Reflecting on Pride Month

As June comes to an end, we want to take time to reflect on how some organizations have celebrated Pride Month and share ways we can support LGBTQ+ employees and applicants all year long by creating a more inclusive workplace.

Pride Month grows each year and is continuing to become a deeper part of our culture. Businesses can’t help but take notice. Many companies spent Pride month celebrating our LGBTQ+ friends and family, donating to organizations and learning how to be better allies.

Here are some things that both our clients and team at Hire Ventures have done this month:

Change to Pride Logos

Having rainbow logos during Pride month is a great way to join the celebration! It’s crazy to think that only 6 years ago LGBTQ+ couples were first allowed to be legally married. Pride is a time to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and it is a way to show acceptance and celebration of a group that continues to be marginalized.

Donate to a LGBTQ+ Organization

Another, Greenlight Financial, donated to GLSEN this month to celebrate Pride Month. GLSEN is an educational non-profit organization that works to create safe and inclusive K-12 schools for LGBTQ+ youth, so perfectly aligned with their mission too.

Check out this list for other LGBTQ+ organizations that you can donate to.

Learning How to Be More Inclusive

Hire Ventures has invested in designing new D&I training for our entire team, with a special emphasis on our recruiting methods and how we deliver recruiting services to our clients. We learned new ways to mitigate potential unconscious biases to be more inclusive throughout the hiring practices. Later this month, we will begin learning about what are the best practices for pronoun usage in recruiting and how to be more inclusive to trans applicants. This training will give our team even more skills to help clients create more diverse applicant pools and ensure the hiring processes we design are inclusive to all potential hires.

Pride month is about creating visibility and celebrating everyone for being who they are. Your LGBTQ+ employees and potential applicants want to feel accepted all year long.

Here are 3 simple practices to be a more inclusive workplace all year long:

1. Update Employee Handbooks – In 2020, the Supreme Court confirmed that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity are forms of “sex” discrimination and are prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In order to be compliant with this new court decision (and ensure your policies reflect your inclusive workplace) you might need to revise or update your handbook and employment nondiscrimination policy. In addition to including protected classes, ensure you have language prohibiting discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity. By adding this to your existing policies you can help ensure that all employees have an equal opportunity at work. We can help you in creating a legally sound handbook that is also true to your inclusive culture! Learn more about our custom employee handbooks creation or updating here.
2. Add in LGBTQ+ topics into training – While training new managers and other employees in leadership positions, add in training and activities surrounding diversity and inclusion including LGBTQ+ topics. This training can cover definitions and potential scenarios to prepare managers to implement nondiscrimination policies and foster a sense of community to all employees regardless of their background. 
3. Enhance your EEOC statement – Most companies at the end of their job postings include a basic EEOC statement. We are proud of ours that was crafted by our founder Teresa Murphey and simply shares our intention: “Hire Ventures is an equal opportunity employer. We not only support diversity in the workforce, we embrace it with a spirit of inclusion in all that we do.”

Additionally, in our employee handbook, along with our commitment to hiring and commitment to diversity policies, we have a more legally sound EEOC statement which is inclusive:

“Hire Ventures provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, disability, gender identity, results of genetic testing, or service in the military. Equal employment opportunity applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leave of absence, compensation, and training.”

By crafting a statement that goes beyond the legal requirements, you can help showcase your company’s commitment to being an inclusive employer and not only to recruit but retain talent. 

We can’t wait to see what next year’s Pride month will entail! A great place to start in creating an inclusive workplace all year long is learning about any unconscious biases you may have. You can learn more about unconscious biases and how to understand and address them in recruiting here. 

For more information check out these resources:

HRC Corporate Equality Index 2021

Brief History of Pride Month

More Steps on How to Make Your Workplace More LGBTQ+ Friendly