At the conclusion of President Trump’s first week back in office, HR software provider HiBob’s Chief Marketing Officer Sarah Reynolds, who identifies as trans and non-binary, didn’t mince words.

“I’m outraged. I’m scared,” they say. “I hope genuinely that none of your readers ever have to feel what it feels like for somebody to say you no longer exist.”

It’s a message—which was delivered through Trump’s quick moves to unveil policies, dismantle programs and use anti-trans rhetoric—that likely has many transgender employees and allies on edge. And HR leaders need to be attuned to how these workers could be feeling, experts note.

“Recognize that, for many of your employees, this is not business as usual,” Reynolds advises HR. “This week was not a normal one in the calendar.”

Support transgender employees by leading with empathy

Among the executive orders Trump issued on his first day was one titled: “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which states there are only two sexes. Seen as a direct target on the rights of transgender Americans, the order is expected to impact everything from the issuance of passports and visas to the use of restrooms in federal properties and housing of federal inmates. It also declared that federal funds could not be used to “promote gender ideology,” which suggests far-reaching implications that are yet to be seen. Earlier this week, Trump announced an order that experts say will likely lead to a ban on transgender individuals in the U.S. military.

Although the Trump campaign centered anti-transgender messaging throughout the election season, the swift impact of those ideas becoming policy is likely hitting home for many transgender employees.

“Many of us didn’t wake up on Monday of [last] week and have an idea that things were going to go a different way,” Reynolds says. “But it’s really difficult.”

Since Election Day, Reynolds says, they know many people in the LGBTQ community who have eloped, who are going to court to shore up parental rights, who have been working to quickly get federal documents in place with their preferred gender markers. That stress is, undoubtedly, they say, bleeding into the workplace.

“Be empathetic. Be empathetic to the fact that people are dealing with worries that many folks would never have to consider,” they say.

HR leaders can help take that empathy into action by reaffirming the company’s commitment to its employees, Reynolds says.

“Have your CEO or your chief people office give guidance to employees that you understand that you need to step up in the moment and offer them support, offer them protection if you can,” they say. “Be specific about what you’re doing and the resources that are available to them.”

HR’s role in driving a culture of inclusion

For instance, some large employers are offering relocation assistance for transgender and nonbinary employees, as well as their family members, to assist with the safe delivery of healthcare, says Davey Shlasko, founder and director of Think Again Training & Consulting.

“Many trans and nonbinary people are afraid for their safety right now. Others are concerned about their or their family members’ ability to access safe and necessary healthcare,” Shlasko says.

Now is the time to double down on offering these resources and ensure employees know how to access them. This is an opportunity for HR to ask the questions that, Reynolds says, can make a meaningful difference for employees.

For instance, does the organization have:

• A guide to help employees who are transitioning at work?
• An easy way for people to change their name or pronouns in the HRIS system or email directory?
• Anti-bias and anti-discrimination training?
• Pay equity policies?
• An LGBTQ employee resource group?
• Gender-neutral facilities?
• Travel policies that enable employees to stay safe when traveling for work?
• Privacy protections for collecting employees’ legal name and sex information?

“There are so many different things HR teams can potentially do and point to—and many of these are already common policies—to say, ‘We know this was a hard week. We know that diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging is a critical part of our culture. And we have all of these resources available to you,’ ” Reynolds says.

Employer support for transgender and nonbinary employees should also include efforts to ensure all employees are called by their chosen names and pronouns.

“Employers have a right and a responsibility to ensure a healthy and respectful workplace, and that’s all the more important when disrespect is coming from the highest levels of government,” says Chelsey Branham, senior consultant at Think Again Training & Consulting. “An employer can’t tell employees what to believe, but we can tell them how to behave at work.”

Listen and learn

Despite what will likely be a challenging four years for transgender employees and other marginalized communities, Reynolds says, they find it heartening to keep being visible and vocal.

“I’m often the first openly trans or non-binary person that people have met. That was true before I was an executive, and it’s certainly true at the executive level,” they say. “It’s rare enough to find femme-presenting people in executive leadership in tech—let alone, trans or nonbinary folks.”

Looking ahead, it’s important that HR listen to those voices, they say. While not everyone will want to do the emotional labor of “answering the questions you can easily Google,” Reynolds considers it part of their job—to educate others and answer questions about trans and nonbinary communities, while creating a safe space for people to ask those questions.

Employers can also look to nonprofit and community organizations for partnership, says Shlasko, noting such groups will have historical insight on supporting transgender employees who are losing rights, many of which were only won in the last decade.

“There are trans community leaders who have been around since before we had any of those rights, and the community has tools for navigating life when the government doesn’t recognize our existence,” Shlasko says. “HR leaders should look to trans-led organizations for leadership as the situation continues to develop.”

Bringing those conversations into the C-suite and board rooms can create significant opportunities, both for the organization to make its commitment to all employees more authentic, and to give employees the support they may need.

‘You should not have to hide’

“I never had a ‘me’ when I was coming up in the workplace,” Reynolds says. “I didn’t see people in leadership who looked or identified the way I did, and I hid who I was for a very long time because I thought it would interfere with my career, that people would focus on that as opposed to my professional qualifications.”

Now, Reynolds says, the “genuine joy” of their job is hearing from people whose perspective they’ve been able to impact by being open and themselves. At a recent conference, for instance, a woman approached them to share she has a trans daughter and was worried about her future—but was grateful that Reynolds demonstrated “this path was available to her.”

“That means I’m changing that experience for one other person, which is incredible. It was definitely hard to live it the other way. It makes all the bad stuff worth it when you have that experience of being able to say, ‘No, this is absolutely a path for you.’ You should not have to hide who you are to feel like you can be successful.”

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