Technology companies talk a lot about how their employees can bring their authentic selves to work. But that’s a lot easier for some to do than others. It’s not difficult to be your authentic self when that person aligns with the makeup of the tech industry at large, which is currently dominated by straight, white men. If you don’t fit that profile — and therefore don’t see much of yourself in your coworkers — being your full authentic self at work can be too uncomfortable.
This is especially true for members of the LGBTQIA+ community, nearly half of whom are closeted at work according to a 2018 Human Rights Campaign study. Certainly, not every member of the LGBTQIA+ community wishes to discuss their sexuality or gender at work. That said, not doing so should be a personal choice, not one made out of fear of professional or social repercussions.
Creating a workplace where LGBTQIA+ employees feel comfortable, safe and supported when they decide to come out requires concrete initiatives to promote inclusivity, reduce bias and build community along with public displays of allyship. Here’s how two Chicago tech companies are doing just that.
LGBTQIA+ representation in major video game franchises has increased in recent years, with queer characters appearing in top-tier titles like “The Last of Us,” “Overwatch” and “Assasin’s Creed.” While studios are ramping up their efforts to create prominent LGBTQIA+ characters and build authentic storylines around them, research by Alexander Ruiz, a former QA tester at Electronic Arts who holds a PhD in management and organizations, found that company support for LGBTQIA+ employees was inconsistent.
According to Ruiz, public displays of allyship — such as marching in Pride parades — didn’t always lead to in-house support or understanding for LGBTQIA+ employees.
It’s this disconnect that medical gaming company Level Ex is battling against. According to Kami Bond, head of people and culture, Level Ex pairs public support for the LGBTQIA+ community with numerous in-house initiatives small and large to create an environment where people feel comfortable and safe being their authentic selves at the office.
Being open about one’s sexuality in the workplace is a deeply personal decision, one that’s often informed by the level of safety and trust a person feels at work. What are some concrete steps your company has taken to create a sense of trust and safety among your team?
Trust and safety are feelings that come organically and are driven by each employee’s personal sense of comfort in the workplace. If there is an open and accepting culture where many employees are out and feel as though they are safe and recognized, others may feel as though there is safety in numbers and coming out at work may feel more natural than if a company tries to create a system of openness that feels like it’s coming from the top down. We have a large number of LGBTQIA+ employees who form an active, open and completely accepted community at the company. This is not to say that this culture isn’t a company-wide focus — many members of our leadership team have shared their allyship and relayed stories of family members who have come out.
We’ve also taken several specific actions to foster a welcoming and supportive environment in our everyday work. For example, we have a private Slack channel where people who identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community can talk about their experiences in a safe space. We also try to make inclusion a focus in our company-wide communications so people feel seen and respected, like including pronouns in our email signatures, for example.
Furthermore, we ensure that those outside the company know that respecting all employees, regardless of their sexuality or any other factor, is one of our most important values. We do this by taking action, like wearing our Pride shirts when we represent the company at events and competitions. For example, we did so on stage at SIGGRAPH with 2,500 people in the audience.
We make all of our candidates aware of our LGBTQIA+ programs as part of our recruiting.”
How do you monitor and measure these types of sentiments among your team? And how does this data help inform your people strategies?
In Q1 of 2021, we launched our first employee-wide baseline engagement survey. It provided significant insight as to how people felt regarding their teams, our culture and diversity, as well as our leadership. Now, we have both qualitative and quantitative data to reflect on. As a result, we launched a team focused on overall diversity efforts called “Raising the Score.”
This group has been brainstorming ways to expand diversity, equity and inclusion at Level Ex and inspire other video game companies to follow suit. We’ve put more structure and prioritization around our initiatives based on feedback from the survey, and it has helped us think about what, specifically, people need to feel respected and supported.
What are some direct ways your company celebrates or supports the LGBTQIA+ community, either internally or externally?
This year, to help unite employees while working remotely and recognize the value of the LGBTQIA+ community within Level Ex, we put a specific focus on Pride Month and hosted a variety of activities in recognition of its importance. Level Exers from different teams across the company volunteered to be culture ambassadors and came together to plan a month of thoughtful and thought-provoking events that placed as much importance on education as they did on celebration. Some activities included a viewing of the documentary “Stonewall Forever” and a lunch and learn highlighting the lives and contributions of five prominent members of the LGBTQIA+ community in the last century.
We also focus on recognizing and prioritizing diversity in our hiring process. We make all of our candidates aware of our LGBTQIA+ programs as part of our recruiting and are currently working to post job listings in a wider variety of LGBTQIA+-targeted spaces. Additionally, we had a candidate share during the interview process that she was going through a gender reassignment process and benefit coverage for her hormone therapy was a concern. We connected her with our benefits provider to ensure everything she needed would be covered and directed her to an LGBTQIA+ interest group that gave her the information she needed.
We are happy about having all of this information readily available to every new hire. Not everyone is going to be comfortable coming out as queer during the onboarding process, so having the information available to people who don’t even say they want it is crucial. These are just the first steps in our ongoing commitment to fostering diversity, not only within Level Ex but in the gaming and tech communities as a whole.
Before members of the LGBTQIA+ community even have the opportunity to come out at work, they first need to receive an offer. The hiring process is where people first decide whether to be their authentic selves. This often involves asking a series of questions that, at their core, require people to decide between their careers and who they are.
What’s the risk of putting preferred pronouns on a resume, especially ones that are gender nonconforming? Should a candidate ask about how companies support their LGBTQIA+ employees and the community during an interview or do they risk outing themselves by doing so? Would an interviewer really be able to look past gender-fluid clothing?
Inclusive hiring processes that focus on both experience and potential can help take some of the weight off of these decisions. For example, Terry Adams, VP of people at Hireology, said candidates are asked for their preferred pronoun. Asking for someone’s preferred pronoun is just one way Hireology works to create an environment where members of the LGBTQIA+ community feel comfortable being their full selves at work.
What are some concrete steps your company has taken to create a sense of trust and safety among your team?
It is our utmost priority for people to be their true selves here at Hireology, and there are quite a few ways that we create a safe and comfortable environment. The first step we take is to ask candidates what their preferred pronoun is. This small step makes a big difference when creating a comfortable interview process for both hiring managers and candidates.
Another example is our DEI council, which is a uniquely organic group here. While we see many companies hire someone specifically for DEI, we truly believe that this responsibility is handled best when people volunteer to be a part of it, and moreover when the conversation is had in a group setting where new perspectives and opinions can be shared. Our DEI council meets weekly to discuss topical issues and create a bridge with local organizations and foundations.
The data that we gather from our employees helps our people team organize both internal and external learning opportunities.”
How do you monitor and measure these types of sentiments among your team? And how does this data help inform your people strategies?
We love surveys! There is no better way to truly understand your employees than to give them a forum to openly give feedback and information anonymously. We use a tool called CultureAmp that gives us the flexibility to dig into the minds of our team and take action on our findings. The data that we gather from our employees helps our people team organize both internal and external learning opportunities — like a required unconscious bias training and a panel discussion with LGBTQIA+ volunteer speakers who shared their stories about coming out and how their friends, families and co-workers helped them through it.
What are some direct ways your company celebrates or supports the LGBTQIA+ community, either internally or externally?
Hireology celebrates and supports the LGBTQIA+ community by creating a strong bridge between our employees and communities and organizations that make a big impact. We take steps internally, like offering a company match to any donation to the Brave Space Alliance, supporting LGBTQIA+ local businesses in Chicago and attending the LGBTQIA+ WERQ Career Fair at the Center on Halsted. Our movie club has featured topical films that discuss LGBTQIA+ subjects and we even hosted our very own “Prideology JamFest” — an afternoon of LGBTQIA+ artists who helped Hireologists bring in the weekend.
