Driving LGBTQ Inclusion

Last week was the ‘International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia’, or IDAHOTB for short. We went along to EY’s conference to find out more about the business case for LGBTQ inclusion, and how best to drive forward change.

The programme was extremely impressive, with a fantastic range of speakers covering an exciting range of topics. The afternoon began with speakers from the likes of GSK, EY, and ‘Open for Business’ tackling the business case for diversity, and how exactly they’re putting these principles into practice in their global firms.

An interlude from Lady Phyll, a renowned BME LGBTQ activist, offered a unique perspective on the power of storytelling. As one of few communications representatives in the room, it was fascinating to hear a new perspective on the art of the story, and Lady Phyll’s certainly had us riveted.

Two more panels followed, the first chaired by Stonewall discussing ‘foolproofing’ a workplace against discrimination, including how to work with dispersed workforces – this rang true for policy change in an agency, especially one working with global clients.

The second panel focused on the value of counting on your allies, chaired by David Sellick, the Partner Sponsor of the ally network at EY. Hearing about the sheer volume of allies at the likes of Bank of America and the value it added to employee wellbeing at EY was heartening, and also led to a flurry of questions from people clearly inspired to push for similar change within their organisations.

It’s evident that the issue of LGBTQ inclusion is at the forefront of the conversation in the business world, and financial and professional services are leading the way. A key takeaway from this event was the value of not reinventing the wheel – the sharing of best practice will be the first step on the journey towards truly inclusive workplaces.

Written by Sandy Downs, Teamspirit