Advocating for Workplace Equality: Deliver Your Proposal
When advocating for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender fairness in your workplace, you should remain persistent and formulate a plan to deliver your proposal.
- Set up a meeting with your human resources department, or someone else who is in a position to make decisions regarding your employer’s policies. Know your company, establish your credibility, create alliances and find help where you need it. Be diligent in following up.
- If you don’t receive a timely answer, or if the answer you receive is not the one you want, ask for a second meeting and an explanation. If the person you want to meet with will not meet with you, contact his or her supervisor and ask for a meeting. If necessary, take this issue farther up the corporate ladder. In essence, be persistent, professional and mindful of your position within the organization.
- Don’t get discouraged. “After meeting with the human resources department, we were invited to talk to the CEO and explain why the policy change was important,” recalled Kim Harris, a Hewlett-Packard employee. “In spite of our efforts, the senior management team decided not to amend the policy at first. All of the decision making took place behind closed doors. We received the usual answers about constantly reviewing policies and were told the issue might come up again.” Employees at Hewlett-Packard decided next to ask for individual meetings with each member of the company’s executive committee. “We were trying to change minds one by one, and we got many favorable responses,” Harris says. “It took two years, but we got the policy changed.”
- Continue this dialogue as long as necessary, keeping an eye out for new allies that can add to the dialogue along the way. Keep track of trends in the workplace. If you notice relevant and persuasive newspaper or magazine articles about GLBT workplace issues, send copies to your management. Offer to answer additional questions and position yourself as a resource in the process.
- Stay in touch with the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. If and when you succeed, report your results to workplace@hrc.org.