LGBTQ+ at work Closing the closet
door behind us:
It’s often not easy to be fully out at work if you are LGBTQ+. And if you have come out to your employer, this can come at a personal and business cost. Studies show as well as ethnicity and gender pay gaps, people who are LGBTQ+ earn on average £6,700 a year less than their heterosexual colleagues. Ruth Holmes finds out more.
S
peakers at the second This Is Us conference held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Milton Keynes on 7 October 2019, as well as recent research, shed valuable light on this aspect of diversity and inclusion. It is a topic
that many in global mobility find one of the hardest to navigate given the often-challenging cultural and legal contexts in play around the world. Such insights are helping employers to decipher how to best
attract, recruit, retain and progress people from a talent pool that truly reflects their whole customer base. Both the conference and the research highlight what employers and individuals can do to put policy into practice and build a fully supportive culture for everyone.
INTO THE WORLD OF WORK – BUT BACK INTO THE CLOSET? Global research carried out by LGBTQ+ specialist advisory firm Out Now, commissioned by telecommunications company Vodafone, looked into people’s experiences of being out in their first career role after university. The study canvassed 3,194 LGBTQ+ people – 30 of them
Vodaphone graduate recruits – from 18 countries. It asked them how easy or difficult it was to move into the world of work and be open about their sexuality. Among Out Now’s headline findings was the phenomenon it calls the “graduate closet”. A significant 41 per cent of 18-25-year-old LGBTQ+ employees
agreed with the statement, “I went back into the closet when I started my first job, despite being out in my personal life or at school/college/university.” Out Now also found a gender aspect to the findings. Only 29
per cent of LGBTQ+ women aged 18-35-years-old feel able to be out to all at work. For male respondents, this figure is 44 per cent.
MULTI-FACETED INSIGHT FOR INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY For companies looking to drive their businesses forward amid a global talent squeeze, addressing these facts across the talent management lifecycle – including international assignments – is beneficial. This is both for graduate recruits and for LGBTQ+ people who are more advanced in their careers. The 2019 This Is Us conference looked through this lens to
offer practical advice and testimonies for companies keen to do the right thing and get behind the business case for full inclusion and diversity. Founder of This Is Us, Meena Chander (MSC) says, “Issues
surrounding LGBTQ+ individuals within the workplace can have severe, ongoing effects. As leaders, we must address these issues and work together to create permanent solutions.” Amid the announcement of Home Office statistics showing
that hate crime against people who identify as LGBTQ+ increased over the last year, and with the image of the empty open-top bus at 2018 Brighton’s Pride Parade set to transport Premier League footballers who are publicly out – a statistical anomaly – fresh in the minds of many, This Is Us creates a unique space to put LGBTQ+ at the heart of the inclusion and diversity conversation at work.
ATTRACTING, RECRUITING AND RETAINING LGBTQ+ TALENT Former managing director of consultancy BAME Recruitment Ltd and founder of Doing Diversity Differently, Chico Chakravorty, kicked off the This is Us day-long programme. He offered advice to employers and employees alike that would help shift the dialogue and reduce the 31 per cent of LGBTQ+ employees who felt uncomfortable in their workplace because of their sexuality, and the 24 per cent who had experienced workplace bullying.
32 | RELOCATE | WINTER 2019 / 2020
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