What is allyship in the workplace?
“Ally” is a broad term, but is most commonly someone outside of a marginalized group who offers support to a person within that marginalized group.
Employees in the LGBTQIA+ community, people of color and women are those most often in need of strong allies in the workplace to help them feel seen, supported and safe.
But what is allyship in the workplace in more actionable terms? It can look like a lot of different things, from something as small as calling out when someone is spoken over in a meeting to forming specific ally groups to offering benefits that are inclusive to marginalized communities.
By emphasizing allyship in your workplace in an authentic, all-encompassing way, you will create a company that employees feel more connected to, and you’ll make your employees more likely to want to contribute to the business over the long-term.
Listen and learn
If you really want to know how to be an ally, you need to be open to hearing from those you want to support.
Creating an open environment where employees feel safe sharing their experiences with you is important. Equally important is seeking to educate yourself without putting the onus on your employees to teach you everything you need to know.
Offer open channels of communication for employees to share how your workplace can better support them, and actively search for opportunities where you can learn about making your employees feel seen and heard at your company.
By keeping an open mind and staying receptive to feedback, you’ll help build a more inclusive culture from the top down in your organization.
Remember, identities are multifaceted
While it is important for employees in marginalized groups to feel supported, you don’t want them to feel tokenized or separate.
Consider allyship as a way to forge multiple connections rather than highlight differences. No one is just their race or their sexual orientation or their gender.
When employees see where their experiences may overlap with one another, they’re more likely to build meaningful relationships that help your organization thrive.
Create a more inclusive culture
Allyship isn’t a one-and-done thing you can check off your list and forget about. It needs to be embedded into your company’s culture.
To make allyship an everyday practice, lead by example and start small. Here are a few simple ways to get started.
- Get to know employees on an individual level: Be authentically curious about your employees—their interests, their families, their cultures. This will help you better understand what they need from you to feel welcome and happy at work.
- Stay attuned to your employees’ experiences: If you notice an employee dropping in productivity or behaving differently than normal, reach out from a non-judgmental place and try to understand where the change is coming from. Someone who is feeling marginalized or misunderstood at work will not be able to perform at their best, and opening that channel of communication will help you be a better ally.
- Celebrate diverse cultural moments:Take a look at your company’s calendar—are the holidays represented inclusive of a variety of cultures and religions? You might also consider offering floating holidays, which allow employees to take time off for the special days that mean the most to them, rather than dictating which holidays are most important to the organization.
- Amplify marginalized voices:Whether it’s sharing stories of inspiring people in marginalized communities, encouraging employees to speak up in meetings or validating employees who share experiences with you, showing that you value opinions from all people is essential to creating an inclusive culture.
- Affirm employees with your feedback:When providing both positive and negative feedback, make sure you’re acknowledging that employee’s expertise and knowledge. People in marginalized communities may often feel minimized at work, so by emphasizing that you respect and value their opinions, you will help foster an environment where they can do their best work.
By creating a culture where employees feel like they can bring their whole selves to work and be fully accepted, you will help them feel happier and more fulfilled on a day-to-day basis. This is good for them, for you and for yourbusiness productivity.
Form ally groups
An ally group is similar to an affinity group, or an employee resource group, which is a group of employees who have a unifying characteristic.
Employees can form affinity groups based on shared:
- identities
- interests
- hobbies
- charitable causes
- nationalities
- religions
- family structures
There are endless ways for employees to connect via these kinds of groups.
As a leader, you can encourage allyship in the workplace by encouraging a more specific kind of way to connect: ally groups. For example, you might encourage an ally group that is committed to helping the organization be more actively anti-racist or that provides a mentorship group for young women in the workplace. You might help foster a group that allows employees of different cultures to exchange ideas or share experiences about what they go through at work.
Ally groups are a great way to create genuine connections and help employees show one another how to be an ally in the workplace.
Educate about how to be an ally
It’s important to provide many opportunities for employees to learn and grow in their journey as allies. Make sure that diversity, equity and inclusion policies are clearly outlined for employees so they know what’s expected of them in the workplace.
Also, offer varied and frequent opportunities for professional development on the topic of how to be an ally, whether that’s bringing in guest speakers, providing educational resources for them to read or watch on their own time, or scheduling regular training from experts in the field.
Further, remember that less formal education methods can often have a meaningful impact. Consider using tactics like lunch-and-learns, or brown bag meetings, as opportunities to educate your employees about how to be an ally or to share experiences with one another.
Don’t forget that true allyship in the workplace needs everyone in the organization on board and must be an ongoing, long-term commitment. Continually educating yourself and your employees about how to be an ally is key to making progress.
Don’t let mistakes hold you back
Keep in mind, wanting to be a better ally is great, but that doesn’t mean you’ll always succeed or be perfect at it. Remember that you may sometimes say the wrong thing or make the wrong choice.
When a mistake or misstep happens, be open to feedback and do your best to minimize any harm from your actions. Most importantly, take the experience as a lesson for how to do better in the future.