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The workplace has come a long way from the days when homosexuality was the elephant in the cubicle. Today, employers of every size and sector are aware of issues like domestic partner benefits and discrimination based on sexual orientation; most employees understand they may have gay colleagues.
But awareness of gay issues is not the same as understanding them. Many organizations that want to integrate gays and lesbians into their corporate fabric of inclusion do not know how.
Managers -- who take their cues from executives and influence coworkers and subordinates -- hold keys to the success of such efforts. First, however, senior leaders must understand the importance of including sexual orientation among all diversity efforts. That awareness will empower managers on the ground to make inclusion work.
Education Is Key
The best way to empower managers is through education, according to Liz Winfeld, cofounder of Common Ground, a consulting firm specializing in workplace diversity.
“It’s not quick or sexy, and there’s no magic bullet,” Winfield warns. “It means committing personnel to diversity education. But if you bring a good, reasonable, fact-based program to your personnel, they’ll understand concepts that may have been foreign to them.”
“If you take sexual orientation out of the realm of ‘belief systems,’ they’ll be able to make good decisions,” Winfield continues. “This is not about religious issues; it’s about giving people enough information for them to engage in reasonable conversations about gay men and women at work.”
Winfeld believes that most people, gay and straight, do not give others enough credit for being able to think for themselves. Once they have factual information -- including why addressing gay issues in the workplace makes good sense -- introducing domestic partner benefits or initiating a discussion with a gay team member becomes easier, she says.
How to Educate Workers
Educating managers who then influence others can take several forms. Winfeld takes a business angle, discussing productivity and benchmarks. At the same time, she explains what sexual orientation is and is not. “It isn’t a code word for ‘homosexuality,’” she says. “It refers to elements shared by all humanity. Every human being has a sexual orientation. Once people understand that common base it’s easier to talk about real-life issues, like how sexual orientation affects performance and work style.”
Winfeld uses case studies in her presentations. Practical examples are always meaningful, because they give people concrete ways to deal with sexual orientation. She says that half-day sessions are the most effective.
She also coaches executives one-on-one. “Some of them have a lot of baggage, going back to their upbringing,” Winfield explains. “They appreciate the chance to talk individually about these issues, without worrying that their ignorance or nonpolitical correctness comes through.” Those sessions, she says, are no different than workshops for managers. All are opportunities to provide influential people with information they may not have had access to and confidence to respond to the topic.
Winfeld says it is important not to provide lists of proper behavior when dealing with top or mid-level employees. “They want handouts that say ‘If X happens, do Y.’ It’s far more important to understand, on a deeper level, why people act the way they do. When they understand that, they can really connect with others in the organization.”
Changing the Culture
In some companies managers can be so enthusiastic about an educational program that they insist it be made available to subordinates. But whether or not that happens is less important than making sexual-orientation inclusion a part of corporate culture. “It can’t be the PC cause du jour,” Winfeld insists. “It has to be consistent and continual. You can’t ask managers to do Gay Day or even Pride Month. It has to be something that’s there in the workplace all the time.”
Brian McNaught, a corporate trainer specializing in GLBT issues, advises managers to “always assume there is a gay person working for you. That way, you always focus on the issue in an appropriate way.”
Adds Winfield: “There are very reasonable ways of encouraging diversity, but it all starts with people being empowered to think about it. It’s an interesting, compelling and exciting topic. It’s not the third rail of business.”
