For Pride month, we are changing our logos on social media to feature the Pride flag.
Stephanie Todd, chair of In-Fuse, our network for LGBT+ employees, talks about why this is not simply an aesthetic change, but a commitment to remain focused on the inclusion and wellbeing of our LGBT+ colleagues by making real and positive changes.
As chair of ScottishPower’s network for our LGBT+ employees and allies – In-Fuse – we champion the creation of an inclusive work environment where colleagues feel confident being their authentic selves at work and bring like-minded people together.
In-Fuse is the voice of hundreds of our employees and for us it is important that this external showing of solidarity is also backed by action and a desire to make positive changes within.
We don’t expect every business to get everything right, but we do believe that businesses across the board should always try to – and be challenged to – strive to be better.
Already our employees have worked with the business to establish HR policies to better support our trans colleagues, championed the introduction of gender-neutral toilets in our UK HQ and support senior leaders on a reverse mentoring program to improve their knowledge and understanding.
We also form part of ScottishPower’s dedicated Diversity & Inclusion Steering Group that’s represented at the highest level of the business and has a firm focus on identifying and supporting inclusion initiatives that have positive impacts.
We’re proud that ScottishPower will be actively supporting Glasgow’s Pride march this summer (MardiGla) along with Pride in Liverpool, near where our SP Energy Networks business has a number of staff based.
As Pride month continues, we’re celebrating the progress we have made but we know there’s still so much more to do, whether that’s at ScottishPower or our wider society.
That’s why it’s important to us that this year the ScottishPower logo has changed to one based on the Pride flag design by Daniel Quasar. It builds on the usual Pride flag by adding stripes that emphasise groups within the LGBTQ+ community that often experience marginalisation.
This includes:
• trans and non-binary people – represented by the white, light pink and light blue stripes
• LGBTQ+ people of colour – represented by the brown and black stripes
• people living with AIDS and those who have died from it – represented by the black stripe.
At ScottishPower, there are over 5,500 employees from all walks of life, different backgrounds, identities, and nationalities. There’s diversity of gender, sexual identity, sexual orientation, age, race, religion, disability, and ethnicity.
The company rightly believe that teams with greater diversity and inclusive leadership can offer much higher levels of innovation, creativity and success.
As it looks to recruit a record 1,000 employees this year and focuses on retaining the wide-range of talent already here, changing our logo for Pride is one small action that is importantly backed by a number of initiatives that can have a real and lasting impact.