Pride 2023 - Demonstrating Allyship at Spencer Ogden

The first of June marked the beginning of Pride, a month dedicated to celebrating LGBTQIA+ communities all around the world. During PRIDE, people come together in love and friendship to show how far LGBTQIA+ rights have come, and how in some places there’s still work to be done. 

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At Spencer Ogden, building a culture that is accessible to all and where differences are celebrated is our priority. We strive to maintain conversations around ED&I and how we can support the LGBTQIA+ community.

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In June, we launched our first global LGBTQIA+ Employee Resource Group. Similar to our ED&I and Environmental, Social and Governance networks, this ERG offers a safe and supportive space to meet and discuss important LGBTQIA+ topics.

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A few of the other ways we celebrated…

• Facilitated a seminar for our people to discuss LGBTQIA+ rights within the workplace 

• Asked colleagues, “What does #Pride mean to you? Individuals were able to share their thoughts on dedicated Pride walls across our offices 

• Encouraged everyone to wear rainbow colours, especially on our end-of-month sales day

• Inspired our teams to show off their culinary expertise at our rainbow bake sale for charity

• Shared weekly learnings & quizzes with colleagues each week, addressing LGBTQIA+ topics such as allyship and pronouns. Colleagues were encouraged to include pronouns in their email signatures to show their support.

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In June we committed to donating half of the proceeds generated by our internal PACE recognition scheme to Mosaic LGBT+ young person's trust. This charity works to support, Educate and Inspire London's LGBT+ young people through mentorship and events. The remaining revenue PACE recognitions was donated to our impact partner Cool Earth as usual, to ensure we are still honouring our existing charitable commitments. 

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We raised £305 from ‘Bake the Rainbow’ sales in our EMEA region alone and saw PACE recognitions quadruple as colleagues were eager to recognise each other for their hard work, while generating donations for charity at the same time. 

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We are proud to celebrate Pride Month and are continually committed to building an inclusive and diverse workplace where colleagues are happy and confident to be themselves.