How is your equalities and diversity performance? Who cares? Well if you want a workforce that is involved in their work, as a manager, you have to get involved with them. Stonewall the gay equalities organisation is running its Some people are gay. Get over it! Campaign. It is unashamedly unapologetic, after all what do gay men and lesbians have to apologies for? But given how many different groups (older people, younger people, women, people with disabilities, people from black and ethnic minorities etc.) that any modern organisation is likely to be employing, how can you respect your staff and still deliver on your organisation’s strategy? Here are some ideas.1. Consider the language you use. “Family friendly policies” may be welcomed by many, but for single people, or people who consider they don’t have a “family,” the term may be alienating. If you are talking about child care then say so. If you mean you are flexible about leave for life events (births, deaths, caring responsibilities, partnerships, moving house etc.) then say so.
2. Think how it feels to be different. “Are you married,” may sound innocuous enough but what is a lesbian or gay man who may not feel confident enough to be out at work, supposed to answer? You could try “do you have a partner,” though again you will need to do this sensitively, what if they just got divorced or had their civil partnership dissolved? When you ask something as simple as “how was your weekend,” it can be impossible for some people to tell the truth without revealing more than they would like. Take your cue from them, and if they don’t offer additional information, leave it there.
3. Monitor and measure. Unless you monitor and measure your recruitment, staff makeup and promotion profile, how will you know if you are inadvertently discriminating against individuals or groups. You will need to do this sensitively. Asking a new recruit on her first day (or worse still, during the application process) if she is a lesbian, could see your recruitment figures plummet. We would suggest involving relevant groups in developing monitoring information to make sure your approach is appropriate.
4. Do something tangible to challenge discrimination. If 50% of your senior management team are not women, think about ways you could develop female staff into these roles. If you don’t employ staff with disabilities, talk to disability organisations about a disability awareness audit that can help you improve your services to customers and attractiveness as an employee to people with disabilities. No one expects their employer to know everything about every faith, every minority, every disability or every health issue, but your organisation does have all this expertise. Ask your staff, they are bound to want to be involved.
