DIVERSITY
I have seen the opportunities and challenges as an SME and now see the opportunities and challenges for larger businesses . I thought , why do all the efforts focus on large businesses ? Then , I chaired the first-ever conversation hosted by the Minister for Women and Equalities [ Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP ] and myself , focused on supporting SMEs on LGBT at work .
The government said , “ look , actually that was quite an interesting initiative . Would you like to take on this role as a business champion to shine a light on best practise and try to get large and small businesses collaborating ?’ To go out and find some evidence to enable greater LGBT progress at work .
The government has a lot of data on gender at work , on ethnicity at work , on social mobility at work , but what it doesn ' t have is a lot of data on LGBTQ + at work . I ' m basically going out and about trying to get data to help make better informed policy .
BH : What lessons do you think are here for other governments trying to do the same thing ?
“ The government has a lot of data on gender at work , on ethnicity at work , on social mobility at work , but what it doesn ' t have is a lot of data on LGBTQ + at work ”
IAIN ANDERSON CO-FOUNDER &
EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN , CICERO / AMO
IA : I think the exciting thing about this is it is the first time a government has appointed an LGBT business champion . This for me goes far beyond the classic diversity and inclusion piece .
I remember doing a conference in November 2019 when the topic was , ‘ would environmental and social and governance [ ESG ] factors survive a cyclical downturn ?’ Well , we haven ' t had a cyclical downturn . We ' ve had a global pandemic that has unleashed a very legitimate conversation about the role we all play in society and the role that business plays in society . So one of the things I ' m trying to do out of this , and hopefully we ' ll see this replicated in other countries , as well , is to take some of this conversation out of purely being DEI and turning it into a meaningful , tangible element around the S part of ESG . It also has a bearing on the E and G parts of ESG , but S is where investors are trying to lock in long term meaningful change .
BH : I was going to now go straight in , and say ‘ let ' s talk about corporates ’, but I feel we should talk about investors first . That ' s a really interesting phrase ‘ locking in the long term change ’ through investors . Can you expand on that ?
IA : If we look at some of the major public pension schemes , they are now asking very different questions than they were a decade ago . They ' re asking about corporate behaviour , intention and what ' s happening with supply chains . Increasingly - and rightly - investors , politicians , and now the regulators are posing some harder questions .
BH : You can ' t get away with a hollow commitment anymore . People are wise to it . Pre-2022 , how would you characterise the state of affairs for LGBTQ + people in the workplace and within corporate culture as a whole ? sustainabilitymag . com 71