Celebrating and Standing with the LGBTQ+ Community

This Pride Month is a call to action for business leaders: celebrate the LGBTQ+ community by ensuring equal rights for everyone.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, more anti-LGBTQ+ legislation was passed in 2021 than in any other year in recent history. Despite these setbacks, people around the world are speaking up, banding together to show their support for the LGBTQ+ community — and they’re calling on corporations to do the same.  

As a global company, Wipro has always celebrated diversity and prioritized treating everyone with respect. It’s part of our core values as stated in the Spirit of Wipro. We are committed to providing sustainable work environments that are free from discrimination and harassment, where people from all backgrounds are considered equal. Our CEO Thierry Delaporte’s message on Pride: work toward a world where equal rights is not up for debate.

But what does this work look like?

Wipro’s LGBTQ+ inclusion efforts are guided by the PRIDE framework, which emphasizes promoting an equitable workplace, reviewing policies to make them more inclusive, driving change through awareness sessions, and engaging with allies while building a strong employee network.  

We created the Wipro Pride affinity group for the LGBTQ+ and ally communities to offer employees a place to discuss workplace concerns and share relevant information with the rest of the organization about the importance of representation. 

These efforts are supported by the Wipro Inclusion and Diversity Council, through governance to ensure equitable practices such as hiring, medical and employee benefits, as well as training to address unconscious biases. Each council leader (including the Chief Human Resources Officer and Business and Geography Heads) is responsible for driving one key action item and engaging teams throughout the company to encourage collaboration and awareness. 

Last year, Wipro also signed as a supporter of the United Nations’ Standards of Conduct for Business Tackling Discrimination against LGBTI People, and introduced our global Prevention of LGBTQ+ Discrimination Policy. This new policy underscores Wipro’s belief that all people have an equal right to live free from discrimination and persecution. It encourages employees to play an active role in preventing LGBTQ+ discrimination and reminds us that we’re all responsible for creating a harassment-free work environment. All Wipro employees are covered by the policy, including part-time employees, contract workers, interns, and trainees.  

To bring this policy to life, we maintain open communication about D&I with Wipro employees at all levels. Wipro also works with leadership to improve communication, encouraging leaders to share their experiences with their teams and with each other, and to get comfortable asking for help. This is especially important because employees look to leaders as models of company behavior. If Wipro leaders enact Wipro values, then employees are more likely to follow suit, promoting an inclusive culture throughout the organization, even beyond. 

Metrics play an important role in progress. We want to be sure that Wipro is living up to its promises and that significant changes are made in a timely manner. So, each month, Wipro’s Organization Capability Team publishes scorecards on key metrics, such as gender pay parity, attrition, and hiring. The Inclusion and Diversity Council reviews these scorecards, makes the necessary changes to stay on track with our D&I goals, and discloses key metrics to the public in Wipro’s Annual Report and Sustainability Report. 

Annual employee surveys show us how employees perceive Wipro’s diversity and inclusion, offering another perspective on Wipro’s progress. We also use e-modules for training in topics like unconscious biases. These modules allow us to track employee understanding of these topics and encourage more productive engagement, especially among leadership.  

All this work is making a real difference. The Human Rights Campaign recognized Wipro as one of the best places to work for LGBTQ+ equality in their 2022 Corporate Equality Index. More than 1,000 Wipro employees self-identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community and have shared stories that show the true impact of our work so far. 

“Today I celebrated my first Pride. It was a parade in a Polish city I currently live in. Poland is one of two countries in European Union where people are still being discriminated in many aspects, especially when it comes to LGBTQIA community members. I am lucky to work in a very tolerant international company in Poland. Wipro is the best example of tolerance for me. I'm now inspired to fight for same equality for everyone in Poland.” 

“It was proud moment for me when i visited Wipro campus for vaccination last weekend. No more awkwardness. Thanks Wipro for recognizing me with my partner.”

“I am a transgender woman and I never expected I could work in a company with my actual identity as I do not have any government supported IDs yet. My HR team stood by me and helped me onboard as I wished recently. I am surprised and short of words to explain how the people in Wipro and the policies of Wipro support diversity in every aspect and respect every human. I am blessed to join such a great company with such great people. When I had no one to support me, Wipro took me in. Thank you all.” 

There is still a lot of work to be done, but we can find reassurance in the fact that commitment and action do work. Together, we’ve made Wipro a beacon of inclusivity. We can continue to have a positive impact on people’s lives. We just need to keep going, keep pushing forward. 

Actions which disproportionately affect members of the LGBTQ+ community are an urgent call to corporations to make good on their promises to support employees, customers, and communities by stepping up diversity and inclusion efforts throughout their organizations and beyond.  

Educate yourself and encourage others to do the same. Don’t leave it up to your LGBTQ+ employees to educate you and other co-workers. 

As we celebrate Pride this month, I urge you all to join me in also celebrating Respect. Consider yourself alongside your coworkers, family, neighbors. Show them the same recognition that we all need as humans, the same support and understanding that we all deserve.