June marks Pride Month where millions of people come together across the world to celebrate the LGBT community – to applaud the progress that has been made and to bring awareness to the struggles that still exist to reach equality for this community.
Unfortunately with the recent tragic events in Orlando this Pride Month has been filled with much sadness, and also a reminder of the role that each of us plays, regardless of our sexual orientation, gender, or ethnicity in supporting a world where everyone is respected and valued for who they are, and where love will always conquer hate.
Today we discuss how we as a company, and as individuals, take Pride in standing with the LGBT community to foster a truly inclusive culture, community and industry both within and outside Symantec.
Symantec has been recognized by the industry and LGBT advocates for our leading commitments to inclusivity and diversity. This year, for the 8th year in a row, we received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index highlighting Symantec as a Best Place to Work for LGBT professionals. In April, we received an award from Basic Rights Oregon, the largest LGBT advocacy organization in the state, as a leader in transgender workplace equality.
Looking more closely at the "why" behind these recognitions I want to elaborate on how Symantec is standing out and joining leaders in terms of our policies, processes, culture, and global efforts to promote LGBT equality.
Symantec employees recently created this PRIDE sticker to raise awareness of LGBT rights and to demonstrate Symantec's unwavering commitment to equality for all of its employees, in all regions across the world.
Learning from experts and leaders in all industries
We recognize we don't always have the answers and to be as proactive as possible, to set our bar high, we must collaborate with leading advocates and peers.
For example, through our partnership with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) we were one of the first companies to sign a letter by HRC and Equality North Carolina denouncing North Carolina's controversial HB 2 law. Additionally, last month we hosted HRC President Chad Griffin at our Mountain View headquarters to discuss recent US anti-LGBT legislation with peers such as LinkedIn, Oracle, VMWare and Hewlett Packard Enterprises. We've also worked with academia worldwide, experts such as the Transgender Law Center, and companies outside our industry to develop corporate policies supporting transgender employees.
Creating awareness where it's needed most
Our workforce is located in over 35 countries worldwide and while we have been successful creating an inclusive culture at Symantec, in many regions the external culture is very different. For example, in India legislation does not protect the rights of the LGBT community who often face significant discrimination and harassment. We are therefore building on our existing relationship with the Global Fund for Women, the world's leading foundation for gender equality, through a multi-year initiative to advocate for LGBT rights in India.
The program will leverage two local NGO partners who will work with LGBT groups in low-income areas to teach them how to advocate and amplify their voices through digital storytelling and education. The first, Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action (CREA), is a women's rights organization in the region that brings awareness to issues such as sexuality, gender, human rights, feminist leadership, sexual and reproductive health and more. The second, Point of View, promotes women’s rights and advances social change through media, art, and culture marginalized women, including LGBTIQ individuals, sex workers, HIV positive women, and women living with disabilities.
Symantec has partnered with the Global Fund for Women (GFW) to increase awareness of LGBT rights in low-income communities in India. Here GFW partner Point of View helps the LGBT community strengthen advocacy efforts through digital storytelling workshops beginning with conceptualization through to editing and post-production.
Embedding inclusivity into our business
Saying we stand for equality is one thing, but what separates leaders is the ability to translate this into corporate policies that provide equal opportunities regardless of sexual orientation, gender or race. For example, the HRC CEI, a leading benchmark for LGBT workplace policies and practices of companies that are "committed to staying ahead of the curve on LGBT diversity initiatives" has continually updated their criteria, which currently assesses how LGBT equality is integrated into supplier standards, philanthropic policies, and marketing partnerships among other core corporate policies such as employee Codes of Conduct and benefits.
Symantec has been recognized for our leadership in this area, most recently for expanding our healthcare coverage in the United States to ensure transgender employees have equal benefits, and offering gender-neutral restrooms in several sites across the country. Additionally, we have recently taken a further next step: the launch of our Transitioning in the Workplace guidelines, which provide a clear, documented process for how to undergo a gender transition on the job. We worked with experts and looked to companies outside our sector to identify the most inclusive policies and align to what we do and believe as a company.
Empowering and engaging employees
Our employees are our strongest asset in building a truly inclusive culture. They tell us how best to make them feel safe, supported, engaged, empowered. They exemplify our values everyday, they are ambassadors both within our company and in our community, and together we make up our unique corporate culture.
Our Pride employee resource group (ERG) is extremely active within Symantec, serving as champions for LGBT rights in our communities, pioneering LGBT friendly policy at Symantec and identifying opportunities to expand our knowledge and discussion of leading edge practices. Additionally, we have launched #iamtech a publication for those inside and outside of Symantec from diverse backgrounds to share their stories, successes and struggles.
We have made significant progress, but we are not going to stop here. We want our employees all across the world to feel their individual differences are valued both inside and outside our company walls. We will continue to set our bar high and encourage others to do the same, we will stay ahead of the curve and demonstrate to others what leadership in LGBT equality looks like.
How can you become an internal or external advocate for LGBT equality?
•Join the global effort to support the Orlando victims and their families through Equality Florida (EQFL) and the GLBT Community Center of Central Florida GoFundMe campaigns
•Learn more about the trans community and what you can do to be an ally
•Support HRC and other organizations doing the policy advocacy work to overturn discriminatory legislation by states
•Share your experience or perspectives on Symantec's Medium publication #iamtech
Fran Rosch, Global Executive Sponsor of Symantec's Pride ERG