At Best Buy, we aim to create an inclusive culture where everyone feels welcome and accepted, and not just during Pride Month in June. It’s a year-round commitment.
Our efforts to raise awareness and support for LGBTQIA+ employees and people in the communities we serve has not gone unnoticed. For the 15th year, we scored 100% on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index.
Earning this distinction makes us a “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality.” The index benchmarks and reports on how companies are helping to achieve workplace equality for LGBTQIA+ employees.
Here’s how we do it.
We live our values, every day
At Best Buy, we take our company values to heart and show the strength of our commitment to our employees and our customers. We embed inclusive leadership into how we lead. Showing attributes like vulnerability, courage, empathy and grace set the tone for our culture.
We’re always striving to attract and invest in talent that reflects the diversity of all communities and fosters an inclusive culture across the organization.
“We’re powered by the belief that our people matter most, and diverse perspectives make us better,” said Mark Irvin, Best Buy’s chief diversity officer. “Our culture of inclusion values every human being’s experience and supports each employee to bring their true and authentic self to work.”
Our nondiscrimination workplace policies, domestic partner benefits, inclusive health care benefits and our community engagement with the LGBTQIA+ community, affirm our support for equality and strengthen our employee base.
Supporting one another in the workplace
It’s important that everyone can show up to work as their true, authentic selves.
“As a Pride leader, my passion is driven by the people at Best Buy,” said Alyssa Marschner, one of the leaders of the company’s Pride Employee Resource Group (ERG). “It’s my responsibility to reach as many LGBTQIA+ employees and let them know they are supported, respected and included.”
It’s not just the Pride ERG that shows support for its members. All of Best Buy’s other employee resource groups have accelerated their efforts to support one another and expand the inclusion network.
“At the end of the day, we’re all allies for each other,” Alyssa said. “The support the LGBTQIA+ community sees from our leaders and employees who show up for us makes Best Buy a great place to work.”
Bringing your full self to work
Best Buy recently enhanced the process for employees to change their preferred names as part of our Workplace Transition and Gender Identity Toolkit.
The new process gives all employees the ability to update the company’s customer and employee-facing systems to display a preferred name instead of a legal name. This includes getting a new ID badge and nametag, as well as a new photo if the employee desires.
While that might sound like a relatively minor change, it’s an important step for employees to be able to be called by the name that represents who they are by the people they interact with the most.
“We believe everyone has the right to choose who they want to be and the name they would like to be called,” Mark said. “The preferred name change process reflects our commitment to inclusion, empowerment and being a place where everyone can bring their full, authentic selves to work.”