Women's advocate turns focus to new group: gays

As part of its mission to advance women and promote diversity and inclusion in business, Catalyst today released the first in its landmark Making Change series on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) employees and the workplace. Recognizing the challenges facing the LGBT community, Catalyst hopes to help organizations foster a work environment inclusive to all women and provide the insights, language, and solutions that will help to educate workplace professionals to more deeply understand the experiences of their LGBT coworkers.

This report, entitled Making Change: LGBT Inclusion—Understanding the Challenges, outlines specific challenges faced by LGBT employees at work and identifies key components of the business case for LGBT inclusion. Uniquely developed with Catalyst’s broader perspective of inclusion in the workplace for all, the report provides information that will help organizations build stronger, more complete LGBT-inclusion programs and discusses persistent barriers facing LGBT employees as they advance to senior leadership positions.

Organizations can make all LGBT employees feel included by:·

• Making LGBT inclusion an organizational priority
  
• Creating LGBT resource groups that are accessible to all employees
  
• Maintaining membership confidentiality for all company LGBT resource groups
  
• Posting materials about LGBT employee benefits, programs, and activities on a public space available to everyone, such as the intranet or company-wide emails
  
• Examining social activities that reinforce heteronormative values (such as exclusive husband-wife functions and children-centered activities) and hosting more inclusive activities
  
• Providing LGBT anti-discrimination policies and statements as well as domestic partner benefits
  

Subsequent reports in the Catalyst Making Change: LGBT series will identify in-depth programs and policies that drive LGBT inclusion and how organizations can encourage and reinforce LGBT-inclusive behaviors among employees.

You can access the full press release (in pdf format) here :You can purchase a copy of the report entitled Making Change: LGBT Inclusion: Understanding the Challenges here

LINK: Globe and Mail ROB
LINK catalyst.org