To celebrate Transgender Awareness Week and month, GVC’s inclusion champion, Sophie Wood shares how her trans journey inspired her move into the diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) profession. She also provides an insight into her role at GVC, and offers sound advice for other HR/DE&I professionals on how to better support trans colleagues and promote workplace belonging for all.
FAIR PLAY TALKS: How and why did you enter into the DE&I profession?
SOPHIE WOOD: I have been an Inclusion Manager for GVC since February 2020 and I have been working full time since I left University in 1994, so it has taken a while for me to get here! I joined GVC in 2019 as a trainer and joined their newly formed LGBTQ Network, Pride@GVC. Such a network existing in the gaming industry really stood out for me, and this was why I joined the company.
My inclusion work began when I came out as transgender in 2011 whilst I was working for the UK Police Service. Initially, OUT life was a huge challenge. I lost my immediate family, my friends’ network and all the privilege in society that I never knew I had.
In my local community I was immediately perceived as ‘other’. I constantly feared for my personal safety when out in town and was frequently abused and ridiculed to the extent that I ultimately retreated behind my four walls which I was lucky enough to have. At that time, my workplace was a haven of safety, workplace protections combined with some genuinely great work colleagues who ensured that I was able to take respite from my community, and, more importantly, literally use my voice.
It is still a great source of pride to me that I changed many of those hearts and minds, behaviours and attitudes by just being really good at my job as a police trainer. At the start of a typical course when I walked into class, I faced many an adverse reaction, which all loosely fitted into the category of “what the f**k is that?” By the end of the course, those same officers were thanking me effusively, rating my training highly and capturing my details, so I could support them in their future investigations. At the same time, I had attended quite a few diversity training events, several specifically focussed on trans inclusion. I had always found these events to be dry and dull; full of statistics and despair.
I was a member of the National Trans Police Association (NTPA) and decided to make myself the voice of the organisation by going out in the service and saying “Here we are. Let’s talk”. I was determined to use my experience and voice for the betterment of policing and also the trans people in society.
In the NTPA, we had the forward-thinking ethos of putting ourselves and our stories at the heart of any event. Whilst I was having a big impact and achieving strong successes in this role, I soon began to realise that most DE&I events are typically filled with people who are interested in and who generally “get DE&I”.
Deep down I knew it was the 95% of the workforce who really didn’t care for it who needed to be engaged. This is the biggest lesson I take with me into my current Inclusion Manager role at GVC and in the wider gaming industry. As a trans woman I am amongst the most marginalised demographic in societies all around the globe. So by normalising my identity, through my wider engagement, I intend to open those hearts and minds to welcome and support all under-represented groups.
I am also passionate about not being exclusive in my inclusion activities. We have to bring everyone on this journey to belonging, which includes white, cis hetero men, who face their own unique challenges in negotiating their way through the modern working life experience. As someone from an under-represented minority who has faced much discrimination in her life, that is very challenging to accept; but as an Inclusion Manager it is a necessary truth and the right thing to do.
FAIR PLAY TALKS: How vital is the DE&I role within organisations today, especially in industries like gaming?
SOPHIE WOOD: Building an inclusive culture, where all your people can bring the best of their authentic selves is a must for those organisations who want to continue to succeed and grow. Young industries like online gaming and online sports betting are becoming increasingly global in their customer reach and their employee demographics.
As the industry grows, the amount of companies vying for market share is decreasing through a constant drive for further M&A. It is inevitable, in my view, that the technology in use will become more and more ubiquitous. Ultimately the difference between the companies acquiring and those being acquired is going to be the performance of the people, the leadership of those people and the collective values shared within those organisations. Also, I think that the rise in social media engagement by gaming companies, combined with the drive to establish the employer brand alongside consumer brands, means that company values will increasingly influence where consumers choose to spend their money.
FAIR PLAY TALKS: What’s the most rewarding part of your role at GVC?
SOPHIE WOOD: I love finding out about peoples’ stories. We have such a wonderful global presence at GVC that finding out about different lived experiences, attitudes, beliefs and cultural nuances is a constant delight. I love working in Gibraltar as the majority of our people have moved to work here. It’s something that unites us. We’ve all got a unique story and different cultural upbringings, and this helps to break down many barriers to accepting our differences.
FAIR PLAY TALKS: What are some of the most challenging issues you face as a DE&I professional at a company like GVC?
Like many of our competitors, but more so, the global expansion of GVC has been fast and vast. Our agile and entrepreneurial spirit has driven the success of the company, but there is a flip side. That is the challenges of global networking and bringing people far apart, together.
I would love to develop a global communications tool, which has multi-platform access and is primarily designed to facilitate safe and confidential networking and peer support. When you compound such issues with the restrictions caused by a global pandemic, ensuring the voices that need to be heard and amplified get heard at all is a significant challenge.
FAIR PLAY TALKS: Which diversity spectrums are you focusing on the most currently and why?
SOPHIE WOOD: We are very much at the start of our belonging journey at GVC and determined our initial focus was to support women – particularly in the areas of leadership, tech, trading, to achieve a greater parity with our male colleagues in terms of representation throughout the company.
We have also turned our focus for this year on supporting and celebrating our LGBTQ+ people as we recognise these guys and girls face many challenges in society, and we have a duty to make sure that when they are working for us they can just be themselves and thrive in their GVC careers.
More recently, we have focused on our Black people, and how we can best support them to ensure they do not face the unnecessary challenges they have faced, and still face in society for simply the colour of their skin. We are taking a long hard look at ourselves and challenging our own biases and racism at GVC – whether structural or otherwise. We are listening to our Black people and ensuring we take long term sustainable actions that deliver equity in all aspects of their working lives.
Soon we will focus on other areas of inclusion, such neuro-diversity and parents/carers, for example. Our key challenge is to ensure if we make things right for one group of people, we are making things right for everyone.
FAIR PLAY TALKS: What more could companies be doing to improve belonging and inclusion?
SOPHIE WOOD: I believe that most companies have evolved sufficiently to say “lets do something about this, we need to be seen to be doing the right thing”. Others are starting to recognise that our young people are going to be better people than we are; and they will have expectations of their employers and as consumers that aren’t yet fully manifest. These companies will typically have strategic and visible leadership in most aspects of inclusion. When inclusion teams are managed by, and report directly to the C-suite, you’ll know you have a good chance of success.
FAIR PLAY TALKS: How can organisations better support transgender staff?
SOPHIE WOOD: Firstly, have an inclusive policy, which is fully inclusive of non-binary identities. Many trans inclusion policies are framed around the binary trans experience. This is great for trans identified people like me, but if this is the sole focus of your trans inclusion, then many trans identifying people will continue to feel excluded. The focus of DE&I professionals should be on future generations.
Being born in the 1970s, I am classified as Gen X. We saw the invention of the internet and the growth of social media and experienced the joys of trans people connecting with each other and sharing stories and experiences for the first time. This ability to connect has reduced the isolation of being trans and enabled more and more people to live as their authentic selves. We now know we are not alone in our journey and have tangible networks of support on a scale the older generations could never have hoped for.
Along with this progress comes the increased expectation of rights in society, in particular, quite rightly, in the workplace. Gen Z and beyond will see the ‘out’ trans population increase further, and non-binary gender identities will be the largest demographic within this trans population.
These are the employees and consumers of the present and future and they will vote with their feet and their £/$/€. However non-binary identities are perceived by many to be ambiguous. The biggest challenge in my view is to challenge the notion of ambiguity. Our history shows us that ambiguity does not land well in society. Ambiguity will cause drops in share prices, it still proves unpopular in elections and is widely perceived as weakness.
Therefore it is vital that companies educate through their DE&I engagement and their policies to separate in peoples’ minds, non-binary identities from the notion of ambiguity. There is no ambiguity or uncertainty in anyone’s gender identity. So my advice to companies, is to tell the stories of non-binary colleagues and celebrities alongside our strong contingent of binary colleagues, trans-activist heroes and influencers. Ensure your policy and practice speaks to the wonderful range of non-binary identities.
At GVC, during Trans Awareness month, we will be engaging with our wider business to promote our first Trans Inclusion Policy and support documents. However, our main focus will be on TDOR on the 20th November as we pay our respects to the many who have lost their lives through transphobic murder around the globe. It reminds us the inherent dangers we face as trans people. It strengthens our determination to advocate for & protect the right to life for all transgender identities.
FAIR PLAY TALKS: What DE&I challenges does the gaming industry face and how is GVC overcoming those?
SOPHIE WOOD: One of the biggest challenges we face as an industry is the perceived juxtaposition between the altruism of inclusion and the morality of gambling. Lets face it, in some areas of the world, particularly in the UK, gambling has had a bad rap! I have had instances for example when looking into supporting some large UK Pride Events, the organisers have refused to engage with us because being in the gaming industry was not commensurate with their “principles”. One way to overcome this is to position your inclusion engagement externally within your social responsibility work streams. Community engagement with minority community initiatives will sit well within your Giving Back to the Community Work.
FAIR PLAY TALKS: What are GVC’s medium and long-term DE&I aspirations/goals?
SOPHIE WOOD: In the short to medium term, GVC want to embed our Belonging Strategy and our Inclusion Big Bets into our Global Business Planning. We are going to partner with our Talent & Acquisition Team to expand our attraction for minority groups, combat bias in hiring decisions and ensure our internal progression pathways are open to all. We are partnering with our Talent team to ensure all Manager Development and leadership support has our belonging principles integrated into every module.
We will also launch our Global Inclusion Network and support local networks to flourish as self-organised groups. Long-term, we want to establish a truly global inclusive sense of belonging for all at GVC by creating a culture where everyone is in the game and can bring the best of their authentic selves to work to thrive and drive our business growth.
FAIR PLAY TALKS: What are your long-term career goals/aspirations?
SOPHIE WOOD: My personal long-term aim is to support organisations by engaging with them. Sharing the many golden nuggets of learning I have gained on my unique journey to help make the world a better place. It sounds really cliché – but it is absolutely at my core.
One of the tangential benefits of transitioning is that you get to choose your name. I chose Sophie due to the origins of the name relating to the ancient Helenic/Greek terms for wisdom. I have lived some of my life being perceived as male, where I had privilege and acceptance; some years living as ‘other’, with a sub-human status; and many years being my authentic female self – with all the joys and challenges that brings.
So I think I have achieved some level of wisdom. I relish every opportunity to share this life-long learning with others and bring more kindness and understanding to the world.
FAIR PLAY TALKS: What advice do you have for others aspiring to work in the DE&I field?
SOPHIE WOOD: Be You. Only ever speak from your own experience and your own authentic story. Let your people tell the stories that need to be told to change hearts and mind in your company.
Be Passionate. If you want to change mindsets in a company, transmit your belief, your passion and your enthusiasm in your engagement communications, when you are selling your ideas into the business, when you are negotiating with others and when you are listening to the voices from your under-represented people.
Be Tenacious. If you face barriers to your initiatives, regroup, re-plan, recharge and regain the support you need.
Be Kind to those who support inclusion and those who don’t.
Be Realistic. You may want to change the world, but your boss’ boss’ boss may not think that’s good for business. Choose your battles well and build on your victories. Your reputation will grow faster and reach higher than your place in the hierarchy.
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