Recent studies and lack of legal protections highlight the need for Hong Kong’s HR professionals to step up as an ally year-round, not just for Pride month.
It is that time of year once again. Thousands of organisations across the globe show their support for the LGBTQIA+ community by changing their logos to represent the rainbow flag, releasing limited-edition merchandise, or aligning themselves with LGBTQIA+ celebrities and influencers. But come the month’s end, many organisations will revert back to their off-pride-season branding guidelines, stow away their merchandise and adopt heteronormative influencers—at least for another year.
Organisations—at least on the surface, understand that a diverse, equal, inclusive and accepting working environment is an immensely appealing factor for many job seekers and showcasing a commitment to DEI can help them to achieve their business objectives on several levels. Employees too understand the importance of DEI and have shown that they are willing to leave their workplace due to close-minded environments and in some cases, because of the toxicity and discriminatory business practices.
Organisational culture is the crucial element of any organisation, one that has become a core focus for many businesses over the past few years. As one HR leader expertly put it, “The culture of an organisation is defined by the stories that you tell, the behaviours that you have, the actions you do every day.” HR departments should be employees’ strongest advocates and one of HR’s fundamental principles is to continually strive to improve the well-being of all employees. One such way that HR is responsible for its business' culture is to shape employees’ working environment through clearly defined DEI policies.
Lack of protections
Having a DEI policy is all well and good however, there is a far greater underlying problem that needs to be addressed. As like many other Asian territories, Hong Kong does not have specific legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexuality, gender identity or intersex status. The impact that this lack of protection has can be seen in how comfortable Hong Kong LGBTQIA+ talent is about being open about their sexuality at work.
In a study conducted by The Open University of Hong Kong, it was found that 72% of LGBTQIA+ workers are not open about their sexual orientation with their HR department, 66% with their boss and 61% with their colleagues. Additionally, almost half of respondents said that they had not experienced any positive treatment at work with 60% of them reporting that they had been the subject of verbal assault in the workplace due to their sexual orientation. What is even more unsettling is that some also reported having their work tasks made deliberately more difficult, given less favourable training and even being fired because of their sexuality.
These negative workplace experiences can be echoed in the public opinion on several contentious LGBTQIA+ workforce issues. The OU study also discovered that some members of the Hong Kong workforce believe it is acceptable to exclude an employee from a work-related function, not to give someone a promotion, or even refuse to offer them a job all because of their sexual orientation. Combined with the fact that 60% of the public still feel that LGBTQIA+ people should not enter certain professions such as teaching or customer service, it is evident that there is still a long way to go in changing entrenched cultural and societal opinions.
Businesses as an ally
Despite those facts, publicly there has been an increase in LGBTQIA+ acceptance with 69% of the Hong Kong public in favour of legislation that protects LGBTQIA+ people from discrimination. The OU study also highlighted that 80% of the workforce thinks that companies need to be taking proactive measures to ensure that LGBTQIA+ employees are being treated fairly.
Unfortunately, many HR professionals in local (Hong Kong founded) companies felt that DEI was not a priority for their organisation and did not have any plans to put LGBTQIA+ safeguards in place. However, HR professionals from international companies mentioned that anti-discrimination legislation was crucial to Hong Kong’s future societal development and to their organisation’s ability to remain competitive in attracting the best talent but did not comment whether or not they had any such policy in place.
Although Pride month is a fantastic opportunity for companies to showcase their allyship, it would be more effective if businesses were to do so year-round. One of the easiest ways to do this is through adding sexual orientations, gender identity and intersex status to the company's anti-discrimination policy. Prohibiting workplace-based discrimination based on sexuality alongside race, family status, disability and gender would signal to potential LGBTQIA+ talent that the organisation is an attractive and safe place to work.
Another and perhaps the most obvious way for businesses to be an ally would be to address LGBTQIA+ employees’ concerns about what is happening in the workplace. Through anonymous surveys, HR leaders can discover what inequities, injustices and instances of discrimination are occurring in their workplace. Once uncovered, HR could step in and better educate offenders, warn them of the consequences of their words or actions and prevent it from happening again.
Government stalemate
The lack of support from local organisations and the Hong Kong Government does little to assure the local LGBTQIA+ community that they will be safe the next time they clock in at the office. Of the 40 companies that were included on the city’s last bi-annual LGBT Inclusion Index, only one was founded in Hong Kong. There was no representation on the list from other local companies or government institutions.
There are several challenges that Hong Kong has faced in recent years and enacting anti-discrimination legislation based on sexual orientation is one of them. Despite hints of progress, the pro-LGBTQIA+ shift in attitudes amongst the wider public has failed to translate into the government’s decisiveness to extend the current anti-discrimination ordinances to include sexuality.
The Equal Opportunities Commission, the government’s administrator of the territory’s four anti-discrimination ordinances said, “The EOC recognises that Hong Kong’s anti-discrimination ordinances, as they currently stand, do not provide adequate redress for victims of discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status. The EOC firmly believes that our society should embrace the value of equality for all, including the LGBTQIA+ community, whose members still experience discrimination and prejudice in their daily lives. The Commission is in the process of conducting a legal study and drafting a practical proposal focused on protections applicable to employment, education, service provision and other key areas of public life.”
Seemingly, such a study is to be a lengthy process which means that those with a different sexual orientation will not be offered any protection anytime soon. Yet, there is absolutely no need for this study to be a drawn-out process as quite simply, sexual orientation needs to be protected in the same ways that sex (gender), disability, race and family status are already protected by the law.
LGBTQIA+ protection should be a major cause for concern for businesses and the government alike, especially during these times of economic volatility and the fact that the war for talent has never been more challenging. In order for institutions to attract younger generations of talent and the lucrative LGBTQIA+ professionals that are on the market, it is up to HR professionals to ensure that their organisation is committed to implementing a comprehensive DEI policy, is an ally and explicitly prohibits any sort of sexual orientation discrimintation. If Hong Kong wishes to remain the region’s leading place to do business, it is imperative that hasty progress is made towards implementing more protections for the diverse workforce of the city.
HR professionals can help LGBTQIA+ talent feel secure at work by creating a strategic framework of why DEI is important to their organisation, fostering a culture of acceptance, fairness and equality, devising a DEI mission statement, communicating and educating staff through L&D programmes and by having transparent and anti-discriminatory talent management practices.
Regardless of your own personal beliefs about sexual orientation, creating a safe place for all employees should be the top priority of any business leader's agenda. Start small and set easily achievable goals that will enable LGBTQIA+ talent to breathe a sigh of relief when they clock-in in the morning.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
