In the midst of the constantly rising issues founders are faced with, there is a greater need to be intentional with our employees and ensure everyone on our team belongs and is treated fairly.

With these desires comes a need for answers to some DEIB-related questions with no DEIB professional to respond to.

Questions such as; 

• How can I introduce conversations about race at work as a white person?

• I misgendered someone in an interview. How can I make it right? (Scroll down for our answer from our DEIB Lead!)

• Someone was mean to me during an interview. Is that enough reason to not advance them?

• My team is talking about Will Smith’s slap. Should I step in? Will the commentary offend anyone?

• Won’t I lose out on applicants by putting the salary range in the job description?

• Someone just shared their story of getting an abortion on Slack. How can I help support them? What if comments get out of hand? Is it okay for folks to express their own anti-abortion views there too?

These are some questions founders struggle with when a DEIB Professional is not part of your early hire, but we've got you covered!

Below are the steps to take when you make the mistake of misgendering as highlighted in question two;

1. Say sorry and try not to explain yourself or justify why you have done what you have done. Do not say “I’m sorry, but…” as this is not a time to process your feelings with your candidate.

2. Say the correct gender pronoun and do not say the wrong gender pronoun just after you were corrected.

3. The third step is for you to keep using the correct gender pronoun. if you say the wrong pronoun later in the same interaction, quickly say the correct one. It may also go a long way to email this person a short note thanking them for their patience with your fumble

4. Tell your team so the person doesn't have to keep laboring over being misgendered. One thing you do not want to do when faced with this is keeping this to yourself. It will be a big loss if your team doesn't learn from this, thereby risking causing more harm.

For more strategies on how to resolve issues of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in your workplace and looking to build a process that creates inclusive process for your team, connect with us let’s not just walk you through it, but also build it with you together!