EMBiz: Inclusive Language in the Workplace

Hi, Cody Owens here. I'm the content director, Elevate My Brand, and this is EMBiz. In this video, I want to talk about something that's really important to us here at EMB, and that is inclusivity, specifically inclusive language in the workplace. 

As a marketing agency, it's really important to us. It's near and dear to our hearts to focus on diversity both within our team and also within our clients. And rather than focusing on specific industry verticals, we focus on working with clients that we know we can do good work for, and that is doing good in the world. It's important to us to talk about inclusive language, and we have a couple of tips about how to go about implementing this in your team. 

Avoid Gendered Pronouns When Unknown

First, avoid gendered pronouns when you don't know someone's gender. We hear about this from people who also want to focus on like inclusivity in their business, and they always ask like, “how do we go about this?” and “How do we find out in a way that is not intrusive?” There are a couple of ways you can go about it. One is to include that in your team onboarding. So let them tell you in the onboarding what their pronouns are. Just make sure that it's not mandatory because sometimes people don't want to tell you, and that's okay too. Or you can also just like make sure that your team, if they feel comfortable they put their pronouns and their email signature and Slack whatever your communication channels are. Seeing other people share their pronouns freely makes it safer and more comfortable for new team members to do the same. So avoid using those gendered qualifiers when you're talking about people and team members. And also do the same for your clients and partners and vendors. Also make sure that you address people with their like roles or titles whenever you can, rather than as a Southerner. I know we like to say ma'am and sir, and you know all that. But if you can avoid that and use roles or titles when you address people. Also in like group settings, use group terms that are non-gendered. So everyone, all you, all y'. All. Again, I am from South Carolina. 

Also, when you're talking about specific positions, there are a lot of words like chairman and chairwoman. Ask yourself if you can use a non-gendered term that communicates the exact same thing, like chair or even chairperson. So use those whenever appropriate. Obviously, make sure that you're using the terms that people want. So someone may want to be called chairwoman, and that's okay, too. So it's not about removing them entirely. It's about making sure that you're using them in a way that people have specified that that's how they want to use those terms. 

Be Consistent When Using Modifiers

Also include a modifier whenever it is a specific, like a gendered group. So like in sports, for instance, rather than just saying, oh, we have this team and then we have the women's team, if it is a gendered separation on a group, then try to say men's soccer and women's soccer so it doesn't make it sound like the men's team is the standard team and then the non men's team is anything that's deviant. So those are just some ideas around how to be more inclusive in your language, like in the workplace. 

Be Open About Your Intentions

It can be hard to make these changes and to make this a priority within your business. So one just get comfortable with getting it wrong sometimes and be okay with like the challenge of it. Actually, I would encourage companies to take it as a challenge. I know a lot of times when we get things wrong, we like to say, oh, guess what I learned. But because moving to a more inclusive workspace can be stressful for a lot of people, because people don't want to get it wrong, it can be hard. But if you accept it as a challenge and say, oh, guess what I learned today? Or here's how I learned to be more inclusive today, or I made a mistake that led to me being a better person, then accept it and have that sort of mindset about it. 

Also know that this doesn't just help queer people or trans people, but this really helps a lot of people. There's actually a Gen Z trend of changing your name if you don't like it. A lot of times, Gen Z feel like their name has a meaning that they don't resonate with, and so they change it later in life. 

Also, of course, like, making it easy to use different pronouns or changing names and things like that is super important for people who like to get married. So being able to have this ability to shift with people the way that they like to be identified and spoken to is helpful as a ripple effect, right? 

And then, finally, just remember it actually costs nothing to shift to more inclusive language in the workplace. It just makes you a better place to work, improves company morale and potentially opens the door to a bigger and better workforce. So do these tips and try to be a more inclusive workplace by shifting your language toward more inclusiveness.