After our Stonewall success, where do we go next?

Following our Stonewall Workplace Equality Index result (coming 78^th in Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers list) I wanted to say, personally, how proud I am of being part of a university that is working hard at creating an inclusive workplace for all staff. The survey that Stonewall carried out as part of the index showed that staff feel York St John is an inclusive place to work (and this was replicated in the staff survey results last year). As someone working in Human Resources, this is great to hear!

Whilst there is always more that we can do, what has been amazing is that we have already been approached by other universities to find out how we moved from 224^th last year, in our first year of entering, to 78^th in only our second attempt. The response is that it’s been largely down to the hard work of the LGBT Staff Network and their efforts in awareness-raising and leading many city-wide events. The university recently hosted the launch event for York Pride 2015 and organised numerous events as part of York LGBT History Month 2015.

We recognise that whilst we have achieved a great deal, we can still improve, for example through ensuring that staff who are experiencing unfair treatment at work have a range of options for reporting, advice and support. We recently introduced a manager’s guide for supporting LGBT people in their teams, however we could do more to promote this guide, ensuring managers are aware of it and confident in using it.

We will shortly be running Stonewall’s Straight Allies Programme and offering places to other employers in the city. Allies is a term used for people who do not identify as LGBT and who believe that lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people should experience full equality in the workplace. There is a role for us all.

The programme helps people to think about what it means to be yourself in the workplace and how they can be more effective and inclusive role models and allies. It will hopefully help us to promote increased visibility of allies at the university as a means of continuing to support the journey which started in 2013 when we became a Stonewall Equality Champion and to build upon our achievements so far. Our Stonewall ranking is a strong message to both our students and staff that we all have a part to play in making our workplace and life on campus more inclusive for everyone.

If you are interested in taking part in the Straight Allies Programme, contact the Staff Development team.