National Inclusion Week and the launch of LGBT+ Network
This week is National Inclusion Week and we are taking part to celebrate, share and inspire inclusion practices.
We are committed to nurturing a fair, inclusive and respectful culture and the week (September 27-October 03) provides us with the opportunity to reflect on our successes in this area, promote the diversity of our colleagues and consider how we can improve in the future.
Our vision is for every employee to feel valued, empowered and accepted for who they are. Inclusion is not about viewing everyone as the same but respecting everyone is different.
We believe in the effectiveness of engaged and empowered employees, where everyone, whatever their background, gender, ethnicity or sexuality, has the opportunity to reach their full potential and contribute to the success of our business.
To help us achieve this, we have launched our LGBT+ Network. Like the Network of Women (NOW UK), our LGBT+ Network is open to everyone; not just those from the LGBT+ community.
Among its aims are to offer peer-to-peer support across the business through a network of LGBT+ champions; create training material to educate the broader business on LGBT+ issues; foster relationships with supporting organisations; and help the Fairness, Inclusion and Respect (FIR) committee positively change business culture.
During National Inclusion Week, NOW UK is also sending out the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) benchmarking questionnaire to establish how we have improved and how we can continue to do so. In addition, we are distributing a FIR commitment poster to all sites, which we are encouraging all employees to sign.
Gareth Day, asphalt and contracting managing director, said: “National Inclusion Week provides the opportunity for us all to take some time to consider how we can personally help to nurture a culture of inclusion within the company so we can make a lasting change.
“To visually show out support we have changed the Hanson logo for the week, and we are encouraging our employees to wear an ‘I support Inclusion Week’ sticker.”