Lifestyle Advice > Work > Monitoring Sexuality

Monitoring sexuality – the pros and cons

Since the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 came into force in December of the same year, the issue of monitoring sexuality in the workplace has been the topic of much debate. As part of an effective equality and diversity strategy monitoring is an important tool in ensuring the relevance of any policy to a workplace, but the issue of sexual orientation carries with it some unique characteristics that sets it apart from the usually monitored areas of race, gender and disability.

The key aspect of monitoring sexual orientation is often less about under-representation – as is often the overlying reason for the other areas – and more about finding out if people are being forced to lead a double life – i.e. hiding their sexuality at work – in order to avoid harassment and discrimination. At the very least then successful monitoring of sexual orientation requires a guarantee of absolute confidentiality. However, there is much to consider before you even begin the monitoring process.

The law, as it stands, does not require the monitoring of sexual orientation so if you are an employer considering it, be very clear about the reasons why you may want to do so. What do you aim to achieve by monitoring? If it is something that you think you ‘ought’ to do now the Regulations are in place but you have no particular plans for using the results, it is unlikely that your gay staff will feel inclined to take the risk of ‘outing’ themselves for such vague reasons. If, on the other hand, you are committed to ensuring your workplace is an equally diverse and inclusive environment and you want to use the monitoring process to challenge possible discriminatory practices – monitoring then becomes useful and in doing so becomes something gay staff may be more willing to engage with.

The way you ‘sell’ the idea to your staff then, becomes of paramount importance and an effective – which will usually entail anonymous – consultation period prior to implementing any additional monitoring in your workplace is a must. Visible commitment to the plan by the whole management team is also a prerequisite for success – a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination in all its forms will encourage staff to be more honest and open about their sexuality. If you are seen to be monitoring grievances and harassment claims, conducting exit or return-to-work interviews, conducting anonymous staff questionnaires on other issues as well as sexuality, and clamping down or even disciplining inappropriate banter and subsequently – and more importantly – acting on any findings of these activities, the monitoring process is more likely to become an effective tool.

If you are a gay employee who is not ‘out’ at work and your workplace has announced its intentions to monitor sexuality, you will need to make a personal choice about what course of action to take, if any. Much of your response, of course, will be based upon your own workplace: chances are you will know whether or not this is an issue that your workplace can and will handle well. You may, for example, have witnessed a real commitment by your organisation to outlaw discrimination and feel reasonably trusting of both the intentions and processes that will be used to monitor, as well as the subsequent use and handling of the information obtained. In an ideal world an anonymous form of consultation will take place before any sexuality monitoring is imposed – one that carries with it an absolute guarantee of anonymity – and at this point you should be able to raise any concerns you may have about the proposed process without fear of announcing your sexuality. But if no appropriate form of consultation looks imminent, or – worse – no consultation at all, you would be well to doubt the effectiveness and intentions behind the proposed monitoring process. Could you request such consultation without outing yourself? This is, of course, risky but there should be channels of communication within your organisation that will allow you do this, but not all workplaces will have them, so this is really a personal decision to make. You can, of course, do nothing, say nothing and, when asked, not answer any questions regarding your sexuality at all.

Both Stonewall and the TUC support monitoring but with reservations and only if conditions such as those outlined above are met. The key to the whole issue then is trust. The employer must be open and honest about its intentions to monitor, giving full explanations as to how the data collected will be handled, stored and used. Anonymity and confidentiality must be promised and delivered at all points of the process including any prior consultation that takes place. Without these minimum requirements any data that is collected is likely to be less than accurate and therefore useless. 


Bravanark provides advice, training and consultation services to SMEs in the fields of HR (including management and employment practices); health and safety and accessibility issues.