meaningful change.

For some LGBTQ+ people, the workplace may be the only safe place for them if their cultural background or family are not accepting of their sexuality. This is a compelling reason for creating an open, inclusive workplace. Another, of course, is that any form of discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community is protected under the Equality Act 2010, which prohibits and protects prejudice against the nine protected characteristics across the UK.

How to tackle LGBT+ workplace discrimination

There are around 1.7 million LGBTQ+ employees working in the UK.  Organisations must find ways to include their colleagues from the LGBTQ+ community and confront any form of discrimination. A good place to start is by collecting organisational diversity data, to learn which employees resonate with the LGBTQ+ community.

“Pride Month provides a great platform for workplaces to review and revisit their policies and procedures around inclusion,” says Paul Sesay, CEO and founder of Inclusive Companies. “It can be hard to get the conversation started and out in the open, so I’d advise partnering with local LGBTQ+ organisations and invite a speaker in to discuss things openly. This will encourage people to speak up and remind employees of the impact of workplace prejudice and the need to be inclusive and accepting of others.”

How to create and maintain an inclusive culture

There are many ways in which businesses can build an inclusive working environment that is welcoming to all members of the community: here are some good places to start:

• Create LGBT+ employee resource groups, where like-minded members can express their opinions in a safe and inclusive group.
• Engage the Senior Leadership Team to drive initiatives – don’t just let this sit with the networks and special interest employee groups. Better still, if any managers are themselves LGBTQ+, encourage them to speak openly about this with colleagues.
• Instil allyship in all members of staff – allyship sends a powerful message to members of the community that their colleagues support their lifestyle, which will inevitably decrease isolation and anxiety while at work.
• Rigorously train new staff on policies against discrimination/anti-harassment and retrain every member of staff regularly on the company’s core policies and values.
• Allow an ‘open-door policy’ where employees can approach senior members of staff with any questions, complaints or suggestions.
• Be aware of ‘banter’ disguising homophobic or discriminatory language: encourage colleagues to call it out.
• Correctly investigate any complaints of unlawful behaviour and carry out the correct disciplinary action against any employee who has carried out any discriminative comments/actions.

“Pride Month presents an opportunity to celebrate and wear your rainbow colours,” continues Paul. “Making a public commitment by embracing the celebrations will help LGBTQ+ colleagues feel seen and recognised. This, in turn, has the ability to lift their confidence and give them a sense of belonging.

“It’s important you don’t limit this recognition and inclusion of your LGBTQ+ talent pool to just this month as that will simply look like tokenism,” he warns. “Once the celebrations are over, the awareness, acceptance and inclusion must remain if change is to be lasting.”