Tag Archives: gender transition

My Three Hot Human Resources Areas for 2017!

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With the tremendous focus on transgender employees in the workplace, I have added transgender woman and outstanding consultant and trainer Elaine Martin to my team.

With the tremendous focus on transgender employees in the workplace, I have added transgender woman and outstanding consultant and trainer Elaine Martin to my team.

Of course I do need to write a self-serving blog now and then, touting how my areas of expertise are going to be super hot in 2017. Actually, I do believe in what I am writing. Here are some of the areas where I do have a deep expertise which I believe are going to be major areas within HR in 2017, and I hope my clients old and new will not hesitate to contact me to discuss how I can assist them in these areas.

AREA 1: Transgender employees in the workplace. With many more well known transgender people visible in the world (Laverne Cox, Chas Bono, Caitlyn Jenner, Janet Mock…), with government contract regulations needing to include transgender protections, and with more companies covering gender transition medical costs, more people are now fine about transitioning in the workplace. Does your company have the right policies in place to support transgender employees? And do you have a plan to educate coworkers and company leaders when one of your employees goes through transition? Do take my 12-question Transgender Diversity Organizational Self-assessment.

Blog author Stan Kimer on the phone presenting a power point presentation on his innovative career mapping offering over the phone to a prospective client.

Blog author Stan Kimer on the phone presenting a power point presentation on his innovative career mapping offering over the phone to a prospective client.

AREA 2: Talent / Career Development. I keep hearing in workshop after workshop that one of the top challenges for HR is recruiting and retaining top talent. Replacing and onboarding a departing employee is very expensive, with costs between 75% and 150% of annual salary. One major reason people leave is because they feel their company is not doing enough to help them develop their skills and talent. I offer an innovative yet proven career mapping methodology that has received rave reviews from my clients that use it. It can easily be clipped on to whatever learning activities you currently have and costs only a few dollars per employee. Link to read an outside article about my process from Ziprecruiter and Take my 11-question Skills and Career Development Organizational Self-assessment.

AREA 3: General Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Execution. Even though my deep expertise is in LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) diversity (see AREA 1 above,) I am conversant in all areas of diversity and keep on top of the ever changing diversity landscape. Key diversity topics now include Global Multicultural Competence, Generational Diversity, Diversity of Thought and more. And to begin 2017, I have a new alliance partner, Kannetic, with an application platform developed with an expert panel of nearly 100 diversity experts (including myself), which provides insight into the impactfulness and effort required to implement various concrete diversity and inclusion actions. No charge one hour demonstration and mini planning sessions will be available to my clients over the next month – contact me to schedule yours! First listing under business affiliations / partnerships.

Knowledgeable consultants with deep expertise in an area and /or with innovative processes and tools can truly help catapult you to HR success in 2017. As a consultant, my goal is to make you as an HR leader shine! So please contact me soon for a no-charge initial consultation to discuss your needs and my offerings in any of these areas: [email protected] or call 919-787-7315.

Why do we all need someone to hate on? … and now in North Carolina, it’s transgender people

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So is it appropriate for this beautiful woman to use the men's room? Our North Carolina legislature and governor sure think so.

So is it appropriate for this beautiful woman to use the men’s room? Our North Carolina legislature and governor sure think so.

There has been so much written the past few days about the horrific anti-LGBT bill that just passed in North Carolina, I decided to write a blog about the larger systemic societal and political issue that has led to this.

As a diversity consultant, as a Christian, and as an overall positive upbeat person, I cannot understand why a huge segment of the American population needs “someone” or “some group” to “hate on.” It is a very sad fact that many people run for public office on platforms of what group we are going to punish or kick out. In the distant past, African-Americans were often demonized, as well as business-oriented women who wanted equality in the workplace. Then after that it was gays and lesbians, and in a way, they are still a target in many locations. But lately it seems the heat of hatred has been really turn up on undocumented immigrants (often referred to as illegal aliens – I thought all people were created and loved by God so how can they be “illegal?”), Muslims, and especially on transgender people.

Transgender people are indeed a very small segment of our population, but have been increasing in visibility as high profile celebrities such as Chas (formerly Charity) Bono and Caitlyn (formerly Bruce) Jenner have come out and undergone gender transition. Now over half of US Fortune 500 companies include nondiscrimination protection for transgender individuals, and many now include gender transition medical benefits. (link to my blog about the increasing visibility of transgender people.)

But now in many states, legislators are proposing new laws that would be very harmful to transgender people, including not allowing them to use the public restroom of their presenting gender, or not being able to change official records such as drivers licenses if their current gender does not match their gender assigned at birth. Some politicians are causing a frenzy of hate against transgender people by shamelessly scaring people with totally fabricated and non-factual statements such as transgender people going into restroom to molest children.

Quote courtesy of Blackwell Pierce

Quote courtesy of Blackwell Pierce

Now in my state of North Carolina, our State Republican leaders called a hastily convened expensive special session of our state assembly and in one day with minimal reviews and discussion passed a state law forbidding municipalities of including protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in their own non-discrimination ordinances. In addition, this new state law dictates that transgender people must use the restroom of the gender on their birth certificate.

Recently, my letter to the editor (link) of our local newspaper (the Raleigh News and Observer) was published where I shared the true factual information. Namely:

1. Transgender women are truly women and transgender men are truly men, and the medical profession will support that.

2. Transgender women and men go into the restroom of their presenting gender to “relieve themselves”, period. Watch this fun video of a transgender woman singing about needing to pee.

3. There are never been a single recorded incident of a transgender person attempting to molest someone in a restroom. Never. Not one.

So what are these politicians afraid of? Sadly, they must feel the only way to get elected is to appeal to humanity’s base side and give them someone to hate. How sad!

ACTION: All people who want to stand up against hate need to reject all politicians who operate out of that mindset and elect officials who want to treat all people fairly and humanely.

FINAL NOTE: Blog author Stan C. Kimer provides corporate and organizational training on a wide range of diversity topics including transgender diversity. Check out “my speaking page” where you can see my upcoming schedule and request a copy of my speaking package.