It’s been a buzzing year already for us at Nexus LGBTQ+, the network for LGBTQ+ employee network leaders based in London, UK, working in close partnership with Out Leadership.
We’ve had terrific engagement from our host companies who are passionate about the LGBTQ+ agenda including WTW, Natixis, and Deliveroo. We’ve learned a lot from speakers from leading organisations like The Unmistakables, OutSpoken Speakers, JP Morgan, Microsoft, HSBC, and LinkedIn. We’ve facilitated opportunities for LGBTQ+ charities like Open For Business, Galop and Gendered Intelligence to connect with more employee networks. We’ve kept our finger on the pulse of the LGBTQ+ news thanks to the brilliant Cynthia Fortlage. And we’ve done a lot of networking, which continues to be at the heart of who we are and how we help make positive change happen across our organisations in the UK and beyond.
To help spread the word on discussions that we’re having in Nexus LGBTQ+, we are thrilled to launch our second piece of thought leadership entitled The LGBTQ+ Employee Lifecycle: What’s Missing? This paper is a follow-up to our breakfast event at the 2024 Out Leadership Europe Summit back in March. In it, we delve into the employee lifecycle stages where LGBTQ+ considerations may currently be getting less focus in organisational DEI strategies. From highlighting LGBTQ+ DEI best practices and progress, identifying where further LGBTQ+ data and insights are needed, looking at lessons from other diversity strands, to considering the potential impact of AI, the paper calls out gaps in activity and practical actions where more support across the employee lifecycle can help retain the LGBTQ+ workforce. We hope you’ll find this paper to be a valuable source of ideas for strategic conversations with your HR teams, networks, executive sponsors and business leaders to identify more ways to get better outcomes for your LGBTQ+ workforce. Please feel free to share!
Pictured above: Dan Ricard, NEXUS Founder, speaking at the 2024 Europe Summit NEXUS Breakfast.
The context we’re operating in continues to be extremely dynamic with a new government in the UK and election impacts from around the world playing out in real-time for the organisations and people we collaborate with. We have big plans for the rest of 2024 to stay on top of hot topics. At upcoming meetings at Baringa and Royal Bank of Canada, we’ll be talking about everything from the intersection between LGBTQ+ and disability to looking at AI through an LGBTQ+ lens, plus updates on progress on HIV prevention, stigma and discrimination and the role corporates can play ahead of World AIDS Day.
Moreover, we’re excited to replicate the success we’ve had here in the UK by expanding the NEXUS LGBTQ+ model to to the United States for 2025. We’ll need in-country champions to join us in this effort, so if you’re an interested LGBTQ+ ERG leaders who would like to be part of the inaugural US NEXUS LGBTQ+ Leadership Committee, please email us.
We love to see the conversations and connections that are happening via our new LinkedIn page, at our in-person events, and through our partnership with Out Leadership. If you are an LGBTQ+ employee network leader based in London or know one who’d like to get involved, drop us an email at events@outleadership to request to be included on our mailing list for invitations to our in-person quarterly breakfasts. Participation in our events is free (with a big thank you to our host companies!). To learn more about what we know about the state of LGBTQ+ employee networks, check out our paper The Pulse of UK Employee Resource Groups. Hope to see you soon!
Best wishes,
Dan Ricard
NEXUS Founder
Here’s what you need to know this week…
#1
Get to know NEXUS: the network for ERGs.
Pictured above: 2024 NEXUS Breakfast in London.
NEXUS LGBTQ+ was established in London, UK in 2015 to bring together LGBTQ+ employee resource group (ERG) leaders across different sectors for presentations and discussions at in-person quarterly breakfasts. It’s a completely free resource for LGBTQ+ ERG leads and their companies led and curated by founder Daniel Ricard from LSEG on a volunteer basis.
NEXUS enables ERG leads to build connections through facilitated speed networking and discussions, stay aware of key news items through quarterly updates, and learn best practices around driving LGBTQ+ progress from market-leading organizations and subject matter experts. Each meeting also highlights LGBTQ+-focused charities looking for corporate engagement to help ERGs drive social good.
#2
LGBTQ+ Employees often face numerous obstacles to their career development at every stage of the employee lifecycle.
Pictured above: Attendees at the OutNEXT Salon as a part of the 2024 Asia Summit.
An employee’s experience through each stage of their journey with a company – from early awareness and recruitment through long-term return and eventual departure – is a key determinant of an employee’s professional growth and satisfaction with their employer. Many organizations focus on improving representation for women and ethnic minorities, but they may not fully address LGBTQ+ issues at all stages of the employee lifecycle.
Here are just a few of the challenges that LGBTQ+ employees
- Visibility. Many companies lack openly LGBTQ+ individuals who can serve as role models
- Talent Development Programs. Few organizations have developed internal talent programs that emphasize LGBTQ+ career development.
- Self-ID. LGBTQ+ employees must self-identify to be counted. A dearth of self-ID data at many organizations limits the resources that can be allocated.
- Mobility. Relocation of LGBTQ+ employees is challenging due to the disparate legal regimes across the globe.
- Bias. Many organizations work to reduce bias and involve HR in processes like performance management and promotions. However, it’s unclear if this is enough to address specific LGBTQ+ issues that may affect career progression.
These challenges have a cost. According to a survey by Deloitte of 5,474 LGBTQ+ people across 13 countries published in June 2023, a third of respondents were actively looking to change employers to find an organization that is more LGBTQ+ inclusive.
#3
Out Leadership and our peers maintain resources that help companies integrate LGBTQ+ employees into their organizations’ corporate responsibility strategy.
Pictured above: The Return on Equality™ ESG Summit, held in 2023, outlined a number of best practices for organization leaders to implement for the benefit of their LGBTQ+ employees.
One of the pillars of Out Leadership’s 10-Year Ambition Statement is to embed LGBTQ inclusion into the global business strategy of every company in the world. To accomplish this goal, we must provide the resources to make this possible. Out Leadership regularly updates countless tools on topics from Allyship and Self-ID to Board Diversity and Trans Equality, providing our members with these vital tools to make LGBTQ+ equality central to every business strategy. Here are just a few of our favorite resources to assist companies with the LGBTQ+ employee lifecycle:
Return on Equality™ ESG Report (Out Leadership)
Provides sustainability data from top UK and US companies and a guide for business leaders to leverage the $3.7 trillion global LGBTQ+ market in their ESG policies.
Investor Guide to LGBTQ+ Inclusion (Open For Business)
Establishes a toolkit of nine key questions to assess LGBTQ+ inclusion in investee companies by reviewing and consolidating the question sets from the major LGBTQ+ benchmarks globally. Their toolkit has been designed to help investors understand which best practices to be looking for in investee firms, and includes actions for LGBTQ+ around recruitment, workforce data and insights monitoring, benefits, and training too.
DE&I Leaderboards (Windō)
Reviews the Sustainability and Diversity, Equality & Inclusion Reports of the Fortune 100, the FTSE250 and the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers. Our data hub includes every qualitative and quantitative input that organisations report on across their LGBTQ+ Representation, Plans and Progress plus additional inputs that we deem important, such as public statements on social equality and outside recognition.
#4
C-suite executives can take action now to better integrate LGBTQ+ employees into the life cycle.
Pictured above: Out Leadership’s signature CEO Dinners provide C-suite leaders with essential updates to drive business innovation through LGBTQ+ inclusion.
C-suite leaders have institutional power and significant cultural influence to make progress actionable. Here’s how your company’s leaders can begin the work:
- Implement self-ID campaigns to collect more LGBTQ+ data, involving teams for communication, data privacy, and collection processes. Be transparent with employees about data use and share campaign outcomes.
- Accept that you may not have complete datasets for LGBTQ+ actions. This applies to other diversity areas too, and lack of data shouldn’t stop you from taking action.
- Clarify that it’s the organization’s responsibility to create an inclusive culture and ensure equity. ERGs, as volunteer groups, shouldn’t be held accountable for these changes but should support the DEI/LGBTQ+ strategy.
- Promote sponsorship relationships with LGBTQ+ talent to help senior leaders understand their experiences and support their advancement.
- Ensure LGBTQ+ representation at all levels to reflect the communities your organization serves and maintain a strong talent pipeline.
- Include LGBTQ+ considerations in AI governance, risk management, and skills discussions.
- Learn about LGBTQ+ equality in all countries where your company operates using Out Leadership’s CEO Country Briefs, which provide steps to make countries more inclusive for businesses.
#5
ERG Leaders should activate their networks to implement change.
Pictured above: OutNEXT, Out Leadership’s premier talent development program for emerging leaders, provides a critical resource for our members as they work to accelerate their LGBTQ+ workers.
Employee Resource Group leaders have the access and network within their organizations to engage stakeholders to accelerate change. Here’s how leaders can get started:
- Work with your HR/DEI teams to discuss actions taken for employees, using available data and survey results.
- Support your organization’s self-ID campaigns and use ERG communications to show how collected data will impact your efforts.
- Make sure your ERG activities and events cater to all parts of the LGBTQ+ community, considering intersectionality.
- Involve LGBTQ+ employees in AI discussions in HR to identify and address biases. Get ERG members to help with AI upskilling for responsible AI use in the organization.