How to make your organisation more inclusive for nonbinary people

Research from Scottish Trans in 2016 paints a worrying picture of nonbinary people in the UK fearing exclusion, stigma and lack of opportunities, including within the workplace.

Only 4% of respondents always felt comfortable sharing their nonbinary identity at work – compared to 52% who never felt comfortable. In addition, 90% worried their identity wouldn’t be respected, 88% worried it would make their work environment more difficult and 55% worried it would impact on their career progression.

This research is five years old and I hope those numbers would have improved since then as wider society becomes more aware of nonbinary gender identity. But still, there is a long way to go for nonbinary people to feel safe and comfortable with showing their authentic selves. There is a lot more research to be done about nonbinary identity and what that means for people’s work and lives. Raising awareness

A lot more needs to be done to raise awareness of nonbinary gender identity. Many people don’t know what that means, or what it looks like in practice for nonbinary people to navigate a life that is designed for two gender options that don’t really work for them, or how it feels when everything signals that there is no space for people like you. There are very few role models to help guide others on their own path.

People also don’t take it seriously as an actual stable identity (I keep getting asked if I ‘have decided yet’) or think female-ish presenting nonbinary people need more feminist consciousness raising to come round to their side.

Organisations have a role to play in raising awareness of nonbinary identity and better educating their employees to ensure those identifying as nonbinary feel valued, respected and like they belong, authentically, within the business.

Practical steps to create non-binary inclusion at work

In my previous article, I wrote about my personal experience of coming out as nonbinary at work, and provided some guidance for those who may wish to do the same. In this second piece, I share guidance on how organisations can build a more supportive and inclusive environment for non-binary people at work.

1. Meet people on their terms

Your data is likely flawed so you won’t actually know how diverse your organisation or team really is. Be open and see what you learn about the awesome folks you work with or you are looking to bring in.

‘Hi everyone’ is better than ‘ladies and gentlemen’. A word like ‘people’ is a good plural term for, well, people (of all genders). When in doubt, ask. Language is often more flexible than you think, a lot of it really isn’t as hard as we sometimes make it. Normalise having pronoun conversations. If people tell you how they want to be called, go with that. Learn to pronounce names. Things don’t have to make sense to you personally, if they make sense for the person telling you about themselves then you should respect their wishes.

2. Have the conversations

Have sensible, solution-focused, supportive adult conversations with the aim to make things work. How that conversation goes will tell that person a lot about how safe they can feel with you, and how much you factor into their longer-term considerations.

Be prepared to have rounds of conversations with more ‘stuff’ coming up as people learn to trust you. This might look like things keep getting messier every time you talk, but the mess was there all along, you just didn’t know about it. Take the growing trust as a positive signal and do something good with it. People remember, and people share.

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