When a large engineering firm established its first employee resource group, for LGBTQIA+ employees, the group members asked to be able to use personal pronouns in their email signatures in communications for the company. The response by leadership was, “Absolutely not, that’s ridiculous,” according to Tammy Ramos, a California-based executive consultant and coach for InclusionINC, and a specialist in diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace.
“Unless you’re an expert in the field of inclusion and diversity––and most people are not––you have to recognize that you will stumble and make mistakes along the way,” says Ramos, who trains and coaches business leaders to understand the complexities of gender awareness and how to create diverse and inclusive environments for all. “As for many organizations, these types of challenges are a part of the learning journey. Pronouns are important to some people, that it’s part of their identity and helps them to express who they are.”
Navigating the ever-changing landscape of human resources policies can be challenging, and workplace cultures have evolved over the years in many ways. Among more recent changes is how companies are striving to create safe and equitable workplaces relative to gender identity.
Empathy, curiosity, humility
“We have many different tools and methods of training that we use with our clients. We often say that the most important three words to remember are: empathy, curiosity and humility,” says Ramos. “Be curious about those who are different from them, demonstrate empathy for challenges they face and show humility that you acknowledge you don’t have all the answers but that you are certainly eager to learn and understand and use your influence to be an advocate and ally.”
Golbou ghassemieh, operations manager and senior consultant at Personnel Perspective, says sometimes it’s the difference in generations who are leading and working in companies that can create unintentional insensitivity. “It usually comes down to everyone’s lived experience within their own generation. It impacts how they see the world,” says ghassemieh, who spells her name lowercase.
Ghassemieh says younger workers in general, such as the Gen X population—born between 1965 and 1980—and Gen Y population—born between 1981 and 1996—have a natural tendency toward inclusivity for all. “They are culturally more open-minded about different people and different ways of being in the world, so they are less likely to not know how to interact with different people,” born 1946 to 1964. [The Gen Z population was born between 1997 and 2012.]
She says older generations came from an era in which it wasn’t safe to come out at work as gay or lesbian, and now people can openly talk about their partners in the workplace. “And we don’t assume that they all have opposite-sex spouses. That’s a big shift from where company cultures were even 15 or 20 years ago.”
Ghassemieh sees a bigger shift in society that is less about gender identity among the younger generations and more about what are appropriate gender rules, such as how they dress and how they look. “They are pushing up against boundaries and saying, ‘Who cares what our gender is, let’s just remove these barriers.’”
Increased understanding
Private companies small and large and in all industries are reaching out to experts for training to help them make policies that will ensure inclusion of all employees in the workplace, regardless of gender identity. Chelsea Kurnick is board chair of Positive Images, a Sonoma County-based organization whose mission is to provide support, advocacy and education to the LGBTQIA+ community. It also conducts cultural competency trainings throughout the community to help businesses and others deepen their understanding of this diverse population.
“We get a lot of outreach from companies during Pride Month in June, and some come to us for a deeper dive into training more than once a year,” says Kurnick. “Much of the information we provide is about nonbinary and transgender people, as well as additional content to help companies support their workers of all gender identities. In our feedback forms after training, we ask the participants to rate the presentation. More than 95% tell us that they understand much more about the topic than they did before, and express that their understanding of the needs of the LGBTQIA+ community has increased.
“Most businesses seek us out,” she adds, “and because of that it’s very rare that we are ever speaking to an unreceptive audience. They are eager to create more equitable work environments for their employees and make their workplaces more welcoming.”
Mandatory training
The County of Sonoma, which employs approximately 4,000 people, is required to provide harassment/discrimination/retaliation prevention training to all employees, and they must complete this training within six months of being hired, and then again every two years. As part of this training, there is a section on gender identity, according to Victoria Willard, equal employment opportunity officer and coordinator of the American with Disabilities Act for the county.
“Our training has been successful by increasing aware of differences, biases and how to identify and correct them,” she says. “In addition to the mandatory training, the county offers other types of diversity, equity and inclusion trainings online and through our learning management system.”
The county, she adds, is committed to providing employees a safe and professional work environment that is free from discrimination, harassment and retaliation. “We have an internal complaint process for employees to raise concerns around gender identity issues, and it allows for these concerns to be resolved in a confidential and timely manner.”
As for preferred pronouns, county employees can have conversations about that with their managers, supervisors and team members, she adds. “The county doesn’t have a policy on pronoun preferences for employees’ email signatures. This is a voluntary choice. Another option, and I do this myself, is to add preferred pronouns to their employee ID badges, if desired.”
As the EEO officer for the county, Willard says she stays up to date with emerging issues and legal changes. “Conversations around equity, including gender equity, are ongoing, and in partnership with the county’s Office of Equity,” she says. “Human Resources reviews policies and best practices with an equity lens to ensure an unbiased approach. One example is a change the county is implementing to transition to using gender-neutral pronouns and language in county policies, contracts and other documents.”
The county’s five-year strategic plan includes strategic pillars focused on organizational excellence and racial equity and social justice, she adds. “These pillars include specific measurable goals and objectives on how we conduct county business, provide services to the community and support our employees through an equity lens. These are ongoing conversations that have big impacts on an organization, and are important conversations for employers to be having.”
Fixing pain points
Ghassemieh says that business clients of Personnel Perspective who are savvier and pay attention to shifts in culture are more likely to hire management teams that will help them in that area. “I can think offhand of three clients who have taken that route, hiring a more diverse management team to tap into other perspectives that are based on their lived experiences.”
Sometimes, she adds, a company begins taking a hard look at how they do business when a “pain point” becomes the issue, such as high turnover, bad online reviews, and so on. “There is a cost to that company from hearing negative feedback, particularly if the offended people perceive there is bias against them. That can be when the company comes to us and asks, ‘How can we fix this?’”
In her line of work, ghassemieh has dealt with leaders who are very “rigid” thinkers, seeing only right and wrong and nothing in between. “So some of their company policies are very black and white. But human behavior is a spectrum, and all of it is normal, otherwise it wouldn’t exist. Whatever people do is within the normal range of human behavior.”
Because of this type of evolving societal norms, she says, there is no degree or schooling on this topic. “There are subject areas you study and piece together. I have a psychology background and happen to be a diverse person myself, so I choose to keep myself educated on this topic. I study patterns and statistics and try to stay current, because it’s important to me personally and to our clients.”
Complex, but also simple
Ramos explains that everyone has unconscious bias, herself included. “If you are a human being, you have unconscious bias, and you are not even aware of it until you do the work to become aware. I’m a Gen X’er and I was told while growing up to be colorblind and treat everyone equally. Now the trend [in Gen Y and Gen Z populations] is to see color, to value color and value the differences in people. Sometimes it’s not race or ethnicity, but generational differences. It’s important to evaluate your biases so they don’t show up in the workplace as microaggressions and micro-inequities.”
She trains and coaches many C suite-level leaders in diversity and inclusion, which she explains are predominately middle-aged white men. “I find that most of these men are humble and want to learn. They are curious and have business reasons to create a culture of inclusion. Inclusivity is seeing things through the lens of another person and honoring their identity as they see themselves.”
In some ways, Ramos says, the topic of gender identity can be complex, but it’s also very simple. “Treat your employees with dignity and respect. They may be different in many ways, but that’s a good thing. I call it the ‘mini me’ problem, where we tend to spend most of our time with people just like us. I’m Latina and spend most of my time with other Latinas, because we have shared experiences with culture and upbringing. But if you are a company leader, you have to get outside your comfort zone and spend time with people who are not like you. Approach these individuals and topics with humility, curiosity and empathy and you will go a long way in creating a company culture that is diverse, inclusive and where all feel they belong.”
Terms for Navigating Gender Identity
Confusion and ignorance can lead to unintentional––and sometimes intentional––insensitivity toward nonbinary individuals in the workplace. A first step toward creating an inclusive work environment is understanding the vocabulary associated with nonbinary and gender non-conforming identities. Here are a few common terms relating to gender identity:
Cisgender––Refers to people whose gender identity aligns with their assigned sex at birth.
Gender binary––A system that constructs gender according to two discrete and opposite categories: boy/man and girl/woman. It is important to recognize that both cisgender and transgender people can have a gender identity that is binary.
Genderfluid––People who have a gender or genders that change. Genderfluid people move between genders, experiencing their gender as something dynamic and changing, rather than static.
Gender literacy––The ability to participate knowledgeably in discussions of gender and gender-related topics. Gender literacy is not about expertise so much as it is about a stance of openness to the complexity of gender and the idea that each person determines for themself their own identity.
LGBTQIA+––An acronym used to signify Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual people collectively.
Nonbinary––An umbrella term for gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine.
Transgender––Transgender, or trans, describes individuals who identify with a gender that is not the same as the one they were assigned at birth. Up to 40% of trans people do not identify as male or female, while others do identify as one of the two binaries. In addition, trans-identifying individuals may be at various stages of transition in their gender expression.
Sources: genderspectrum.org and hibob.com
5 Considerations for Companies to Create Trans-inclusive Workplaces
Modern companies are expected to make progress and support their employees differently than they have in the past. Still, transgender adults are being left out and left behind by corporate America. In fact, transgender adults are twice as likely to be unemployed as cisgender adults, according to a McKinsey Report. The report identifies another bleak reality for transgender adults: Annual salaries for employed transgender individuals trail behind salaries for cisgender employees by 32%.
Although companies have come a long way in supporting LGBTQIA+ employees, fostering an inclusive work environment for transgender adults will take a genuine commitment of DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging) from corporate leaders, along with support for underrepresented minorities (URMs) and their challenges.
Company executives should consider these five tips for creating an inclusive culture for their transgender employees:
Provide gender identity education––Instead of ignoring people’s differences and letting stigmas simmer, educate your workforce on gender identification differences. Give employees time in their day to do research, and train them on what discriminatory behavior looks like and the policies that address this behavior.
Create a culture that welcomes transparency––Foster an authentic leadership style in which employees feel comfortable talking about their personal lives and sharing their authentic selves. Giving just one person the chance to share their situation may prompt others to do the same. For instance, employers can offer opportunities for employees to share their pronouns (i.e., he, she, they, ze) in their company email signatures. Some people will choose to keep their gender identity private, but many will appreciate being given a choice.
Implement trans-friendly policies––Create policies that offer support for employees undergoing gender-confirming procedures and provide flexibility with restroom assignments and dress codes. Also ensure that employees understand where to go if they face mistreatment. Every company should have a clear action plan for trans employees who are challenged by inequities related to salary, hiring, promotions or any other form of discrimination.
Create and promote employee resource groups (ERGs)––URMs can feel isolated and lonely in corporate environments. To help create community, companies can sponsor voluntary employee resource groups explicitly designated for trans employees, led by employees. ERGs can give these employees, even those with private gender identities, a psychological safe space to gather, support one another and help organizations fill their inclusivity gaps.
Encourage true allyship––Even with the best intentions, corporate leaders can’t create true inclusivity without the entire workforce embracing and embodying DEIB values. Enter allyship. Transgender allies can be anyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, who is passionate about transgender rights and inclusivity. Allies listen to trans people to understand their challenges and follow the news and events affecting their daily lives. Allies are defined by action––they make their presence known by speaking up for trans equality, often taking up uncomfortable conversations and slowly creating a powerful inclusivity movement within the workforce. Chances are you’ll be helping your workforce gather a depth of perspective and life experience that will boost their productivity, creativity and problem-solving capabilities.
Source: qz.com
Using Personal Pronouns
Adding gender pronouns to your email signature can help others see how you would like to be addressed. It’s simply adding another line to your signature, so it needn’t be over-complicated or explanatory. These are common formats:
My pronouns are: She/her/hers
My pronouns: she, her, hers and they, them, theirs
Pronouns: he, him, his
(they, them, theirs)
Source: WiseStamp.com, a designer of templates for email signatures
