Allyship and policies key to LGBTQ inclusion

Workplace diversity improves bottom line

A return on investment, or ROI, is a key term used by business leaders as they assess the bottom line.

But a return on equality, or “ROE,” is just as important, said Todd Sears, founder and CEO of Out Leadership, a global LGBTQ business advisory that focuses on LGBTQ inclusion at the Csuite level.

“There are so many reasons why companies should be broadly inclusive,” Sears said, noting that equity impacts business outcomes ranging from the attraction of talent to the retention of clients. And equity means recognizing and embracing every employee’s gender identity and sexual orientation.

“We like to say the LGBTQ community is the canary in the coal mine for that company’s culture,” Sears added, “because what that company and leaders do for an invisible minority like the LGBTQ minority directly sends a signal to the visible minorities about how supportive … and how inclusive they are.”

As several states pass laws that target the LGBTQ community, business leaders and advocates say it’s critical for companies to continue striving for inclusion, not only to represent their customers’ values, but to stay relevant and succeed.

“Expectations have changed,” said Lanaya Irvin, CEO of Coqual, a global think tank that conducts research and advises corporations on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. “It’s not just the employees. It’s customers and investors (and) corporate boards. Their expectations are that companies are going to be committed to inclusion. They’re going to be committed to equity. Lip service will no longer do.”

Diversity also improves the bottom line.

Businesses that ranked in the top quartile for ethnic and cultural diversity among their executives in 2019 were 36% more likely to have higher-than-average profits than companies that were the least inclusive, according to a global report by Mckinsey.

Meanwhile, businesses with the most gender diversity among their top leadership were 25% more likely to have higher profits than those companies that had the least.

“Having a more diverse workforce is fantastic for business,” said Susie Scher, chair of Goldman Sachs’ global financing group and the most senior out LGBTQ person at the firm. “We’ve seen that proven out in many ways, including in studies around gender and race, including the performance of companies with more diverse boards ... and LGBTQ diversity is an important stream of diversity for us.”

Charlotte Hamilton, a transgender woman who is CEO of Conamix, a battery company based in Ithaca, New York, said a diverse staff has helped fuel her business with a variety of ideas.

“We want to cast as wide a net as we can,” Hamilton said. “It improves our likelihood of success to have more, and different, kinds of people involved and making innovations that are moving our company forward.”

And yet many LGBTQ workers say they still struggle for acceptance and recognition. A 2016 Coqual study found that 42% of LGBT respondents in the U.S. had experienced discrimination on the job because of their identity in the previous five years.

Among LGBTQ professionals, 23% say they’ve been regularly asked to do administrative tasks that are not officially part of their responsibilities, as compared with 17% of their NON-LGBTQ peers, Coqual found.

Feeling out of place at work is amplified for LGBTQ employees who also belong to another marginalized group. For instance, 31% of Black LGBTQ professionals say peers have stereotyped them as compared to 17% of Black NON-LGBTQ professionals who say the same, according to a November 2021 Coqual study.

Companies need to make their commitment to LGBTQ employees tangible, business leaders say.

Allyship is also critical, business leaders and advocates say.

Goldman set up an ally network roughly a dozen years ago, and those who wanted to be a part of it were given cards declaring their allyship that they could set on their desks.

Now, in addition to those cards, staffers also display rainbow flags, and the firm’s CEO David M. Solomon has posed with LGBTQ+ plus employees to celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility.

Irvin said that allyship means taking action.

“It doesn’t mean you have to have all the answers and totally understand LGBTQ people and experiences of underrepresented groups,” she said. “But allyship does mean you have to be willing to intervene, willing to disrupt bias, willing to use your privilege to lift up.”