đź‘€

Let's focus on Inclusive Communication

folk, as a company, provides a foundation for each team member to build a team experience. It's up to each and every one of us to make that experience our own and bring it to life on a daily basis.

As we began to discuss Diversity and Inclusion as a team, the most important aspect mentioned was that of raising everyone's awareness. The intent is for each and every one of us to be fully aware of our impact when we bring folk's team experience to life through our actions.

Whether we like it or not, our communication, and the words we use, have an impact on others. So ultimately they have an impact on the overall team experience we’re building all together at folk.

Why is it important to care about inclusive communication?

We tend to forget that whether we intend to or not, language is a powerful tool to build inclusion (or on the contrary, exclusion).

Caring about inclusive wording and pronouns might seem small but think of it this way: just like our names, pronouns are part of our identity and they carry meaning.

A simple greeting like “Hey guys!” or "Welcome ladies and gentlemen!” shows how frequently we refer to gender on a daily basis.

An ordinary task like filling out an HR form for onboarding purposes presenting only male and female options can be a challenging experience for non-binary individuals. Which option should they pick?

For non-binary individuals, and people who don't fall neatly into the male or female categories, these experiences can be excluding.

Let's take a look at some concrete examples and related numbers:

  • using non-inclusive wording in job interviews or job descriptions can result in applicants feeling excluded and finding the organization less attractive.
    • “56% of Millennials have “ruled out ever working for a particular organization because of its values or standard of conduct.”
    • 72% of allies say that they are more likely to accept a job at an LGBTQ-inclusive company than a non-inclusive company.” [Source]
  • a company's culture will always have an impact on the overall brand:
    • “the Center for Talent Innovation finds that 71% of LGBT individuals and 82% of allies are more likely to purchase from companies that support LGBTQ equality” [Source]

How to use more inclusive communication?

  • Raise your own awareness, and keep on learning and challenging yourself
  • Avoid making assumptions

There are many ways to use more inclusive communication, for instance, you can:

  • use greetings that include gender-neutral language such as “folks”, “you all”, or “everyone” to ensure that you include all team members.
  • remove gendered language from written communication and documentation by replacing “he/she” with “they”
  • use gender-neutral terms like “partner” or “spouse” when referring to someone's relationships.
  • include options beyond male and female on user and employee surveys, HR forms etc.
  • offer opportunities for newcomers to voluntarily list pronouns on onboarding doc or name tags
  • address a person by their name until you know what their pronouns are. You can also ask a person about their pronouns, though you need to be mindful that not everyone might feel at ease sharing their pronouns. The ideal scenario would be to share your pronoun first if you feel at ease with it, and leave an opportunity for the other person to share theirs.

A quote as final word 👇

“In 2019, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary amended their definition so that “they” can be used for a “single person whose gender identity is nonbinary” [Source].

✍️
Don't hesitate to share any other questions you may have in mind either by commenting here or by sending me a DM. It will be extremely useful so we can continue raising everyone's awareness.

If you want to go further: https://www.apa.org/about/apa/equity-diversity-inclusion/language-guidelines.pdf

Resources