I was honored to recently attend the B-Corp 2022 Champions retreat in Philadelphia. B Corps, partners, and people from companies that use business as a force for good shared three days together, celebrating humanity at work – uniting our shared human values with how we think and work. At the heart of the B-Corp foundation, we find a movement that is focused on building community and mobilizing collective action.
A key focus of the week was the theme of advancing equity and justice, asking the question – how might we center businesses, employees, customers, and communities that have been historically marginalized? I’m eager to share what I learned from the speakers and leaders at the conference, and how that intertwines with my own experiences as a member of the LGBT+ community, and my passions for creating more equitable and just working environments.
For me, it has always come down to moving past tolerance. We must go forward beyond a simple acceptance and inclusion of differences and celebrate the different identities and backgrounds that we all hold.
Here are some tips I’ve learned at the conference about how organizations can celebrate the individuality of their employees:
Create a Cultural Calendar:
While the federal government only recognizes Christian holidays, like Easter and Christmas, it is likely many folks at your company follow and celebrate a different faith. By creating a rich cultural calendar that accounts for a wide variety of days important to different cultures and faiths, your company can show a celebration and appreciation for different followings by extending holidays to those who align outside of the existing federal holidays. This calendar can also include important nationally recognized dates, such as Pride Month and Black History Month – allowing your organization to give special attention and dialogue surrounding those topics that celebrate and give appropriate recognition to the spotlighted communities and topics.
Encourage Education:
As lifelong learners, we are on a pursuit to lessen the political divide in our country and come together toward collective action and solutions. A great way to begin is to encourage your team to be constantly educating themselves on evolving social and economic issues, ensuring an open-minded and growth workplace culture that welcomes all perspectives and voices. Another great way to encourage education is to facilitate open conversations among employees, and in some cases the whole staff, that rotate through different themes and topics, allowing important dialogue to emerge. This creates an important culture within your community of both listening and sharing, giving individuals an opportunity to have their voices be heard, and humanizing many of the topics we see in the headlines.
Support Self-Expression:
Self-expression represents and can help to communicate the unique individuality of us all. While employees often have differing backgrounds, cultures, and sexual orientations / gender identities, it’s critical for organizations to fully understand and incorporate the fundamental belief that there is no “standard” or “correct” way for employees to express themselves. As a member of the LGBT+ community, I believe strongly that there is no “proper” way to talk about your weekend or to display photos on your desk of your family / partner. Simple changes can also make a huge difference – such as making the sharing of pronouns on email signatures, business cards, and zoom calls the company norm. This allows non-binary / transgender employees to not be singled-out, as well as helping to normalize the celebration of gender identity and acceptance. By dismantling the harmful, previous expectations that were historically rooted in a society that did not represent us all, we can empower individuals to bring their full selves to the workplace and feel encouraged and supported while doing so.
These are just a few of the many ways organizations and companies can celebrate the rich diversity among their employees. By keeping the B-Corp values of humanity at work at the core of our organizations, we can create an inclusive and just workplace that is designed with everyone in mind, one in which we are all supported to thrive.
