Case Study - Employee Engagement

Informing, educating and supporting all employees to be aware of the issues affecting their lesbian, gay and bisexual colleagues is a vital step towards creating an inclusive workplace culture. Employee engagement can include providing LGB colleagues with the support to feel comfortable being ‘out’ at work, or using internal communication channels to raise all employees’ awareness of issues affecting LGB people. The business benefits include greater employee engagement, better service delivery to LGB consumers and service users and opportunities for brand enhancement in a competitive market.

The Environment Agency recognise the value of ensuring all staff are aware of LGB equality issues and have put in place a programme of activity to make sure their awareness-raising initiatives reach all staff, regardless of their location, seniority or position.

Awareness raising initiatives are structured around a ‘drip feed’ approach, using a variety of media to communicate with staff. These include posters in local offices profiling members of staff who are ‘Friends’ of the LGBT Staff Network, ‘Meet a Colleague’ articles including LGB role models and all staff emails promoting events such as LGBT History Month.

The Environment Agency have also focussed on making sure these messages of support are visible to remote staff, especially field staff without regular access to computers. Email communications such as the ‘Weekly Buzz’ are printed off and displayed in coffee areas and canteens. In Wales, posters advertising the LGBT staff network are prominently displayed in offices based in rural or remote offices. These offices also have a dedicated point of contact for staff, who shares information on behalf of the network.

In an effort to engage non-LGB staff, the LGBT Network held a number of face to face events across the organisation. These included lunch and learn sessions where members of
the network shared their experiences alongside straight allies who promoted the network’s ‘Friends of the network’ scheme.