Pride Month is a time to celebrate LGBTQ+ pioneers, friends, family and team members while also acknowledging the progress made and work left to ensure everyone feels appreciated and seen.
Pride Month history
Along with celebration, this month commemorates a significant tipping point in LGBTQ+ history: the Stonewall Uprising. Lasting six days in Greenwich Village, New York, in June 1969, police clashed with protesters, launching the LGBTQ+ rights movement in America. The Stonewall Uprising is historically significant, but it also serves as an important tribute to the tireless work of LGBTQ+ rights pioneers. It’s a reminder that there is still work to be done.
Pride Month provides an opportunity to listen, learn and share while identifying ways to create safe spaces for the LGBTQ+ community to live authentically. Pride Month is also an important avenue to provide resources for cultivating strong ally partnerships.
The importance of inclusion
Celebrating Pride Month is one example of how inclusion sets businesses up for long-term success. According to a five-year study from McKinsey & Company, organizations that made the least progress toward diversity and inclusion were 27 percent more likely to underperform on profitability than all other companies. Alternatively, businesses that focused on diversity and inclusion were 35 percent more likely to achieve above-average returns. Overall performance for these inclusion-focused businesses increased by 31 percent.
More diversity invites more perspective, which enables sustained growth.
Belonging at Paycom
At Paycom, our people are our priority, and we’ve worked to build a culture that weaves this approach into every facet of our organization.
Paycom’s goals for inclusion and diversity are to ensure that we:
- make employees feel heard, valued and appreciated for who they are
- foster a work environment where employees feel safe to share their story
- encourage diversity of thought through open dialogue and engagement
- build and retain a more diverse workforce at all employee levels through recruitment and continuous development
- identify opportunities to strengthen the communities where we live and work
To create an opportunity for our employees to build relationships and contribute to an equitable environment, Paycom launched its Better Conversations series in 2020. Better Conversations continues to this day and allows for open dialogue among colleagues about important topics. To start the conversation, guest speakers have shared their perspectives during Pride Month, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Disability Awareness Month and others. The conversation series was the recipient of the Learning in Practice Innovation Award. Presented by Chief Learning Officer magazine, the Learning in Practice Awards honor organizations that demonstrate excellence in the design and delivery of employee development programs.
Inclusion is a year-round priority. Celebrating Pride Month is one of the many ways Paycom creates an environment that fosters belonging for all team members.
Earlier this year, Paycom contributed $50,000 to Lambda Legal to fund its challenge to an executive order prohibiting transgender Oklahomans to fix their birth certificates. In addition, Paycom donated $50,000 to The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ youth — and recently became one of its Official Corporate Partners — to support greater understanding of human rights and provide messages of equality for the LGBTQ+ community. Paycom has also given to Sisu Youth Services and Free Mom Hugs.
As we celebrate Pride Month, we recognize the many accomplishments of the gay rights movement and influential LGBTQ+ advocates. We celebrate diversity and value the contributions that our LGBTQ+ team members bring to Paycom.
Learn more about Paycom’s diversity initiatives on our Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging webpage.
