Good morning! Paige here, filling in for Amber.
Tomorrow is Transgender Day of Visibility, intended to celebrate transgender individuals and highlight their plight. But the record number of anti-trans laws introduced this year casts a dark shadow over the occasion.
Some corporations have stepped up, enacting anti-discriminatory policies in their workplaces as laws targeting transgender individuals ramped up in 2015, says Deena Fidas, managing director and chief program and partnerships officer at Out & Equal.
“[Companies] started to look around in the communities in which they operated and said, ‘We have to be concerned not just with the nine-to-five worker, but with the five-to-nine worker,’” she says. “In other words, what happens to our people when they're outside of our four walls?”
But Fidas also notes this has been a “virulent year for anti-transgender legislation.”
There are many actions employers can take to improve trans and gender-expansive inclusion in the workplace. HR teams can start by educating leaders and employees to avoid burdening trans employees with potentially invasive or insensitive questions. Organizations like Out & Equal offer several resources for employees, including how to celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility in the workplace and the global history of nonbinary gender identities.
“We spent a fair amount of time educating [at Indeed],” says Paul Wolfe, a former CHRO at the job search platform. “I think that puts people at ease because…they're not sure, ‘Can I ask a transgender employee this question?’ and they want to be respectful of that.”
Employers can also establish inclusive policies like encouraging employees to share their pronouns and tap their LGBTQ and allies resource groups.
At Indeed, Wolfe says the company worked with the transgender subgroup of its LGBTQ affinity group to develop a playbook outlining responsibilities and guidelines to accomodate transgender employees. The company paired employees seeking gender-affirming care with DEI and benefits partners to navigate care access, connected parents of transgender minors to the resource group, and helped parents navigate mental health benefits available for children through their family’s health plan.
“Our approach was: How do we partner with folks who are transgender, gender non-conforming, or going through gender reassignment and understand the challenges they face? And how do we work with them collaboratively to help create tools and a more seamless process for folks going through this in the future?” Wolfe says.
Paige McGlauflin
paige.mcglauflin@fortune.com
@paidion
