Salesforce partners with Pride Circle Foundation to upskill India’s LGBTQ+ community

US-based tech company Salesforce has teamed up with Pride Circle Foundation to upskill the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ+) community. Pride Circle Foundation is a non-profit that works actively to uplift, and empower the LGBT+ community in India and enable them to reach their full potential.  

The Customer relationship management (CRM) company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Pride Circle Foundation.  

Salesforce said in a statement, it will act as the knowledge partner for the ‘TRANSformation program’ and ‘Youth Changemaker program’ and will provide them access to programs, tools, and resources for skilling, mentorship, employability, entrepreneurship and other support services. It will leverage Trailhead, the company’s online learning and skilling up platform.  

The company also said that it will build modules focused on skilling for employability for unskilled and semi-skilled transgender beneficiaries across tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Beneficiaries will improve their skills through sessions on resume writing, interview skills, corporate etiquette, and more. Upon completion of the program, the foundation will continue to support the beneficiaries through various programs like RISE Job Fair, Road to RISE, and offline hiring. The program will follow a hybrid structure of virtual and in-person training.  

Sanket Atal, SVP & Managing Director - Sites, Salesforce India said that "the partnership with the Pride Circle Foundation is real work that can make a measurable impact.” 
He also believes that this initiative would “address the talent gap” and “creates new hiring pipelines for the Salesforce ecosystem in India”. 
The month of June is celebrated as Pride Month and observed in several countries to commemorate the struggles and victories of the LGBTQ+ communities. Not just Salesforce, several other tech companies in India, such as SAP India, Nutanix, Accenture and Intuit, among others, are working toward enabling and empowering the LGBTQIA+ community. Many of these companies are providing the community with industry-relevant skills that can open up new opportunities for LGBTQIA+ community. 

According to Randstad India's Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Study, published in January 2022, while 60% of MNC leaders have LGBTQ+ inclusion goals, more than half of Indian firms, or 53%, do not have career-development opportunities for people from the LGBTQ+ community. 

"While diversity at work can be achieved by making changes in the hiring strategy, nurturing Inclusion is a wider concept that involves the inclusion of people at all levels, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and ability," said Viswanath PS, MD & CEO, Randstad India, suggesting enormous scope for organisations to focus and improve in this area.