Every year, the month of June is dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ+ people around the globe. Pride month is about recognising how far LGBTQ+ rights have come, and where there is still work to be done.

My client runs several busy high street hairdressers, and they’ve been asked whether the organisation is doing anything to celebrate Pride month. They think this is a great idea and have already started thinking of decorations and small events they can hold. They’ve asked however what more they can do, not just during Pride month but throughout the year. 

Pride month is a good time for organisations to celebrate LGBTQ+ people and recognise the diversity of their workforce. It’s also a time to focus on what those rights are and what more can be to ensure equality, diversity and inclusion are central features of organisational culture.

Knowing the law

The Equality Act 2010 protects people from being discriminated against because of a protected characteristic, including age, sex, race, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership and pregnancy and maternity. Its provisions must be applied correctly not only to ensure equality at work but also to avoid legal liability.

It's important that staff know their legal rights and employers understand their legal obligation to comply with them.

There are different ways that employees can experience discrimination at work:

• Direct discrimination — being treated unfavourably because of a protected characteristic.
• Indirect discrimination — being put at a disadvantage because of workplace policies or ways of working that discriminate against or exclude any protected characteristics.
• Harassment — when a person is subjected to unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic with the effect of violating that person’s dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them.
• Victimisation — being treated badly for making or supporting a discrimination claim.

Discrimination does not have to be done knowingly, or deliberately, to occur. It can arise through careless comments, deliberate actions or even something like how a system is set up.

Employers should consider, for example, what would happen if an employee changed their gender, or uses a pronoun not listed on their HR system. Does the system allow for these things to be changed, or added in? 

Review internal policies

These need to be checked to ensure there are no inclusion barriers. For example, are policies relating to family leave and the different ways a family can be formed in keeping with the requirements of the law?

Organisations should also consider having a dedicated equality and diversity policy that outlines:

• the Equality Act 2010
• their attitude towards equality and discrimination
• the work environment they want to create
• zero tolerance for discrimination and what will happen if anyone discriminates, ie disciplinary action.

By Stacie Cheadle, Croner-i technical writer

Need help with your HR?

Find out more about Croner-i’s CIPD HR-inform platform – sign up for FREE here and keep up-to-date with daily HR news, as well as Q&As and webinar recordings