While last week was Men’s Health Week, the month of June is global Pride Month, which celebrates LGBTQ+ communities across the globe.
To coincide with this, some employers have taken the opportunity to review their diversity and inclusion (D&I) policies, identify areas of improvement and implement new initiatives.
Insurance company Zego, for example, made a commitment to support transgender and non-binary employees by implementing a workplace policy that sets out a code of inclusion and belonging for them, including a number of measures to help those transitioning, as well as guidance on language in the workplace and appropriate conduct.
LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall’s Global Workplace Equality Index measures the success of organisations in creating an inclusive workplace culture for LGBTQ+ staff by looking at their policies and benefits, training, engagement, leadership, monitoring, procurement and community engagement. These are all areas that organisations that want to focus on their D&I strategies should be focusing on.
While on the topic of D&I, earlier this week we reported that technology firm ABB revealed plans to launch a gender neutral parental leave programme in January 2022, as part of its Global Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2030.
The scheme, to be introduced in order to foster a more diverse and inclusive culture, will allow every ABB employee worldwide who is having a child, whose partner is having a child, who adopts a child or becomes a parent through surrogacy, to receive paid parental leave.
Such initiatives are sure to be well received by employees but of course, D&I isn’t just a tick-box exercise; it’s about taking pride in building a workplace culture that supports it, with strong leadership and training. It isn’t something that can be done quickly and then forgotten about, but an ongoing journey that requires constant review and development.
For employers that are yet to take any action to begin their D&I journey, now seems like as good a time as any to start.
Kavitha Sivasubramaniam
Editor
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