Religion At Work: How To Offer Peaceful Inclusion In Workplace Now
Promoting interfaith acceptance and inclusion in all work-related spaces is essential.
Navigating religious beliefs in the workplace can be difficult, divisive and challenging. This is especially true now with strong voices advocating to resolve global humanitarian issues, and hate speech and actions erupting in many scenarios.
While aiming to project a sense of inclusion, it is also urgent for organization leaders to mitigate and prevent any disruptive practices that could derail meetings, conferences or even virtual gatherings. It is possible to be inclusive and not provocative while accommodating religious practices and beliefs at work. It is also the law.
“Promoting #interfaith acceptance and #inclusion in all work-related spaces is essential.”
Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employers must do just that, “unless doing so would result in substantial increased cost in relation to the conduct of the employer’s particular business,” Bloomberg Law reports.
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A sense of safety for every employee needs to be the norm and the requirement for behaviors and comments. Projecting that calm and mutual respect are required for conversations with colleagues, clients and team members in any work-related space that are not accusatory or inflammatory is necessary.
Workplace issues, practices and how policy intersects with the issues, will be part of conversations at this year’s Take The Lead Power Up Conference on Women’s Equality Day in Washington, D.C. August 26.
With the theme, Together We Lead, speakers include Emily M. Dickens, head of government affairs at the Society of Human Resource Management and an expert on workplace issues and leadership management; Zakiya Thomas, president of ERA Coalition and political strategist; and former New York Congresswoman Carolyn B. Mahoney, the leading sponsor for the Equal Rights Amendment.
Caution, care and empathy are ingredients for civil discourse. Current events may be top of mind for many members of the workforce and one approach is to organize faith-based groups at work.
“Caution, care and #empathy are ingredients for civil discourse. ”
“Yet faith-focused groups have lagged due to concerns that potentially fraught issues like religion and politics—which often intertwine—risk causing legal headaches and opening the door to proselytization, divisive workplace discussions, and the chilling of free speech or dissent,” Bloomberg Law reports.
“The Israel-Hamas conflict in particular—which has put pressure on some employers to speak out —is partially fueling calls for religious inclusion in the workplace.”
Bloomberg reports that companies including KPMG LLP, American Airlines Inc., Intel Corp., and Target Corp. have faith-based employee groups. “Forty-three Fortune 500 companies have publicly reported having faith-oriented Employee Resource Groups, up from 37 companies in 2022, according to a recent report by the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation.”
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“Religious diversity is about making a safe working environment for every employee irrespective of religious beliefs. It is about ensuring there is no workplace bullying concerning religious hatred. Every employee must get equal recognition regardless of their spiritual practices,” reports Vantage Circle.
The EEOC outlines The Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on religion at work, Vantage Circle reports.
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“You must ensure strict policies against workplace bullying that might hurt people’s religious beliefs and identities. When we speak about gender equality in the workplace, we must also talk about religious equality and make sure we do not hurt anybody’s religious sentiments.”
Religious hatred must not be allowed, tolerated or ignored at work. This involves establishing definitive rules of engagement that religious hatred in any form of communication is prohibited.
“Religious hatred must not be allowed, tolerated or ignored at work. #workplace #tolerance”
“Every worker will not understand every workers’ faith and belief system. Hence, the management must intervene here and follow a zero-tolerance rule towards any religious hate in the workplace,” Vantage Circle reports.
“There is a case to be made for bringing religion into the workplace, experts say. Religion makes people happier, and happier means more productive. Employees who are permitted to discuss religion openly at work report having higher job-satisfaction levels,” Knowledge at Wharton reports.
Stewart Friedman, director of Wharton’s Work/Life Integration Project, says, “The problem with some religions is that they can be divisive, and so where it seems to me to make sense to draw the line is if you are professing your religious beliefs and that causes harm to other people.”
What this means is that those in human resources positions or management and leadership posts need to be aware and set protocols for discussions, monitor reactions and the implications for all those involved.
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There is a specific trend for requests in businesses to acknowledge Christian beliefs, according to the New York Times. “Most major tech companies now have official faith-based affinity groups. Fueling the effort are multiple Christian organizations including Pray for Tech; anti-discrimination nonprofits, like the Anti-Defamation League; and nonpartisan, multi-faith nonprofits like Interfaith America and the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation,” the Times reports.
And while safety can be a stated goal, it is not necessarily something felt universally.
“’One potential downside is that what’s safe and creates a more inclusive environment for one group might have an opposite or negative impact for another group,’ Katina Sawyer, associate professor of management and organizations at the University of Arizona, who studies workplace inclusion” tells the Times.
A new Human Resource Brew/Harris poll shows in a survey of 2,000 U.S. adults that, “Just 43% said their company had programming specifically targeted towards religion and faith.”
Respondents were split over whether it is a good thing to incorporate religion into DEI efforts, with “54% saying it would be appropriate to integrate it into DE&I and 41% saying it shouldn’t.”
“Respondents to a new @HR_Brew poll were split over whether it is a good thing to incorporate #religion into #DEI efforts.”
HR Brew reports, “Despite this, the majority (65%) of respondents believe employees should be able to share their faith/spirituality in the workplace, with 72% of working respondents saying they feel safe sharing their faith or spirituality at work.”
Still many report conflicts do arise in the workplace. “However, 41% of U.S. workers said that conflicts related to faith/religion have caused tension at their workplace, indicating there may be a gap between acceptance and understanding.”
This is not new, nor is this an isolated occurrence because of current events. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports that “religious conflict and discrimination rose sharply in 2022, and discrimination against Jewish and Muslim individuals in particular has worsened since the Israel–Hamas War began in October, 2023.”
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Still, it is not only possible but critically important to ensure diversity as well as civility in all actions and speech in person and remotely, whether it is in daily work interactions or at retreats or conferences. There must be guidelines for discussion and consequences for not following guidelines.
Bullying, harassment or bias on the basis of religion need to be explicitly called out at work with guidelines and protocols presented to every employee upon hiring, and posted or sent out as reminders in messaging.
“Bullying, harassment or bias on the basis of religion need to be explicitly called out at work. #discrimination”
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The Tannenbaum Center for Religious Understanding offers resources to support religious diversity at work with their Religion at Work guidelines. Peacebuilding strategies are critical in the workplace, and not just reactionary strategies.
Reverend Mark Fowler, CEO of Tannenbaum, says that the Israel/Hamas War has instigated tension in the workplace.
“In the rush to respond after the October 7 attack by Hamas, Fowler tells Design Observer, “Both individuals and institutions saw that by making statements very early and very quickly, they hadn’t actually considered what the impact of that might be.”
“The Tannenbaum Center for Religious Understanding offers resources to support religious diversity at work with their Religion at Work guidelines. #workplace”
Moving forward, leaders, HR administrators, employees and colleagues need to be mindful in policy and practice for accommodating beliefs while respecting every individual and their right to feel safe at work.
