Canada recently celebrated Pride Parade - a weekend where people come together to celebrate diversity
Canada recently celebrated Pride Parade – a weekend where people come together to celebrate diversity, inclusion and progress for the LGBTQ community.
And it seems as if tech giant Amazon has taken this wave of inclusivity onboard, as they recently announced their new transgender resources initiative.
The program aims to introduce materials that provide guidance for transgender employees and toolkits for their managers, colleague and HR leaders at Amazon offices.
“As well as the transgender guidelines we are launching today, Amazon also provide benefits that cover transgender services, including support for employees going through gender reassignment and associated mental health services for employees and their dependents, when enrolled,” explained Simon Johnson, director of media at Amazon.
“That’s because we have hundreds of millions of customers who benefit from diversity of thought and strongly believe a variety of backgrounds, ideas, and points of view is the best way to invent on behalf of our customers.”
Inclusivity in the workplace is no longer an ‘added benefit’ organizations can tack on to their talent attraction proposal. As of 2017, 91% of Fortune 500 companies have non-discrimination policies, whilst 83% have initiatives to protect gender identity changes.
Despite this, just 21% of US companies offer paid parental leave for LGBTQ families, with 58% of LGTBQ workers expecting to be act as caregiver to one of their chosen family members.
“In terms of the brand, it’s all about how people perceive your organization,” explained Michael Bach, founder and CEO of The Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI). “Not only in regards to potential talent, but also potential customers.
“From a talent perspective, people want to know that they’re working for an organization where they’ll be treated with respect and value. Inclusivity plays a significant role in that, not only with LGBTQ folk but with any other underrepresented group. Candidates will look for signs that show the company’s a safe space – somewhere they’ll be valued and respected.”
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