Pronoun showdown: Should you remove 'he' and 'she' from your handbook?

As more employers take steps to make nonbinary individuals feel more comfortable in the workplace, some organizations are working to create gender-neutral employee policies and handbooks. To do so, they're deleting gender-specific pronouns like "his" and "her" in favor of "their" and "them."

About 3% of people between the ages of 18 and 35 identify as nonbinary and, thus, do not identify as a male or female, according to a Harris Poll. This could include someone who is transgender, gender fluid or between genders.

Many employers are navigating these new social norms with changes to dress codes, bathroom policies, job applications and workplace rules. Some employers are including pronoun preferences on email signatures and name badges.

The country's largest employment law firm, Littler, has eliminated gender-based pronouns from its HR documents, including handbooks. Employees can choose to identify as male, female or nonbinary in the firm's internal HR system.

More employers are making that change in their company handbook, removing "he"...