Companies must make the environment more inclusive for LGBTQIA+ people, says NGO manager

There is still very strong discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people in the labor market in the country, especially if they are low-income, said the manager of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Micro Rainbow Brasil, arm of Micro Rainbow International, Lucas Paoli. The NGO is a pioneer in entrepreneurship for this community.

For him, when people belong to the middle or high income classes, they get better training and consequent professional qualification. “For low-income LGBTQIA+ people, the barriers are immense,” said Paoli. LGBTQIA+ means lesbians, gaysbisexual, transsexual, queer, intersexual, asexual, with the symbol + covering other sexual and gender orientations, representing plurality.

According to the manager of Micro Rainbow Brasil, everything starts at school, when the bullying, with high rates of homophobia and transphobia, causes a high rate of school dropouts and creates several barriers that impact people in the job market. In this sense, he stated that psychological safety, a term created in 1999 by professor Amy Edmondson, from the Harvard Business School, concerns inclusion in the time of belonging in the work environment. In reality, however, this is not what is seen in most companies.

The term psychological safety proposes that, in companies, the team will not be ashamed, reject or punish anyone for declaring themselves LGBTQIA+. For Amy Edmondson, psychological safety aims to create a space where new ideas are expected and encouraged. The professor argues that a psychologically safe work environment encourages people to voice their ideas, concerns or mistakes, without fear of being punished or humiliated. Lucas Paoli highlighted that there are companies where LGBTQIA+ people find it difficult to use their social name in the workplace and cannot assume their identity.

Effects

These negative factors end up having an impact on workers’ productivity. “If people can’t be psychologically safe, they won’t be productive. There are environments that do not allow LGBTQIA+ people to freely assume their identity and this will be directly reflected in productivity, work efficiency, leadership issues and even permanence”.

Lucas Paoli recalled that some companies are starting to open vacancies for the LGBTQIA+ population, but do not guarantee their permanence in the staff. “Just guaranteeing a place is of no use, because people will enter the homophobic, transphobic work environment”. There is no code of conduct to punish homophobia and transphobia, he declared. “This is a very serious issue.”

Paoli stated that in addition to educating the staff for inclusion and diversity, extending this to the highest positions in the company, it is necessary to create means that make the environment truly diverse and inclusive. Ideally, children should be oriented, from an early age, to respect others, both in the family and at school, because the job market is a mirror of society, he argued. “If we don’t form the bases, the effects will continue to explode in other instances, including in the labor market”.

He pointed out that few LGBTQIA+ people occupy leadership positions and, when they do, it is usually a man gay white. “Really, we have a long process there to create a truly inclusive environment.” Research shows that business leaders can increase the psychological safety of team members through participative management and inclusive management.

Initiatives

The manager of the NGO Micro Rainbow Brasil listed some initiatives for companies to become diverse and inclusive. The first is that companies must have a code of conduct that clearly corrects cases of homophobia and transphobia. Some companies have a code that punishes cases of racism and sexism. “But if they don’t have a guideline that punishes these homophobic and transphobic behaviors, they won’t change. These attitudes cannot be accepted in the labor market”.

In general, companies have internal affinity groups for women, for black people. They are spaces of sociability in the workplace. Similar groups should also be created for LGBTQIA+ workers because there they will be able to report situations, if they feel heard. “Psychological safety concerns those people who cannot be heard, nor included, nor feel safe. This affinity group is very important”.

Another important policy is the issue of rights, such as including partners of LGBTQIA+ people in benefits, such as health plans and leisure plans, as is the case with heterosexual workers. Paoli drew attention to the fact that many companies support LGBTQIA+ events only during LGBTQ Pride Month, in June, “and then call themselves diverse and inclusive”. The manager of Micro Rainbow Brasil recalled that support has to be constant. “It can’t just be in the month of June”.

Some companies invest in corporate social responsibility when they make donations to social initiatives. He advocated that companies also create vehicles to support the LGBTQIA+ community, financing projects by NGOs that develop social actions aimed at these people.

Master in Human Rights Practice, with 15 years of experience working with LGBTQIA+ issues in Brazil and abroad, Lucas Paoli also currently manages Diversità, a consulting company that offers training in entrepreneurship for gayslesbians, trans, transvestites and other members of this segment of the population, as well as training for companies that want to make their businesses more diverse and inclusive.

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