Hear from our Diversity Champion Macquarie about how they embedded bi inclusion into their workplace.
Here at Macquarie, everyone is included and celebrated in the LGBTQ+ community, including our bi colleagues. And taking the time to understand the unique challenges that bi individuals face is critical to maintaining an inclusive culture in any workplace.
When starting a bi inclusion journey, we found it important to acknowledge the differences in lived experiences that bi individuals may have when compared to others in the LGBTQ+ community.
Once we had worked with our wider LGBTQ+ community and allies to understand these differences, we worked to share this knowledge and educate others. We did this by spotlighting authentic voices like bi colleagues and external role models. This helped colleagues start to relate to the lived experiences, both positive and negative, of being part of the LGBTQ+ community and specifically being bi. We felt it was important when spotlighting role models to not to make them the ‘token’ person.
Secondly, we liaised with other LGBTQ+ networks and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) teams from industry peers to learn from them. They truly were our allies in creating an inclusive workplace.
We felt that a great way to reinforce these learnings was by creating a Bi Guide or Bi Resource, which could be shared on an Intranet or through Employee Network Groups (ENGs). This resource could then guide colleagues when searching for best practice for allyship, with details of lived experiences and where they can go for further information.
When creating our Bi Guide at Macquarie, we wanted to ensure it was a true reflection of bi experiences, so we asked a team of bi employees to formulate a working group and start to curate this guide. The guide included:
- A definition of “what is Bisexuality?” sourced from Stonewall
- Snippets of lived experiences from bi colleagues and external role models
- Guidelines for bi allyship; including how these differ from other LGBTQ+ groups
- A glossary of terms for the bi Community, and the LGBTQ+ community more generally
- Links to websites and external organisations/charities to get more information
- Internal points of contact for queries/questions/issues relating to being bi in your workplace (Employee Network Group, Bi Representative, DEI team, HR).
We felt it was key to ensure we featured bi perspectives throughout the year, and to showcase bi joy as well as bi problems, to ensure a holistic understanding of the bi community.
Finally, we ensured this guide was shared appropriately so all colleagues could access it at any time for advice.