WorkPride day five: panel recap and best bits

The last day of WorkPride 2024, day five, brought together professionals, graduates, inclusive employers, and allies for a transformative day dedicated to advancing workplace diversity and inclusion.

Attendees engaged in discussions on inclusive leadership, the impact of immigration on the workforce, and bisexuality in the workplace, and many more topics. Read on to find some of the insightful, engaging quotes from the final day of WorkPride 2024.

Inclusive Leadership: Strategies for Success 

Paul Wheeler, Kellanova:“It’s using your voice and the privilege that you have in the room to speak up and make it better for other people. But it’s also helping other people understand that just because I’m a gay man doesn’t mean that I represent everyone in the queer community.” 

Luca Simonazzi, luluemon: “An authentic leader is also someone that is really himself or herself at work and is the same person at home... so they don’t show up with a mask and able to open their home to their team.” 

The Impact of Immigration on the Workforce 

Luiza Wilson, FINRA: “Immigration has long been a cornerstone of cultural and economic development. It shapes the dynamics of societies worldwide. It brings a myriad of skills, experiences, and perspectives to the workforce.” 

Tim Barnden, Bates Wells: “One of the things that trans and non-binary people encounter is the difficulty where you have a disparity between someone’s documents and their gender identity. These are the kind of practical issues that trans and non-binary people are struggling with day in, day out, and an example of how complicated it can get when you add migration to the filter.” 

Diversity in Media and Entertainment: Authentic Representation 

Ben Hunte, VICE News: “The media has reach and impact. I know that the stories that I tell have the potential to create social change, and to help someone out there to at least acknowledge that they’re not alone.” 

Char Bailey, Birmingham Pride UK (Ltd): “A lot of the time we’re hidden. We’re not amplified, we’re not promoted. But we do exist and it’s our job as people who hold intersectional identities to go out and find each other, to collaborate and connect, because we are here, and we do exist.” 

Data-Driven Diversity: Utilizing Metrics for Progress 

Alexandra Sims, Oracle: “When collecting data, think about what questions want to be answered, and what goals you want achieved. These goals might change based on the data you gather and analyse.” 

Belton Flournoy, Protiviti: “Make sure you’re looking at the demographic information that is applicable to your organisation. If you have a huge ethnic minority group or a huge LGBTQ+ contingency, but then you’re using diversity statistics from the general population, that may not be relevant to you.” 

Dee McDougal, Capco: “Passion is not enough to do this work. You have to know what you’re talking about; you have to be connected to the business, in order to drive scalable, sustainable change.” 

Bisexuality in the Workplace: Navigating Identity and Fostering Inclusion 

Simon Price, S&P Global: “Don’t be afraid to try to figure yourself out through different paths, different hobbies, different groups. Statistically, you’re going to meet other queer people no matter what you try.” 

Thomas Wellings, Santander: “Let’s embrace showing up and participating, and just having that curiosity for how different people live their lives or where we do have similarities. A lot of us have far more in common than we think.” 

LaRissa O'Neal, RS Group: “Being bi means love and attraction and affection and emotion to anyone and everyone without order, without restriction, without guidelines, without having to deny who my heart feels that desire for.”