In this week’s guest column, Matt Tudball outlines how LexisNexis Risk Solutions Group’s first LGBTQ+ employee resource group – PROUD@RSG – was born, the challenges encountered along the way, and the resulting benefits for LGBTQ+ staff and allies worldwide.
Workplace diversity has become one of the main challenges and priorities for companies worldwide, but there has been real momentum in the past few years among LGBTQ+ Pride Networks. At ICIS, part of LexisNexis Risk Solutions Group (RSG), we launched the company’s first LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group (ERG) in 2017 alongside other diversity and inclusion (D&I) groups, with a view to give better visibility to its LGBTQ+ employees and open forum to share stories, challenges and successes.
At the time I had worked for the company for five years, and as an openly gay man I wanted to help create a safe and non-judgemental forum whereby LGBTQ+ employees can talk to other members of the team about their life experiences; and ultimately be proud of who they are. Since its inception, PROUD@RSG has grown in terms of its members, but also the importance to both LGBTQ+ employees and allies alike.
We soon learnt that it was the events where speakers shared their personal stories of being LGBTQ+ that resonated the most with employees across the business. Having something a listener can relate to, or someone they can empathise with seemed to create the most impact – especially as most of our early speakers were RSG employees, and they were speaking to their peers, co-workers and friends.
EARLY CHALLENGES
Some of our early challenges with this group was being too UK-focused, and in particular too London-focused; especially as we knew we could potentially connect with our wider employee network of over 30,000 staff globally. We were mindful of regional differences and that even now, cities like London or New York are still very much ahead in terms of acceptance of LGBTQ+ people than other places in the UK, Europe and the wider world. And as a global company with offices all around the world, we need to remember major challenges remain in countries with strong anti-LGBTQ+ stances, or where homosexuality is still illegal.
Ironically, one of the best things to happen to PROUD@RSG was the transition to working from home for the vast majority of employees following Covid-19 global lockdowns. Suddenly, virtual events allowed colleagues who were perhaps not yet ready or comfortable to join an in-person event to dial into a call anonymously; or to watch the recorded discussion at a later date. By closing the offices down, we were opening up accessibility to our pride group for several people.
The horrific murder of George Floyd in May 2020, and the company’s subsequent efforts to support the BLM movement as well as its BIPOC employees afterwards had led to a strong, and much-needed focus on allyship. This year, PROUD@RSG’s ‘theme’ is around how to be a stronger ally; not just for the LGBTQ+ community, but for all under-represented groups.
ACTIVITIES & SAFE SPACES
With this in mind, a lot of our activities revolve around education and creating safe spaces for employees to talk with, and learn from, LGBTQ+ people. In a company with over 30,000 people, it is important to remember that not many will have ever met a trans person, let alone had the opportunity to talk to them about how best to advocate for trans rights, or even just how to approach the topic of pronouns; a simple subject that can still trip up many people in a work environment.
We have built a PROUD@RSG SharePoint site that is available for all employees to share information on the PROUD@RSG Steering Committee, our up-coming events, and most importantly, as a resource centre for colleagues to access information on any LGBTQ+ topic. We very much want the journey to allyship to be one that the individual undertakes under their own initiative, and at their own pace and comfort level; and we just ensure we give them the tools to do that.
SENIOR LEADER ALLIES
There are still challenges to overcome, however. In the current virtual world of work, cutting through the noise of emails, calls and meeting requests can be hard. This is where senior leaders can play a part by raising the profile of ERGs, and encourage managers and teams to take part in ERG events.
Despite the challenges, we understand the importance of patience, and that change comes about over time. With that in mind we are focusing efforts on one area at a time, be it entering into Atlanta Pride for the first time this year, or making 2021 the year we pay increased attention to advocating better trans awareness.
And when a colleague approaches a member of the PROUD team from halfway around the world to say the event the group hosted, or the link posted on the PROUD@RSG SharePoint has helped them in some way, that’s what makes us remember why we have LGBTQ+ ERGs; and why they are still so important in creating a better working environment for all LGBTQ+ people.
We are making great strides in LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion, and it is important to our future. We need the engagement of people from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and ideas to achieve real innovation not just for our employees, but also for our customers around the world.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Matt Tudball is Senior Editor for recycling at ICIS, part of the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Group. He joined the company in 2012 covering markets, including Turkey & Africa Polymers; and spent two years as Head of European Markets at ICIS from 2017-2019. Tudball leads the company’s Pride ERG – PROUD@RSG – which he helped launch in London in 2017; and which has now grown to encompass chapters from Singapore to Italy, the US and Brazil. He helped the business’ application into the 2018 and 2019 Pride in London, the first time the company had taken part in any LGBTQ+ parades; and is planning to take part in Atlanta Pride in 2021. He has also helped oversee the company’s LGBTQ+ Allyship Program, which launched during Pride Month in 2021.
ADDITIONAL LGBTQ+ WORK-RELATED ARTICLES
Check out our other columns and interviews on LGBT+ inclusion to celebrate Pride Month, such as:
Inclusion champion Sophie Wood shares how her trans journey inspired her move into the diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) profession; and offers sound advice for other HR/DE&I professionals on how to better support trans colleagues and promote workplace belonging for all.
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