SMOOTH TRANSITIONS
Consultants help break barriers
Now that gender identity will be explicitly recognized in B.C.’s Human Rights Code, companies across the province may be wondering how to help their transgender customers and employees feel more comfortable in the workplace.
Drew Dennis and Kai Scott have more than a few words of advice. They’re the founders of TransFocus Consulting, a four-month-old firm that helps employers with a range of issues. It’s not just about bathrooms, either: They deal with everything from customer service to product development and marketing, to the crucial question of how to support an employee going through a gender transition.
They spoke with The Sun about how they use leadership education and employee training to help businesses open up to the transgender world — and maybe even profit in the process.
Their answers have been edited and condensed for publication.
Q How did your consulting firm come to be?
DD: Both Kai and I had the pleasure of being involved in the Vancouver park board when they were looking to introduce transgender-inclusion measures across their facilities. We really recognized this gap in terms of knowledge and resources that were available to organizations within the private and the public sectors.
KS: I stayed on to help out with implementation, and we would go around giving presentations to other municipalities. There was such a thirst for more — I’m talking a magnitude of 50 to 100 people coming up to speak with me after presentations.
Q Why might a business come to you for help?
DD: We’ve worked with several companies now where it’s been the HR adviser who has reached out looking for resources because they have an employee who’s transitioning gender in the workplace. Often it’s starting with the senior leadership, which is important.
KS: As more and more trans people come out and are participating in the economy, more and more people are contacting us to try to understand how to capitalize on that — how to understand their trans customers, to include them in their product line, their programming or their services.
Call centres are often the bane of many trans people’s existence, when they call in and are gendered improperly. It also scales up to more serious matters — within banking institutions, being denied access to their accounts because of voice-recognition software that’s not quite attuned to trans reality.
Q Is there one thing every company could do to make their workplace more trans friendly?
KS: What we offer is a comprehensive approach. If you change the washroom signage, you need to have communication around it so employees or customers are aware of it. If you have a transition plan without telling co-workers, they’re ill-equipped to come along on the change with the transitioning employee.
DD: Usually the first step is some educational awareness, starting within the senior leadership.
Q What are some of the challenges you’ve had?
DD: Within our education and awareness sessions, a really big piece that we bring to people is the permission to ask questions and make mistakes. For a lot of folks, there’s still a lot of hesitation and trepidation. Their hearts are in the right place, but they’re often worried that they are going to unintentionally offend someone.
KS: Whenever we have a company with a transitioning employee, what I tell them is that trans people are gifts to the organization in that they provide a space to talk about gender in a way that we haven’t really talked about it. We all struggle with those gender norms that are placed on us; how do we relax those so that everyone benefits?
Q Are there any common mistakes that employers make?
KS: It’s not necessarily a mistake, but sometimes when trans people come forward, there’s a deafening silence or inaction because people don’t know what to do. Don’t be afraid to step up as an employer to take action, even if it means asking awkward questions, to help the employee to be empowered.