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LGBT+ History Month: What can businesses do?

February is LGBT+ History Month, where we look back on the experiences of gender and sexually diverse people, and those who have fought for the rights that LGBT+ folk have today. For businesses, it can also be a time to look to the future, and think about how you can better support your LGBT+ employees. Here are a few ways that you improve your workplace, and safeguard and support your gender and sexually diverse staff.

Talk to your LGBT+ employees

The best way to identify how to improve your workplace for LGBT+ people is to talk to your LGBT+ employees. You could do this by sending an anonymous survey to your teams, so none of your staff are forced to disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity, and everyone can still give their feedback. By asking about positive and negative experiences LGBT+ employees have had within your business, you can get a good idea of what you’re doing well, and any changes you need to make.

Create inclusive policies

Your workplace policies can indicate to LGBT+ employees that your business is a safe place to be themselves. This might mean having a clear and accessible Equality and Diversity policy (ACAS has a free template here), ensuring that there is a straightforward route for LGBT+ employees to follow in cases of harassment or discrimination, or adapting the language used within policies to be inclusive of all identities (Bristol University has a guide to using inclusive language here). 

Include your pronouns

Even something as simple as including your pronouns on your email signature communicates to gender diverse employees that your workplace is inclusive. Listing your pronouns as part of your email signature is becoming commonplace for many businesses, and it signals to those you’re writing to that you respect and affirm the gender identities of others. It’s important to stress that including your pronouns is optional rather than mandatory; employees should always make their own decision of whether to share their pronouns.

Become a Stonewall Diversity Champions

In 2001, the UK Charity Stonewall created a Diversity Champions Programme, which sought to help businesses and organisations become more inclusive and support their LGBT+ employees. The Diversity Champions Programme provides business with advice and guidance to creating an inclusive workplace, as well as a personal manager who helps guide organisations through this journey. 

Stonewall’s Diversity Champions Programme is scalable, and is suitable for all businesses and organisations regardless of size or sector.

Give back to LGBT+ charities

The North East is home to some excellent LGBT+ charities that are doing incredible work for the community. Humankind offers support to young people between 11 and 25 who live in Sunderland, South Tyneside or County Durham, and provide 1:1 support, sexual health guidance, family support, hate crime reporting and support to access clinical gender identity services. 

Hart Gables is a LGBT+ charity in Hartlepool that has been operating for nearly two decades. Their focus is on 1:1 support for gender diverse and sexually diverse people, as well as offering youth groups and family support. They offer services across the North East including Durham, Middlesbrough and even virtual meetups.

Rainbow Home is a charity which supports asylum seekers in the North East who are LGBT+, and have fled their countries due to persecution. Rainbow Home supports members throughout their asylum case, including report writing, support in court and offering regular group activities.


The Transcendit Way

Transcendit understand that when you choose to work with us, whether we're taking care of your IT, app or web development, you're trusting us with part of your business. So whether we're looking after your computers, phone systems or servers we always do things 'the Transcendit way'.

The whole of our team adhere to the same values, beliefs and policies - the principles that were written when Transcendit first formed in 2000. Whether you come to us for cloud services or recovery backup you can be confident that you'll always receive the same excellent service.

The Transcendit way outlines how we do business; following the same straightforward principles with every client and customer, regardless of how big or small they may be.

That means we get to know you and your business. We offer you a friendly, professional and efficient service, and we'll always be honest with you.
We understand that not everybody speaks fluent IT, so we try to explain things in a way that is simple and clear. We always spend as much time as is necessary explaining things to you.
If you need to talk to us about something, no matter how insignificant, we are only ever a phone call away – and we’re never too busy to make you a cup of tea and have a sit down with you in person.
We understand how frustrating it can be when things are late. When we schedule an appointment with you, we are there when you’re expecting us. If something prevents us from getting there, we always call you in advance to let you know.
Sometimes things can go wrong, but we never lie to you or try to cover something up. If things go askew we tell you what’s happened and how we plan to prevent it affecting your business.
We want you to continuously benefit from working with us. We regularly discuss your business and make suggestions for improving systems and processes wherever we can – but we never try to push you into a purchase.
When we quote a fixed price, that's always the amount we charge – you won’t find any nasty surprises on a bill from us. If you are paying by time and materials, we inform you if our approximations could change.
We understand the importance of privacy for your business and your customers. We respect the confidentiality of your data, and we will never pass on your information to third parties.
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Find out what they're saying here.
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