The Gay Experience and Your Employment/Recruiting Brand...

The best question a candidate has ever asked me during an interview, hands down, was this:

"I'm openly gay. How are gay employees treated here? And is the culture receptive to GLBT staff?"

In the conservative corporate world of Washington, DC, a candidate asking this question showed some chutzpah in my book. Not because this was a difficult question to answer, and not because I didn’t have something positive to say- but I'd just never been asked something like that before by a candidate, ever.

So let me ask you this - if posed the above question by a candidate, would you know how to answer it? And as a recruiting or HR pro, is the “gay experience” at your company something that’s on your radar?

Let’s get this out of the way first - this isn't and can't be a question of morals or ethics. This is simply reality for ya as California is now the second state to marry same-sex couples and now the first ready to grant licenses to couples from any state. This spills over into the benefits arena for HR pros, yeah? And sure, sexual orientation doesn’t fall under a Federal protected class for EEO, but there are a handful of states and cities in which it does. So what does this mean to you? And do you know what it means to be a GLBT friendly employer?   

As the SHRM conference winds down, there, we're even prompted by the outgoing Sue Meisinger who urged HR pros at her opening remarks to champion GLBT issues in the workplace. The New York Times also recently covered Lisa Sherman and her experiences as a gay executive, now being memorialized in a case study for the Harvard Business School. But reading Sherman's experiences, albeit years ago, totally freaked me out- I was mortified thinking about someone having to do pronoun puppetry, “...substituting ‘him’ and ‘we’ for ‘her’ and ‘she,” as Sherman writes because she never felt safe enough to use the proper pronouns at work.

So, what’s it like at your 9 to 5? Are people playing pronoun puppetry or do they feel safe and comfortable enough just being who they are? Does your diversity plan go beyond just race and gender? What do your EEO and harassment policies say about sexual orientation? Are you using recruiting sites like glpcareers.com or gayjob.biz? Just a little something for you to think about - the gay experience.

Editor's Note - Jessica Lee is an Employment Manager for APCO Worldwide, a global PR firm in D.C. Like most upscale HR pros, she spends half of her time on recruiting, the other half on ER, Training and OD. In a rare serious Editor's note, this post is presented not to debate the moral issues surrounding gay rights, but the appearance of employment branding to this segment of the candidate population - a real issue for recruiters and HR pros alike...

Comments

[Jennifer McClure]

Great post Jessica, and very thought provoking! You raise some very important points that we should all be thinking about. These kinds of issues are what make our jobs in the "talent" arena fun and challenging. We must always be evolving and always learning to stay current as the culture both outside and inside our companies/clients change with the times!

[Nancy Ford]

I have been asked this question about a company for whom I was recruiting. It put me in an interesting position because I do not work at the company, haven't been on-site, and certainly did not want to bring up this subject with the HR person since I was actively dealing with this candidate. Come to think of it, now that I am no longer working with this particular candidate for this company, I should broach the subject. I answered that most of the people working at this company are from larger cities which typically are more tolerant when it comes to alternative lifestyles, most of them have MBAs, which tends to correlate with more tolerance, and they tend to value life/work harmony (threw that one in for good measure). The candidate did not end up making the cut but it had nothing to do with his lifetyle. Thanks for writing about this issue and reminding me that I need to circle back with my client and see if I can get some input into their corporate culture. Having this information up front would assist me in placing people there. It's an example of a "little" thing neglected that can really mess up the process that I just wrote about in my blog. If you're interested in reading that article, visit: http://www.recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blog/show?id=502551%3ABlogPost%3A183239

[Jessica Lee]

jennifer - times are definitely changing! i wonder how many people are talking about this internally within organizations though... when it comes to diversity, we all talk about the need but the bigger question for me is about how inclusive you are once you've become diverse!

nancy - thanks for stopping by and leaving your thoughts. the little things definitely count, don't they? i absolutely believe we should sweat the small stuff! sounds like you're a third party recruiter? i would most definitely recommend going on-site to visit the client and spending time to learn about the culture and what kind of people will or won't fit... what do people value, how do people dress, what kinds of backgrounds do people have, etc... 3PR's with whom i have the best relationships don't just find people with the right skills, but find those whose are a good fit for my org's culture. good luck with your recruiting.

[Tiffany]

This article is very interesting. I can relate with the candidate wanting to know since you want to be around people you are comfortable with and who will not judge you by anything but talent. I actually temped at a company where almost all of the administrative staff was gay and they didn't even realize it. Of course only certain people in the company knew each individual case but it was interesting that the people that were being recruited were of an alternative lifestyle and were in the same roles.

But I will definitely keep this article close for when I am involved in HR so that I may be able to answer a question like this or at least be able to discuss it.

[Totally Consumed]

Jessica, you cannot claim that "this isn't ... a question of morals or ethics".

In your post, you are clearly advocating for the fair, ethical and moral treatment of gays and lesbians in the workplace.

Don't be ashamed of it or afraid to own it. It took guts to write it and for FOT to post it. Thank you for taking a stand!

[HR Wench]

For some reason I can never figure out how to leave a proper track back, so here it is old school style! http://hrwench.blogspot.com/2008/06/breaking-news-i-have-opinion.html

[kd]

Totally Consumed -

Thanks for being encouraging to Jessica and FOT. I got 9 or 10 nasty emails regarding this post, and that's OK. I expected that, and I'm not surprised by the other negativity, although it's hard to believe in supporting this post that I would be branded as non-progressive and intolerant.

For the record, I feel like I'm being treated unfairly in the link that appears before this comment. It's easy to clip things out and draw conclusions. Just remember I opted to post the piece, and I put my name on it.

Let me explain to anyone who has an interest about my editor's note. My goal was to reinforce what JLee said and try to ward off the people that wanted to debate legal, religious or moral arguments regarding GBLT. The reality is there are a lot of those folks out there, but that debate is not what this post is about.

The goal of this site and the HR Capitalist is to talk about and provide opinions on issues related to Talent/HR. That's the only goal. It's not going to be a board for personal beliefs that aren't related to discussion of talent - there are plenty of other blogs that do that well. It's not me or this blog.

The contributors at FOT reflect the diversity of the states. I'm sure we have democrats and republicans, devout religious folks and those who aren't, etc. Doesn't matter - I like all the contributors because they bring different perspectives and strengths to the table regarding talent.

I think it's the same way with our readers. I'm going to present issues on Talent and HR on the 2 blogs. I'm going to have strong opinions related to the issues presented, but you're not going to get a big glimpse of my personal belief structure other than what you read.

The reason? I don't ONLY want people who think like me coming around, which happens when you polarize. I want a lot of people with different backgrounds talking about the issues this blog is focused on - talent and everything related to it.

As for the other stuff, it's not the goal of the blog. Call me neutral, call me weak, whatever you would like, that's fine. The blog is what it is, nothing more.

The final point? Back to the issue. Regardless of your views on gay rights, as a recruiter/HR person, you need to think about how your culture/brand plays to this segment. That's a question for anyone in the seat regardless of their personal belief structure.

I'm closing comments on this post. To those who posted comments on dealing with the issue as a talent manager, thanks and keep coming back. For those that wanted to give your views on non talent related topics and tell other people their views are wrong, there are other sites that are great for that.

Thanks - KD