For candidates from the LGBTQIA+ community, discrimination experienced at every stage of the hiring process impacts how folks show up to work as their true selves. This is why for Samet, fostering inclusion needs to start even before candidates apply to your company.
“In your job advert, creating a more inclusive experience for folks from the LGBTQIA+ community starts with the language you use,” Samet explains. “Organisations often use words in their job adverts that limit or prevent specific communities from applying to roles. This type of language is likely to prevent trans or queer applicants from applying, because it feels overtly gendered.”
To work towards more inclusive communication norms, Samet suggests that organisations can bring in an external consultant for training, work with their internal DEI leader, leverage tooling that helps identify linguistic bias, and audit internal communication methods. It’s also important to create accountability among hiring managers and HR teams to use more inclusive language.
“On a very pragmatic level, it’s all about training the organisation and upskilling them on the use of inclusive language. But this shift is only one part of organisational change management, and change takes time. There’s no one specific way to approach it, and different people within your organisation will also have a different level of commitment.
“What’s most important is that organisations understand how using gendered language can lead to the reproduction of specific stereotypes. For example, if organisations always use the term ‘maternity’ leave, a more inclusive switch could be using parental leave, or overtly stating maternity and paternity leave. There’s also research out there that shows that women are less likely to apply for a role when the job advert contains terms like ‘rockstar’, for example. These small linguistic changes impact our subconscious mind over the long-term.”
To create a more inclusive hiring process for LGBTQIA+ candidates, Samet advises examining your end-to-end process stage by stage to identify where it might feel non-inclusive:
- Scan job adverts for overtly gender-biased language, or heteronormative concepts, like maternity leave, and add more inclusive switches.
- Share your pronouns in the interview. Sharing pronouns proactively opens the door for candidates to do the same, avoid misgendering, and demonstrates social competence.
- Use inclusive language in official corporate communications, including reports, internal communications, and press releases.
- Train your entire workforce to communicate more inclusively — but remember that shifting how we communicate will take time to change.
- Train all employees involved in hiring to respect the law on what they can and can’t ask in an interview regarding gender identity and sexual orientation, and how to offer candidate accommodations.
Ultimately, Samet says that the longer term process is about equipping your organisation’s decision-makers to scale inclusion for all.
“When considering the individual experience of discrimination, you need to consider how you can provide your organisation’s decision-makers with the necessary knowledge and sensitivity so that they don’t make decisions that perpetuate homophobia, transphobia, or any other kind of discrimination.”
