published January 2023

10 Tips for Queer Inclusion at the Workplace

Contributed by Rain Khoo

An inclusive workplace will enable your staff to bring their whole selves to work and this will improve business performance. While there is currently no Asia-wide study, there are many significant global studies supporting this correlation. In 2021, two Finnish universities, the School of Business and the University of Vaasa, examined the relationship between queer-friendly policies and company performance using the data of 657 publicly-traded US firms from 2003–2016. The research found strong evidence for the claim that queer-friendly firms have higher profitability and higher stock market valuations.

Here are tips to build a supportive coming-out environment at work. A combination of the following is needed for cultural and behavioural change. How you combine them depends on the barriers to inclusion at your organisation, the areas you can impact, as well as the resources you are able to gather.

1. Company Policies

Queer-friendly workplaces should go beyond compliance with a country’s anti-discrimination laws, particularly in Asia, where many queer identities are still not recognised.

Here are areas to pay attention to:

a. Having statements of inclusion across recruiting and employment touchpoints;

b. Explaining why certain personal data needs to be acquired when doing so might be perceived as potentially discriminatory;

c. Having publicly accessible web pages stating clearly your company’s stance on queer inclusion;

d. Providing equal access to company benefits for queer employees’ families, including parental benefits for adoption or surrogacy;

e. Recognising queer employees’ partners, particularly in jurisdictions where marriage to a same-sex partner is not legal;

f. Articulating zero-tolerance policies on workplace discrimination;

g. Communicating clear anti-discrimination reporting procedures;

h. Wording policies in gender-neutral language wherever possible; and

i. Reviewing medical policies to support transitioning for transgender employees (as major surgeries will require extended recovery periods).

Increasing your organisation’s awareness of the above is crucial. Inclusive HR policy writing could spell out how policies differently apply to homosexual, bisexual, transgender and queer employees, since those in the closet may not be comfortable asking for clarifications.

2. Inclusion Training

Inclusion training should be mandatory for all employees, or at the least, for all managers. This should not be an online or one-off training to be attended as an annual ‘checking the box’ exercise. Even if the company achieves 100% passes on online quizzes, such scores do not indicate that staff have internalised the behaviours required for inclusivity. In-person inclusion training to build trust and empathy amongst colleagues can be incorporated into company team-building activities.

3. Performance and Promotion Metrics

When companies take diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) as part of their corporate mandate, promotion evaluations for managers should include the ability to embody inclusive behaviours and responsibilities as sponsors or advocates. For example, a senior manager should be able to identify and prevent potential harassment. If a manager is unable to support a transgender staff who is undertaking major surgeries, they should be supportive in that person’s work reassignment, or the company will likely lose the staff member. For performance evaluation, contributions in Employee Resource Groups (see below) should be recognised. How this is recognised could depend on the stage of inclusion maturity as well as your company’s strategies for creating inclusion.

4. Pride Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)

ERGs, sometimes known as affinity groups, are employee-led networks at workplaces, usually aligned with a diversity, business, or talent initiative. They can be effective vehicles for cultural change and employee engagement but they require management advocacy to have impact. For example, business and Human Resource leaders could articulate that they or the company care about social issues and encourage employees to participate in ERG activities.

5. Champions or Advocates

Queer-friendly workplaces have visible and accessible champions. Champions could play different roles – from being the go-to person when employees are unsure about approaching HR; to providing platforms where different views could be privately discussed; and helping to shape and role-model the company’s approach to queer inclusion. Ideally, champions should be found in all corporate functions and they should be fluent in navigating your organisation.

6. Ongoing Engagement

Pride month events celebrate queer identities at work, but could be criticised for not having real impact. Organisational trust is built through deeper dialogues and challenging cultural experiences. Outside of Pride month, your champions require support from HR to hold education, training and engagement activities throughout the year. You can be creative in how queer people share their lived experiences.

7. Mentors and Sponsors

Queer employees are at risk of facing discrimination or unwelcome attention when they go public with their identities. This could come from within or outside of the company and employees may require additional support. An active matching with queer-supportive mentors and sponsors would aid equitable advancement for queer employees. Mentors and sponsors may further benefit from reverse mentoring by queer employees who are comfortable in expressing their identities.

8. Representation

Where possible, there should be visible queer representation across L-G-B-T-Q-I-A-+ at senior, if not at all levels. This assures queer employees that they do not need to be of a certain rank or have established reputations in the company before coming out, and it will not compromise their career advancement. Employee stories of workplace acceptance are encouraging, but they should not hide negative realities.

9. Gender Expression

Non-binary, agender and gender-fluid employees should be allowed to wear what they are comfortable with, in line with gender-neutral company guidelines for attire. For transgender staff, it is important to let them use washrooms whose signage they can identify with – this is a biological need and not having the ease to do this poses a strong psychological threat. To support the broader spectrum of transgender identities who may not surgically transition, having gender-neutral washrooms would be a more inclusive solution.

10. Use of Pronouns

The best practices regarding the use of pronouns is to ask for preferred pronouns at initial meetings. Having your management and HR employees include their pronouns in their email signatures sends a strong signal of a queer-inclusive environment. However, this should only be done authentically by persons who are supportive of queer inclusion.

No matter what your position is in the company, you can always make a difference. Now, how about forwarding this article to a colleague and inviting them for a discussion?

Rain Khoo is the founder of Dignité Brands, a consultancy that builds inclusive brands and corporate cultures of belonging. Rain identifies as a gay trans man and transitioned when he was 35 when his kids were 3 and 5. He has lived openly queer while working with all types of organisations. He co-founded TransgenderSG.com, Singapore’s resource site for the transgender community and its allies.