Shilpa Sinha Harsh writes about why diversity and inclusion should be the driving force if organisations are to proceed with a forward-thinking approach. She believes that diversity and inclusion programmes across organisations can have a positive impact on productivity, ROI, and revenues. She says that to be truly inclusive and humane, we must pay attention to all communities – LGBTQ+ communities, PwDs, veterans or gender groups. She also throws light on the purpose of intersectionality and how as a society, we are gradually evolving to be more sensitive and attuned to the needs of a broader audience. Shilpa is also emphatic that we need to start looking at diversity and inclusion more holistically and stop compartmentalising each of the issues.
“How do we recreate the workplace to become one where LGBTQ+ talent can thrive? I would say there are two parts to this. First, where the organisation is an equality partner and drives decisive change as an “ally”. This could be through implementing inclusive policies and programs, incorporate LGBTQ+ inclusion in recruitment initiatives but not with affirmative targets, launch internal employee resource groups (ERGs), conduct sensitisation training to prepare the larger work environment to become far more accepting of differences, etc. Companies are also looking at enhancing their Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) policies to include the LGBTQ+ community and setting up physical infrastructure such as gender-neutral washrooms.
