Fostering Religious Inclusion in the Workplace
Religion is an important site of identity. Let's talk about how to create space for religious inclusion in the workplace!
During my time as a grad student at Harvard University, a student club invited a religious speaker named Jackie Hill Perry to provide a keynote talk for the university. Jackie Hill Perry believes that homosexuality is wrong and as a result, her speech included many harmful sentiments concerning the sanctity and value of LGBTQ+ life.
Perry’s approach to spirituality left an incredible amount of harm and trauma in its wake. Powerfully, LGBTQ+ students of various faith identities utilized this moment to advocate for a more inclusive campus approach to spirituality.
As a result of the student’s brave advocacy, I become Harvard’s inaugural “Religion, Gender, and Sexuality Fellow.” In this role, I created welcoming interreligious programming that invited LGBTQ+ students to explore various aspects of their religious identity.
From this experience, I learned firsthand just how important religious inclusion is, even within secular spaces such as institutions of higher learning and the workplace. Religion is a grounding force that invites people from all walks of life to connect with one another based upon shared values, radical optimism, and collective hope.
When we create space for religious diversity to thrive, we invite employees to bring their full selves to work. Further, we create important space for employees to connect their work life to a broader sense of purpose and belonging.
How Does Religion Show Up at Work?
First, we must understand that religion, just like race, gender, sexuality, and more, is a site of power and privilege.
For example, in America, we have a culture of Cristocentrism. This means that Christianity is the dominant religion. This can lead to the discrimination and erasure of other religious and spiritual practices such as Islam, Sikhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and more.
For example, workers who are non-Christian are more likely to have their request for time off for religious holidays be denied. Further, non-Christian employees are more likely to experience faith-based microaggressions such as negative comments about their religious dress, religous practices, and religious holidays.
How Race and Religion Interact at Work
In the field of religious studies we say that race and religion are co-constructed or co-constituted, this means that someone’s religious identity can change and inform the kind of subjugation/prejudice they experience. Co-constitutive means that when two identities intersect, they become a whole new identity. For example, as a Black Christian, I do not experience racialized religious exclusion in the workplace, but Black Muslims at work do. Black Muslim (and Arab Muslim) employees for example may be more likely to be perceived as threatening, combative, and uncooperative.
Though I experience racial sameness with other Black people at work, I am not vulnerable to religious discrimination because my faith practice is the dominant religion in America. A blanket policy on racial discrimination then, cannot fully address issues such as Islamaphobia, Antisemitism, anti-Sikhism, and more.
As such, the question that emerges is, how can workplaces address religion as a site of discrimination and connection? When we fail to consider religion at work, we are negating how religion can and does interact with other parts of identity such as race, gender, sexuality, and more.
Religious discrimination at work can occur in a variety of ways for example, it could be a lack of recognition of religious holidays, a lack of policies concerning religious discrimination, or an assumption that everyone at work has the same values/guiding morals.
It’s paramount for leaders to ask themselves, how can we foster space for religious diversity in our work environment?
How to Foster Religious Inclusion at Work
Interreligious Holiday Calendar: Create and maintain an interreligious holiday calendar to recognize and respect the diverse religious practices of employees. This calendar should include major holidays from various religions, allowing employees to request time off for religious observances.
Purpose and Values Exercises: Engage employees in exercises that invite them to offer input on the company's core values. Invite employees to discuss how their values (including familial, personal, and spiritual values) inform their work. These exercises can include discussions, workshops, and team-building activities. Aligning work with purpose is a powerful way to keep employees engaged and motivated. What can your workplace gain from considering how employees make meaning of their experiences and the world around them?
Discrimination Policy: Implement a comprehensive discrimination policy that explicitly prohibits religious discrimination in the workplace. This policy should outline clear procedures for reporting and addressing any incidents of religious discrimination, ensuring that all employees feel safe and respected. Regular training sessions on the policy can help reinforce its importance and ensure compliance.
Product Innovation: Encourage product development teams to consider religious diversity when designing and marketing products. For example, when I worked for NerdWallet, a few writers created a content series about investing for Muslim communities. By incorporating religious inclusion into product innovation, companies can appeal to a broader customer base and demonstrate their commitment to diversity.
Curate the Space: Design and arrange workplace spaces to be inclusive and respectful of all religions. This can include providing quiet rooms for prayer or meditation, displaying artwork that reflects various religious traditions, and ensuring that communal spaces are welcoming to everyone. Thoughtfully curated spaces can foster a sense of belonging and respect among employees of different religious backgrounds.
Create an Interreligious Well-Being Hub: Establish a dedicated interreligious well-being hub (online) that provides resources, support, and information on various religious practices and beliefs. This hub can offer educational materials, organize interfaith dialogues, and provide access to religious leaders or counselors. By creating a central resource for religious well-being, companies can promote understanding, respect, and support for employees' diverse religious needs.
Thanks so much for reading! Here’s what I will be up to this month!
On June 26th I’ll be partnering with Reclamation Ventures and Antiracism Daily to host a talk on Religious Inclusion in the Workplace. Sign up here!