Interview
Ian Johnson is the founder of Amsterdam and Sydney-based LGBT business development consultancy Out Now. He explains the strategic importance of an inclusive workplace environment for LGBT staff uncovered by Out Now’s global LGBT2030 research, and gives some tips on creating that safe space.
In our business there are always two discussions around the motivation for creating a workplace that is inclusive of LGBT members of staff. One relates to matters of the heart, but there are also matters of the head.
As part of our LGBT2030 research, we released a study in 2015 called LGBT Diversity: Show Me the Business Case. We found that in the countries we surveyed, when an LGBT person was out to nobody at work, they were not as likely as somebody who was out to everybody to strongly agree with the proposition that they were valued as a productive and respected member of the team. When somebody was out to everybody, they became 30% or more likely to report that they considered that their team members viewed them as a productive and respected member of the team.
