The case involved Ms Taylor, an employee at Jaguar Land Rover who worked as an engineer for almost 20 years. She previously presented as male but in 2017 began identifying as gender fluid/non-binary and from this time Ms Taylor usually dressed in women’s clothing. As a result, she claimed that she was subjected to insults and abusive jokes, such as a female colleague telling her that she ‘wasn’t normal’ and being told that she should use the disabled toilets. She also claimed that she received no support from the management team.

Ms Taylor was eventually awarded £180,000 by the Employment Tribunal as compensation and successfully argued that she had suffered harassment, direct discrimination and victimisation because of gender reassignment and sexual orientation. 

But what can employers learn from this case to make their businesses more inclusive?  

1. Increase your awareness.  You need to be aware of a range of gender identities. Making sure you are aware of the gender identities that you have in your business today or may have in the future will make you a better employer, help to open up the conversation around gender identity and leave you better equipped to deal with any challenges that may arise in the future (ignorance is not bliss when it comes to this topic)
2. Get to grips with terminology.  The thought of trying to understand the terminology may be daunting but it is important that you are aware of them. Stonewall has helpfully produced a glossary of terms which is a great starting point to help you become more informed.
3. Make sure that you are using the right pronouns.  If you don’t already, ensure that any documentation uses pronouns that are inclusive of all genders. You should refer to non-gendered “employees”, “staff” or some other gender-neutral term, such as ‘they’ or ‘their’.
4. Consider gender-neutral facilities.  Gender neutral facilities will not be possible for all businesses, but we’d recommend that at the very least you consider whether there is at least one toilet and changing facility which can be designated as gender neutral.  
5. Start the conversation.  It’s inevitable that this topic and the conversation of gender-neutral facilities will provoke some debate, in fact it’s likely that you’ve already had your own internal conversation whilst reading this blog.  Gender identity is a sensitive issue, and your teams will likely have a wide range of opinions on the topic. It goes without saying that all conversations should be handled sensitively and in an open and honest way. Remember that it’s OK not to have all the answers but that asking the rights questions and listening carefully to the answers will help to break down any barriers that exist in your business.
6. Consider training.  Training for staff and managers will increase awareness and make for a more inclusive working environment, equipping managers with the tools they need to support any of their team who are transitioning.  Unconscious Bias training is a great starting point to help employees identify the biases that exist, followed by more targeted training looking at behaviours that could be considered as transphobic and the terminology that should be used so as not to cause offence.
7. Implement Gender identity policies.  There is no legal requirement to have gender identity policies in place but, having a policy in place will help to make current and prospective staff feel part of a more inclusive workplace. However, as with all policies, don’t be tempted to download a template from the internet, issue it to your employees and not commit to what is written in the policy. Culturally this will do more harm than good.