Published by: Angus Wu
Over the past decade, multinational companies have demonstrated a growing commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion. While fostering LGBTQ+ inclusion is essential for ensuring psychological safety and a sense of belonging for marginalized communities, companies operating across diverse jurisdictions must also navigate local customs and legal frameworks to maintain business continuity. As a result, program implementation often requires a careful balance between advocacy and compliance.
In a continuously evolving socio-political climate, compounded by cost pressures leading to rollbacks of DEI programs, and increasing global mobility, multinational companies must strategically approach inclusion to maintain this delicate equilibrium.
This article introduces the concept of “Space” as a way of understanding the environments where individuals interact, connect, and interpret their surroundings. It proposes a framework of three interconnected layers: Regulatory Space, Tangible Space, and Experienced Space. Each requires distinct strategies to achieve meaningful inclusion, yet all are equally important and deeply interrelated.
While acknowledging the critical roles of all three layers, this article argues that Experienced Space holds the most immediate potential for sustainable, flexible, and impactful inclusion, particularly in global organizations navigating complex socio-political terrains.
Conceptualizing Space into Three Layers
- Regulatory Space encompasses the regulatory frameworks established by authorities to govern space. It includes legal structures and policies that define how spaces are designed, accessed, and used to promote inclusivity.
- Tangible Space focuses on the tangible construction of space, such as infrastructure, buildings, and facilities, which directly shape individual interactions. For instance, many spaces were built around traditional assumptions that don’t reflect everyone’s needs. Even small design choices can have a big impact on inclusion, comfort, and dignity.
- Experienced Space captures how individuals and communities experience, interpret, and assign meaning to space. It is deeply tied to emotions, cultural symbols, memories, and identities, making it a personal and subjective layer.
Though these layers frequently overlap, they often evolve at different paces. For example, societal movements advocating for inclusivity may advance more rapidly than legal reforms, leading to a disconnect between societal attitudes and institutional policies. Conversely, progressive laws may outpace societal acceptance, encountering resistance from entrenched cultural norms. This highlights the complex and dynamic interplay between these dimensions in the pursuit of inclusivity.
Challenges of Multinational Company Could Face in the Regulatory & Physical Space Layer
Regulatory Space
Multinational companies face challenges as they operate in jurisdictions with varied attitudes towards LGBTQIA+ communities. They must ensure compliance with local laws and customs to maintain business continuity, while also recognizing that LGBTQ+ people are part of their workforce.
In 2023, a tier-1 global bank operating in Uganda was forced to purge DEI-related data after the country passed a stringent anti-LGBTQ+ law. This decision involved sacrificing assets meant to promote inclusion to protect employees and ensure business continuity.
The example above highlights the delicate balance multinational companies must strike when operating in regions with restrictive environments toward LGBTQ+ communities. Some may choose to scale back public-facing DEI initiatives to comply with local regulations, while others may implement more discreet strategies to support their LGBTQ+ employees.
When intertwined with global mobility and the evolving socio-political landscape surrounding LGBTQ+ inclusion, navigating the Regulatory Space becomes an even more complex challenge for multinational companies.
Tangible Space
The spaces we work in reflect more than just design, they carry the imprint of long-standing norms, policies, and priorities. For many organizations, adapting physical environments to be more inclusive isn’t just about renovations, it’s also about recognizing the diverse ways people move through and experience the world around them.
Whether it’s rethinking signage, or simply making room for all identities, these changes can involve logistical, legal, and financial hurdles. Especially in older buildings or in regions with evolving regulatory landscapes, progress can be slow and complex. But when inclusion is treated as a shared value, not just a compliance box, it becomes easier to make thoughtful, lasting decisions about our spaces. Even small, well-intentioned steps can make people feel seen, safe, and respected in their everyday environment.
Committing to Experienced Space
Unlike regulatory and physical spaces, Experienced Space offers companies a more flexible and practical avenue for fostering inclusivity. Experienced Space is shaped by individual’s experiences, emotions, and interactions within a given environment, making it a dynamic and adaptable dimension of space. While Experienced Space could still be bound by legal frameworks or physical infrastructure, the subjective and emotive aspect allows companies to cultivate inclusive practices, behaviors, and cultural norms that resonate with their workforce.
For instance, fostering open dialogue about LGBTQ+ inclusion, implementing employee resource groups, and promoting allyship through training programs are all ways to positively shape Experienced Space. These initiatives often require less financial investment compared to large-scale physical renovations or legal compliance efforts. Instead, they rely on fostering a sense of belonging and safety through communication, education, and community-building.
Companies can leverage Experienced Space to bridge gaps in Regulatory and Tangible Spaces. By creating an environment where employees feel empowered to express their identities and share their experiences, organizations can build momentum for broader change. For example, a company that lacks gender-neutral facilities can still encourage the use of inclusive language, provide pronoun badges, or celebrate LGBTQ+ awareness days to affirm the lived experiences of its employees.
Flexing creative and intermediate responses within the Experienced Space could also help overcome some of the regulatory and physical restrictions. For example, updating signage to be more inclusive, setting up temporary facilities, and offering cross-region support (e.g. relocation assistance or virtual participation in DEI initiatives) can help organizations navigate limitations while still fostering an inclusive culture.
The challenge lies in ensuring that the cultivation of Experienced Space is authentic and not merely performative. Superficial gestures can erode trust and undermine the intended impact. To avoid this, companies must actively engage employees, listen to their needs, and integrate their feedback into the ongoing evolution of workplace culture. Establishing accountability mechanisms, like regular employee surveys and anonymous feedback channels, can help measure the authenticity and effectiveness of these initiatives.
Flexibility Remains as the Core of Strategizing Inclusive Practices
As mentioned above, it is important to recognize that these layers of space are not isolated. Instead, they are deeply intertwined, with each layer influencing others. For instance, certain regulatory approaches can significantly influence how physical environments are designed and, in turn, affect how individuals experience inclusion in their everyday interactions.
Hence, this article does not intend to overlook the importance of advocacy within regulatory frameworks or physical environments. However, for multinational companies that are constantly reconciling competing local and global priorities, investing resources and effort into fostering inclusivity within Experienced Space often is the most economical and practical approach
That said, advocacy in other layers of space should be encouraged whenever circumstances allow. The key is to remain flexible - adapting strategies to stretch and bend the boundaries of inclusion within the limits of available capacity and resources.
By embracing this dynamic approach, companies can navigate the complexities of global inclusion while fostering a workplace culture that is both resilient and progressive.
Capco’s Endeavour in Shaping Experienced Space through Storytelling
This year’s Capco Pride Month 2025 theme, Pride in Motion: Progress Through Stories, celebrates the journeys of LGBTQ+ individuals and allies who have driven meaningful change in their industries and communities.
By harnessing the power of storytelling, centered on perseverance, innovation, and leadership, we foster an Experience Space and a culture of sharing and connection. This highlights the progress we have achieved and the collective efforts that continue to shape a more inclusive future.
Our commitment to inclusion extends beyond internal initiatives. Externally, we collaborate with DEI partners, such as myGwork, Out Professionals, and Out & Equal, to enhance our practices through training, talks, and panel discussions. For nine consecutive years, Capco has earned a score of 100% on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index.
Additionally, our ongoing efforts in DEI and workplace inclusion have been recognized with multiple awards across various locations.
While navigating inclusion is ever-evolving and complex, empathy, respect, and our #BYAW remain at the heart of Capco’s inclusion practices, ensuring that all colleagues feel supported and valued.