Make time to speak to your LGBT+ colleagues, friends and family and find out about their experiences as a gay person at work. They will have ideas about how your workplace can be made more inclusive.
2. Make it personal
Talk about your own experiences, about LGBT+ family members and friends you have, or stories that LGBT+ colleagues have shared with you (check with them first). This can help others understand why it’s important.
3. Be yourself
For inspiration on how to be an effective ally you need only reflect on your own personal values. Ask yourself, and your colleagues, how would you like to be treated at work?
4. Ask for help
Everyone worries about saying the wrong thing but if you’re taking a positive step you’ll find that LGBT+ colleagues are happy to answer your questions.
5. Be visible
Make clear public statements about the importance of equality, diversity, and inclusion to you and your organisation. Making a public commitment to equality will help people understand that it isn’t a tick box exercise.
6. Put words into practice
Whether you’re the CEO or a line manager, people watch you and take cues from your behaviour. Don’t simply talk about equality, challenge homophobic behaviour, join your work’s LGBT+ network or an ally and attend events like Pride.
7. Demonstrate leadership
As a leader being visible and saying ‘equality at work is important’ can powerfully affect the culture and tone within an organisation, a division, or team. It also demonstrates the organisation’s values to stakeholders, clients, and customers.
8. Mentor and support LGBT+ staff
Their sexual orientation or gender identity is relevant to their experience in the workplace and understanding this will help you manage and support them better and help them to perform to their full potential.
9. Hold colleagues to account
No-one can personally drive every single equality initiative. Holding colleagues to account on what they are doing to advance equality at work is one of the most effective tools that allies have.
10. Make it natural
There’s no right or wrong way to be an ally. Be yourself so that colleagues know equality isn’t something you’re doing because you have to, but because you want to.
