Chinese LGBT and people with disabilities: Inclusive workplace wanted

CHRM NEWS Sept 25, 2013, Beijing - Chinese sexual minorities and people with disabilities jointly called for a more inclusive work environment at the 3rd annual Workplace Diversity Forum in the Chinese Marketplace held on Wednesday, Sept 25, in Beijing.

In an written proposal released during the forum, Aibai Culture & Education Center and Beijing One Plus One Cultural Exchange Center appealed to enterprises in China to ensure their employee are not treated differently because of sexual orientation or disability, among other distinctions.

In addition to introducing anti-discrimination policy, the two NGOs that promote equal rights for lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) and people with disabilities receptively, also suggest the companies have lectures on LGBT issues and barrier-free work office.

Organized by Aibai and sponsored by IBM and US Embassy Beijing, the forum was attended by about 80 human resource professionals, diversity champions, corporate decision makers,from over 20 multinationals and domestic companies, and NGOs leaders attended the forum.

Experts on inclusive and diverse workplaces from IBM, Goldman Sachs,  International Labor Organizations, Community Business, Handicap International in China and a number of NGOs shared best practices examples and expertise on addressing the needs of all staff in the workplace.

Tony Tenicela, IBM’s Global Leader for Workforce and LGBT Markets gave his insight on how to leverage diversity and social business to drive innovation, as well as the business cases of diversity for enterprises doing business in growth markets.

“At IBM, diversity fosters innovation in the way IBM addresses the needs of our clients and helps the world work better. Given the breadth of IBM’s business across 170 countries, diversity is a competitive differentiator that enables IBM to reflect the global diversity of our customers,” says Tenicela.

IBM was one of the very first companies to globally and publicly formalize its commitment to LGBT employees, including sexual orientation in our Manager’s Handbook in 1984, subsequently adding LGBT inclusion into our Equal Opportunity Policy, and implementing domestic partner benefits from 1996. IBM ranks No.1 in Stonewall's Global Equality Index 2013.

IBM hired the first disabled employee in 1914. In China, IBM provides scholarships and internships funds for excellent college students with disabilities.

Meanwhile, Community Business, a non-profit organization specializing in corporate responsibility and a recognised thought leader in Diversity and Inclusion (D&I), launched a new resource guide for employers entitled “Creating Inclusive Workplaces for LGBT Employees in China”.  

The publication highlights the business case for addressing the needs of LGBT) employees and provides the cultural and legal context for LGBT issues in China. As a practical resource, it also provides a set of recommendations on how companies can create inclusive workplaces for LGBT employees and includes a number of examples of good practice.

“The Resource Guide will help companies create a workplace that is free from bias, stigma, and where all employees, including LGBT employees, can bring their full selves to work, and that is good for creativity, innovation, and ultimately a company’s bottom line,” said Fern Ngai, Chief Executive Officer of Community Business.

Many multi-national enterprises in United States, including IBM, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Boeing, Coca Cola, Disney, have provided benefits to LGBT employees and their partners.

“Goldman Sachs has been focusing on diversity globally more than a decade ago and is extremely supportive to our LGBT employees.” said Paul Choi , executive director in the Human Capital Management (HCM) division of Goldman Sachs in Asia and the global co-head of Goldman Sachs University.

 

In China, we offers the same benefits to employees with different sexual orientations, including the insurance coverage and healthcare to their partners.  We educate our employees through training programs on how to foster an LGBT-friendly and inclusive workplace.”

Goldman Sachs also built an LGBT employee network, launched in 2006 in Asia, encouraging LGBT people and their supporters to participate.  Lastly, we consider engaging LGBT allies as an effective and powerful approach to creating an inclusive workplace for LGBT employees.  Launched in 2009, the Asia Pacific LGBT Networks created an Ally program to ensure that LGBT employees feel supported.

In China, however, the policies of many multinational corporations have not yet been implemented at their national branches and a majority of domestic corporations do not have any awareness of the need and importance to build diverse environments at the workplace.

After study more than 1,000 CSR reports of multinationals and domestic companies, staff of Aibai found only 95 of them mention anti-discrimination  policy. And very few states non-discrimination policy regards people’s sex orientation, including Sinopec, Sino-Ocean Land, Sinosteel.

According to a report on the employment environment for Chinese LGBT employees released in May by Aibai, 47.62% of Chinese gays and lesbians keep their sexuality a total secret at the workplace while only 6.29% are out. The rest revealed their sexual orientation only to some of the colleagues.

Of the 2161 respondents, 53.63% have heard offensive words towards LGBT people, 32.35% of them have witnessed or experienced personal attacks on people’s sex orientation at their workplace. As a result, 21.01% have resigned or have considered quitting because of the hostile work environment.

The annual forum was first held in 2011. This year, a salon on the same topic was held in Shanghai on Monday and was attended by representatives from about 10 corporations.