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Tolerance is not inclusion. Here are 3 tips to help you create a workplace that is inclusive for LGBTQIA + employees by @Colleen_Batch

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by Dr. Colleen Batchelder

Imagine, if you will, a neighborhood brimming with people. The community is vibrant with vivid landscapes and joyful smiles, but each resident remains cloistered in their home. They wave to one another through the glass panes and enjoy the morning breeze from their own front yard. But they never leave their welcome mat. They refuse to venture outside of their box. Now, this picture might look familiar because the majority of us are still living within this reality of social distancing during Covid-19. But, what if this type of behavior became the norm for the next fifty years?

Many within the LGBTQIA+ community have been a victim of social distancing and segregation within the workplace for eons. However, it didn’t always come in the form of outright bias. Often, it was masked under the guise of tolerance. When the movement towards tolerance became popular, it seemed like a quick-fix solution for corporations. However, it didn’t necessarily create a culture of inclusion. If anything, it birthed organizational discrimination based on assumption.

Brynn Tannehill, a board member of the Trans United Fund, describes her own journey with tolerance and explains, “You aren’t a threat to them, but you are alien, you are other. People smile and nod, but they don’t see. Living in a tolerant but not accepting workplace means walking on eggshells, talking around your history, and being surrounded by people who keep conversations and relationships strictly professional.” For Tannehill and countless individuals, tolerance failed to provide inclusion for LGBTQIA+ individuals because it solely deferred to the lens of heteronormativity. This deferment not only stripped certain people groups of protection. It also removed their ability to protest. Jump forward a few years, and justice for all is still waiting to come to fruition.

According to a recent report from USA Today, “About half of LGBTQ people in the U.S. – 52% – live in states where they could be fired, nixed for a promotion, refused training or harassed at their jobs, all because of their gender identity and sexual orientation.” It’s 2020, and less than half of all states have any form of legal protection for 11 million people who identify as LGBTQIA+. These statistics should lead everyone to repulsion, but more than that, they should compel business leaders to action. Tolerance isn’t working. However, inclusion could create a lasting solution. So, how do business leaders go from tolerance to inclusion? Here are four tips to get you started on the right path:

Inclusion Means Leaving the Welcome Mat and Getting on the Dance Floor

Verna Myers said it best, “Diversity is being invited to the party; Inclusion is being asked to dance.” There is a strict difference between these two ideas. Dancing requires trust. It’s a conversation between two people that weaves back-and-forth. Inclusion, as a dance, requires leaders to take the lead and follow. If business leaders want to create a culture of inclusion, then they have to change the music and make it danceable. When they shift in their interaction and enter into a conversation with their LGBTQIA+ employees, they present them with the opportunity to respond and react. This means that companies need to make the first move and ask for input. This requires a willingness to listen and a readiness to change. It requires business leaders to get on the dance floor and to learn a new rhythm.

Inclusion Means Flagging Discriminatory Comments; Not Just Flying the Pride Flag Annually

Repeat this with me and post it on every mirror that you have in your home: inclusion is not branding. LGBTQIA+ discrimination cannot be changed through artsy merchandise or a rainbow logo during June. Inclusion is more than showing up for a march. It requires business leaders to operate from a place of respect, representation, and reconstruction. One of the easiest ways to develop these aspects of inclusion is to form committees that are diversified. This presents LGBTQIA+ employees with the opportunity to educate and lead the conversations of inclusion. When business leaders provide space for people to be educated, they not only create a more inclusive work environment. They also present a united front of support for their LGBTQIA+ employees.

Inclusion Means that Pronouns are Learned and Gender Identity is Respected

One of the most basic ways that companies can create an inclusive environment is to learn an employee’s pronoun. This requires business leaders to take on the stance of a student; not a teacher. When companies take the time to interact and understand gender identity, they operate from the position of inclusion; not assumption. In order to prevent gender biases, companies must implement this standard within mandated policies and hold all levels of employees accountable.

Intention is imperative for change. However, when intention only manifests as idealism, it leaves vast amounts of people at risk for discrimination. Inclusion has to go beyond idealism and mission statements. It must be greater than branding and tokenism. If business leaders desire to create a culture of inclusivity, then they have to be willing to take the risk, learn the language, and enter into collaboration with their LGBTQIA+ employees. After all, inclusion, much like a vehicle, has to be run––it has to leave the garage once in a while and venture onto the roadway.

 

3 Ways To Engage Millennials In The Workplace by @Colleen_Batch

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by Dr. Colleen Batchelder

For years, companies have tried to figure out the one answer that would win Millennials to their company. They’ve hosted Quidditch tournaments, installed game rooms, and held ping pong Olympics for their employees every Friday night. However, these fun and games might have worked for a while, but in 2020, they’re falling flat and not engaging or even entertaining Millennials anymore.

According to Gallup, “Contrary to popular belief, Millennials, when applying for jobs, place little importance on whether a company encourages creativity, is a fun place to work or offers an informal work environment. In fact, Baby Boomers are more likely than Millennials and Gen Xers to say that creativity and fun are ‘extremely important’ to them when applying for a job.”

In many ways, creativity is the frosting; not the cake. This is why, if companies want to engage Millennials, they have to invest more into the ingredients for the cake than the frosting.

Millennials want more than cereal buffets, game rooms, and rock walls. They want more than entertainment and enticement. Millennials want to work for companies that want to work with them.

Engaging Millennials is not rocket science. But it does take work. It requires leaders to reconstruct their perception of this generation. Millennials are not judging a company’s creativity. They are looking for companies that provide equal opportunities for mentorship, meaning, and education.

If you’re looking for ways to engage Millennials, then check out these three tips:

 

PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES TO LEARN

This is huge! Millennials are lifelong learners. They don’t see education as a means to an end. If anything, they see it as a journey that is continuous.

Millennials are the most educated generation. However, this abundance of education is not always based upon their love for learning.

Since 9/11, Millennials have faced multiple recessions, setbacks, and uncertainties. In many ways, this generation grew up believing that education was the only means for survival, financial security, and protection against economic downfall.

This is pivotal for companies to understand. For Millennials, their access to education equates to job security. This generation values diversity and the opportunity to gain insight. However, their interest in two-fold. Education is continued out of curiosity and out of fear.

 

OFFER OPPORTUNITIES FOR MENTORING

For Millennials, mentorship is a give-and-take conversation. It’s also a holistic relationship. If you’re planning on starting a mentorship program, then make sure you get feedback. Sit down with a few people and ask them what they need, how they want to grow, and what they want from a mentor. Once you know the basics of their expectations, you’ll be able to construct a solution that meets their needs.
Millennials see mentorship from a drastically different perspective than most.
Younger generations grew up with a lateral leadership model. This includes calling adults by their first name and conversing with elders like peers.

When Millennials came out of the womb, they were given all the privileges of adulthood, starting with the ability of choice. Children added their voice and their vote to family decisions. And their dreams were fully supported from a young age. In many ways, they grew up fully supported, valued, and heard.

Millennials were raised with the expectation of equality.

When being mentored, they expect to be on equal footing with their boss and their team. They also want mentorship to be a two-way conversation instead of a one-way conversion. One of the worst things that companies can do is try to make Millennials in their image. They’re not interested in being a carbon copy.

From birth, Millennials have been making their own decisions and expecting to be on equal footing with their parents, their bosses, and their peers. This is why, they’re inclination and preference towards lateral leadership is imperative to note.

If you want to mentor a Millennials, then expect every day to be casual Friday. They won’t be honoring hierarchy.

 

CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR MEANING

Millennials are not impressed with companies who do good for the sake of raising their numbers or increasing their followers. If a company really wants to engage Millennials and provide opportunities for them to find meaning, then they have to start at the source.

This generation wants to work for companies that offer opportunities for growth, meaning, and mentorship. They don’t want to serve the company’s agenda and pose for a photo op.

For Millennials, meaning is intrinsic to creating spaces of equality, diversity, and equality. In order to create opportunities for meaning, companies need to work with Millennials and invite these generations to the table. This means that executive leaders need to lean in and listen to their team before offering volunteer signup sheets.

Creativity, Quidditch tournaments, and ice cream socials might have been a top priority for younger generations when they graduated college. But Millennials are changing, and their needs are evolving.

If you’re looking for ways to engage Millennials at your company, offer them mentoring, meaning, and education. Give them cake; not the frosting.

 

 

As a Diversity and Inclusion Strategist and Consultant, Dr. Colleen Batchelder helps leaders create companies where Millennials want to work. Her doctoral background in leadership and global perspectives gives her an added edge because she approaches generational dissonance from all directions, including from an anthropological, theological, sociological, and ethnographic lens. Connect with Dr. Batchelder on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.