Supporting LGBTQIA+ Inclusion In The Workplace 2023
Online Conference 29 June 2023, 9:00am - 3:00pm
9:00am
Online Registration
9:30am
Chair’s Welcome Address
Anna Einarsdottir, Reader in Critical Diversity Management, University of York
9:40am
Transforming The Workplace: Taking A Holistic Approach To LGBTQIA+ Inclusivity
- Driving progress and continuous development through the Workplace Equality Index which provides feedback, learning, and action plans
- Advancing equality using employee surveys and insights, reviewing all aspects of work and opportunities for change
- Highlighting success and identifying future solutions at all stages of the inclusion journey
- Assessing overall performance including policy, networks, allyship, role models, employee lifecycle and lived experiences, customers, and monitoring
Liz Ward, Director of Programmes, Stonewall
10:00am
LGBTQIA+ Inclusion for Advocates and Allies
- LGBTQ+ Language & Terminology
- Intersectionality
- LGBTQ+ Inclusion
- Supporting Pride
Tash Koster-Thomas, Inclusion and Diversity Consultant and LGBTQ+ Activist
10:20am
Implementing Practical Policies To Transform Workplace Culture
- Understanding how to enhance HR practices in alignment with legal obligations, improving allyship and developing safe environments where everyone can thrive
- Building tools and strategies to support staff with protected characteristics, investigating and reforming traditional policies concerning parental leave, healthcare, menopause, and fertility treatment
- Exploring the need for tackling discrimination and delivering progressive workplace changes
- Evaluating policies to best meet the needs of a diverse workforce, signalling and delivering equality and diversity commitments
Shannon Rivers, Head of Inclusion & Wellbeing Advisory Services, Business in the Community
10:40am
Questions And Answers Session
11:00am
Break and Networking
11:30am
Championing Change: Developing Diverse And Inclusive Workplaces
- Creating work environments that reflect and promote diversity and inclusion
- The challenge of meaningful data about LGBTQIA+ representation and inclusion in the workplace
- Advocating for LGBTQIA+ through allyship and role models
- Encouraging LGBTQIA+ inclusion through an emphasis on intersectionality
Geffrye Parsons, Founder and CEO, The Inclusion Imperative
11:50am
The Role of Allyship in Facilitating Workplace Inclusion
- An effective model of allyship that advances LGBT+ inclusion in the workplace
- Practical initiatives that create inclusion via employee engagement
- The role of authenticity at work
Dr Luke Fletcher, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor, Centre for Future of Work, University of Bath
12:10pm
Exploring Practical And Emotional Support For LGBTQIA+ Refugees, Asylum Seekers And Migrants
- Acknowledging the additional vulnerabilities faced by LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers and refugees, highlighting challenges including qualification issues, confidence, poverty, and societal attitudes
- Developing a vision to improve the safety and opportunities for LGBTQIA+ people settling in the UK, led by those with lived experience as refugees and migrants
- Working in partnership to combat the additional threats and challenges facing LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers entering the workplace
- Providing guidance, training, workshops, and plans to assist with finding employment and job opportunities
Alys Duggan, Regional Coordinator for London and the South East, Micro Rainbow
12:30pm
Questions And Answers Session
12:50pm
Lunch And Networking
1:30pm
Progressing Visible LGBTQIA+ Leadership: Delivering National Change
- Recognising the value of LGBTQIA+ leadership in strengthening policies, protecting rights, and developing platforms for social change
- Overcoming institutional injustices, prejudice, and historic underrepresentation that limit prospects for advancement and growth into leadership roles
- Using networks and role models to encourage staff of all identities to be comfortable in the workplace
- Sharing strategies for challenging negative perceptions, building positive relationships, understanding and empathy
Amy Tapping, Co-chair, National LGBT+ Police Network
1:50pm
Older LGBTQ+ people in the Workplace
- A talk highlighting the lived experience of older LGBTQ+ people in the workplace with reference to historic discrimination and the Equality Act 2010.
Simon Fox, Post Graduate Lecturer in Public Health, Teesside University
2:10pm
By not addressing chemsex we won't end new HIV infections by 2030 or stop Hep C by 2025
- Overview of drug use among gay men and how chemsex differs from other forms of drug use
- Ending new cases of HIV by 2030 (Fast Track Cities) and eliminating Hepatitis C by 2025 (NHS England) and why addressing chemsex is essential to meeting these goals
- The issues and way forward.
Patriic Gayle, Projects Lead, Gay Men's Health Collective
2:30pm
Supporting The Mental Health Of LGBTQIA+ Employees
- Redesigning mental wellbeing initiatives to embrace the range of intersectional identities and acknowledge the additional challenges facing LGBTQIA+ individuals including microaggressions, discrimination, misgendering and intrusive questions
- Providing individualised support for the needs of transgender and non-binary individuals, taking action to tackle harassment and unacceptable behaviour
- Creating open, safe workplaces and a positive culture where everybody is free to be themselves
- Recognising the importance of helping older people and those who realise their sexuality or gender identity later in life
Erica Thornton, MindOut, LGBTQ Mental Health Service
2:50pm
Questions And Answers Session
3:10pm
Chair’s Summary And Close
Anna Einarsdottir, Reader in Critical Diversity Management, University of York