India's Silicon Valley is making efforts towards making its workplace inclusive, MK Ashoka reports.
With the LGBTI movement making quite the foothold in cities across the country, Bangalore in particular, it comes as no surprise that the city’s IT biggies are now going the extra mile to make their workplaces, LGBTI-friendly.
This is no new trend with most MNCs, but with increased pressures from LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersexual) support groups and rights organisations, many top companies have now decided to organise workshops for their managers to create a general awareness and sensitize them on how they need to deal with employees who are also a part of the LGBTI community.
“The objective of these workshops is to increase awareness about the LGBTI community within the corporate community. Such works shops have already been conducted in reputed companies like Goldman Sachs, Accenture, Infosys, British Council, Google, CISCO and IBM and companies across the city are taking initiatives to ensure that they create a friendly atmosphere in their company, so as to boost retention,” says Kevin Burns, programme manager, Community Business, an NGO who conducts such programmes. “It’s about creating a comfortable atmosphere at the workplace, as employees today do not work just for a salary anymore,” he explains.
Tracy Ann Curtis, founder and principal consultant of TAC Global, explains that the workshop is more like a dialogue with the managers to ensure a comfort level, respect and inclusion is created for LGBTI employees in that company.
These initiative are being taken by corporate companies keeping in mind the rise in the numbers of ‘out’ employees these days. The LGBTI community and their lives have long been shrouded in stigma and under the cultural pressures in India. It still remains very challenging for most of the LGBTI community, to be proud of who they are at work, and that’s why these workshops help,” she explains.
The workshop brings managers and employees of LGBTI community face-to-face. The employees are made to talk to managers about the problems they face in the company. Most of the LGBTI employees during the workshop admit that they can never be open about who they are, as colleagues tease them, and that often more than not, they are always the minority and so it feels like they are being bullied. They can also never share details about their boyfriends/girlfriends as they are almost immediately judged and insulted about their orientation by colleagues and the managements.
When asked how fast the transformation of sensitisation at workplaces after a workshops takes place, Kevin explains that there is no timeline. “It takes years!
It’s a really long journey. Our aim is to make all employees to come to work with full force and give their jobs the best they can. The managers who attend these workshop not only understand the importance of such sensitisation, they also often leave us, empowered to deal with the issue at hand,” he underlines.
Though this is primarily a business-oriented step, software companies have taken a big leap by ensuring that their LGBTI employees are treated equally and fairly.
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