Value the lived experience and knowledge that rainbow people can bring to an organisation.
How can you demonstrate that you value all your staff, including rainbow staff members? It’s important to respect people’s preferences about how they work and what they work on. Some rainbow staff may want to work on rainbow related projects and some may not.
When staff members are working on rainbow related projects as part of their roles, make sure you offer them paid time and resources to do so. Valuing rainbow knowledge and expertise means offering material support to staff who are offering to do that labour. It is more sustainable if this is recognised as part of their workload, not as something they do in addition to all their other work in their own time.
How can you ensure that rainbow staff feel supported? Would the organisation benefit from a rainbow peer group or network? How can you rainbow staff connect with each other, how can any staff member working on a rainbow project connect with other staff who might be interested in that work?
In terms of connecting with potential employees, how do you advertise new roles? Do you discuss working with diverse communities as part of the interview process? E.g “Have you ever worked with marginalised communities or groups, like refugee/migrants, people with disabilities, or rainbow communities?” As part of the recruitment and induction processes, consider including questions about rainbow competence or experience working with rainbow communities.
Take Action
Provide paid time and resources for staff to work on rainbow-related projects.
Enable rainbow staff to connect with each other - create a rainbow staff network or similar peer group.
Advertise your organisation's paid and volunteer roles in rainbow media.
Use rainbow-inclusive language in job advertisements and job descriptions.
Include questions about rainbow competence as part of the recruitment and interview process for new employees.