From global initiatives to cultural debate, championing DEI should be a year-long process
For Pragashini Fox, head of talent & diversity at Thomson Reuters, celebrating Pride is something that’s embedded in their organizational DNA. Speaking to HRD, Fox explained that supporting their LGBTQ+ employees is a super-high priority – both in June and beyond.
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“Pride Month at Thomson Reuters is a worldwide celebration,” Fox revealed. “We have 15 countries in which our employees and allies come together to celebrate, share, reflect and learn together. Last year, for example, we celebrated Pride Month with over 20 virtual events - we took the opportunity of being remote to open this activation to all our employees throughout the month of June. This year, we're continuing this momentum with similar activities. Last year, we ran an internal campaign, called 2021 Pride Quest, that introduced colleagues to key blogs and content written by our Pride at Work members. We also had a global social media campaign titled Count Me In for Pride 2021. This was a weekly theme in which colleagues and our customers could use to create some social share cards for use across the range of social channels.”
Fox revealed to HRD that these initiatives drew a huge participation – with their CEO even joining in the fun. The team at Thomson Reuters went on to create a hashtag #BeYouatTR, which Fox says they rolled out for new colleagues in the onboarding process.
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“We also focus our employer branding to feature all of our LGBTQIA colleagues, their stories, identities and perspectives to bring Thomson Reuters together,” added Fox. “I think this was really critical for us to showcase and share the stories as well. We also have coffee chats and roundtable discussions that’re led by the LGBTQIA plus employees allies on topics such as allyship and resiliency, which brings together small groups so that small enough to have an intimate conversation and an open dialogue on shared interests.
“We had great engagement from our employees across the Pride Month events and activations, both from our employee population and also from our leaders. This not only provided an opportunity to learn, to celebrate and embrace our colleagues who are being their authentic selves, but it was also important that we were honouring the courage of others.”
Fox revealed that employees at TR felt emboldened by this top-down approach to DEI – understanding that they were safe to be their authentic selves at work, something that’s essential to engagement and morale. But remember, Pride isn’t just for June – it’s forever. All too often employees make the mistake of only celebrating LGBTQ+ staff in the Pride Month. For Fox, she’s insistent on making it a ‘365 days a year’ initiative - something they achieve through allyship.
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“It’s really important that we have allies and allyship across the organisation,” she told HRD. “These are individuals who’re advocating on others’ behalf, identifying micro-aggressions, and speaking up on behalf of what they're seeing. That’s absolutely critical.”