to the 2009 Texas Diversity and Leadership Conference GLBT Summit
Summit Highlights:
Links of Interest
GLBT Session Descriptions
Legislative Update: Building Equality and Fairness in the Texas Workplace
The competitive nature of organizations and their ability to attract, recruit and retain a talented and diverse talent pool is key in tough economic times. If you are a public or private organization is your workplace considered to be a truly equal opportunity employer? Are your internal diversity policies and benefits able to keep pace with your competition? What changes will some of the pending legislation at the Federal and State level have on your HR, Legal, and Benefit requirements? Topics ranging from partner benefits to full workplace inclusion will be discussed in this informative and interactive session. Key national & local LGBT policy advisors will walk you through pending legislation, detail with you on the value of implementing change today, and address your concerns and question allowing you to create diverse policies for your organization.
Gender Identity and Expression in the Workplace, Creating Policy and Making Practice
More companies and organizations than at any other time in history find themselves with an employee (or employees) who choose to undergo sex reassignment due to their status as transsexual people. And many more are finding themselves asked to accommodate instances of gender identity expression that approach, but don’t include, sex reassignment. Organizations usually find themselves in reactive, rather than proactive, mode upon finding out an employee is transgender and wishes to express as thus, or transsexual and undergoing or planning transition. This information rich session will provide you with actionable content using best practices guides and first hand experiences, designed to assist with education, transition planning, and communication of programs and policies to get you started with policy changes and program implementations.
Top Challenges Facing Today’s Employee Resource Groups (ERG)
The utilization of Employee Resource or Network Groups is a part of many organizations diversity and inclusion strategy. Just like any formalized group, ERG’s face a variety of challenges that can limit the effectiveness of their designed purpose. In this moderated sessions, participants will be led in an open discussion, soliciting conversation around existing challenges and leading practices/solutions, so root causes of problems can be identified and solved. Topics could include overcoming resistance to ERG’s, encouraging participation, cooperation between other ERG’s, sustaining the group over time, or any number of related challenges faced by organizations.
Creating a Strong Ally Culture
Most agree that allies play a vital role in the advancement of LGBT-supportive workplaces and communities. But after allies “come out," how do we encourage them to get off the bench and get involved? Join us for an interactive session about reaching out and engaging confident, courageous, and compassionate allies. Learn from successful allies as they share their experiences in taking engagement and support to the next level. We'll provide actionable steps for allies to become more informed about LGBT issues and involved in the community, and for our LGBT participants, an opportunity to learn about building productive relationships with our ally coworkers and friends.