It’s Time To Build Back Fairer: Hire And Promote LGBT+ Talent

Businesses can change the world for LGBT+ people, starting with the workplace

As we close the chapter on another, and hopefully last, virtual Pride season in North America, I have been reflecting on just how tumultuous the past year has been. Covid-19 has decimated the lives and livelihoods of so many people across the world. We have seen millions of people lose their jobs in Canada and the U.S., with many struggling to keep their businesses alive. The economy has been on life support and the road to recovery is long. In the major affected sectors, such as tourism and hospitality, we know traditionally that these tend to skew towards employing people who identify as being LGBT+. As one of the first sectors in the economy to face the wrath of Covid-19, the tourism and hospitality sector will also face a delayed recovery and will be one of the last to return to pre-pandemic levels in the future.

An uncertain future caused by an unprecedented shock.

Throughout the past year, we have also seen a reckoning on inclusion starting to emerge in our social discourse. For Black, Indigenous and People of Colour, and many other underrepresented communities, including LGBT+, people are saying enough is enough.

The Global Risks Report for 2021 by the World Economic Forum has detailed several challenges facing the world, including access to work opportunities and widening economic inequality. Unless corporate leadership steps up and embodies everything that is required of good leadership in a crisis, our economies will not build back better. They will simply build back to the same old, tried and tested economic formula that has made the poor poorer, and the rich richer.

It is time to build back fairer, in a recovery that ensures every community has access to the opportunity to succeed - regardless of their background or identity.

A key tenet to an inclusive recovery is inclusive hiring. Organizations need to double down in this area to ensure that talent pipelines are maximized by diversity. Gallup's latest update on lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender identification finds 5.6% of U.S. adults identifying as LGBT. The current estimate is up from 4.5% in Gallup's previous update based on 2017 data. These numbers are only increasing as more and more people come to terms with their sexuality and gender identities.

Younger generations are helping to increase these statistics. The same Gallup research shows that one in six adult members of Generation Z (those aged 18 to 23 in 2020) identify as LGBT. A younger generation, buoyed by inclusivity as a fundamental in their lives has allowed that generation to be who they are.

As HR departments tackle recovery through recruitment, ensuring that role postings are inclusive in language and non-gendered is going to be vital. But it’s also crucial to make a declared statement of intent and support for potential LGBT+ candidates to see. Visibility matters, and knowing that LGBT+ hires are sought, welcome and wanted can make the difference in the decision process for a candidate if they even apply in the first place.

There’s a new program, called Rainbow Registered, that can help HR departments, as well the overall organization, identify policies and procedures where businesses can change to become better allies as well as attract both employees and consumers.

As already stated, visibility matters and that also involves ensuring that role postings make it in front of the eyes of LGBT+ candidates in the first place. By working with community organizations that are close on the ground to the lived experience of LGBT+ people, you can ensure that your job postings are reaching diverse audiences.

Recruitment is one part of the puzzle, but promotion and retention are another. According to research by management consulting firm McKinsey, more than one in four LGBT+ employees are not broadly out at work. According to the same research, many reported being the only LGBT+ identified member of respective teams or units, which leads to a compounding sense of isolation and segmentation within the organization.

As many staff look up to leadership for inspiration and role models--this is also lacking in visibility. Only half of LGBTQ+ survey respondents said that they saw people like themselves in leadership roles, this benchmarks low when compared to two-thirds of non-LGBT+ respondents.

We spend one-third of our waking life at work when employees are faced with the unique challenges of being LGBT+ in the workplace, along with the everyday challenges of work-life, this results in a toxic equation that equals stemmed performance and outcomes.

At CGLCC’s recent LGBT+ Global Business Summit, we convened more than one thousand LGBT+ business leaders from around the world where we explored many issues, including the requirement to be intentional about inclusion. As we close the door on Pride 2021, employers need to be ever more conscious that the status quo is a clear and present danger to a fair and inclusive economic recovery. Businesses across the world have a unique opportunity to also close the door and the past way of doing business and move forward with the intent to right the wrongs of the past.

This is the moment for the corporate world to make its mark, for the better, for all.