The importance of International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia, Lesbophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBLIT)

Will Riley, Senior Account Handler at Howden, spoke to myGwork about why it is essential that organizations recognize the importance of IDAHOBLIT, and how Howden fosters an inclusive environment for their LGBTQ+ employees throughout the year.

17th May 2024 marks International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia, Lesbophobia and Transphobia, or IDAHOBLIT. IDAHOBLIT was first marked in 2005 and since then has grown globally and is now celebrated in over 100 countries across the world.

As an organization, Howden is committed to ensuring that all colleagues are able to live their life at work freely and without fear of discrimination, harassment or threatening behavior.

This stems out of Howden’s People First culture:

“When a business puts its people first, they feel happier, more fulfilled, and more empowered. That’s not just good for them, it’s good for their clients too. That’s why we support you to work your way and give you space to be yourself, so you can make a difference.”

This means that from right at the top, Howden is demonstrating that putting its people at the front and centre of everything it does and ensuring that everyone can feel like the working environment around them is helping them be the best that they can be.

But it is not just words that stop discrimination and harassment in the workplace. For us at Howden actions are key to demonstrate that we do not just sit behind a mission statement and we actively take steps to show that actions are louder than words.

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Within Howden there is a drive to ensure that Diversity and Inclusion is a core part of the drive to foster that safe and inclusive environment. In 2022, we recruited a dedicated Group Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Manager to lead and further drive our D&I agenda. For example, we are finalizing our Transgender Policy to reiterate our solidarity and support of our Transgender colleagues, and we are ensuring that our recruitment allows for equal access from all areas of the wider community, including the LGBTQ+ community, ensuring that no part of the community faces discrimination both applying for a role within Howden, but also when they are a colleague in Howden.

The Howden LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group (ERG) has been in place for a number of years to represent our LGBTQ+ colleagues. As well as showing that there is a forum for colleagues to share their experiences, the ERG provides material to highlight LGBTQ+ issues and promote awareness of them to the wider community. As Howden expands, it is growing in numbers and this means that we can organize activities to continue the drive to promote issues important to the community, and demonstrate that the organization is promoting the values of diversity and equality and thus drive out discrimination.

Our activities group around Pride Month in June, but advanced promotion of this allows us to highlight IDAHOBLIT in May. The connection between the two is incredibly important. It allows us to show that while there are still challenges for the community, given that many of us still face discrimination or harassment in life, by promoting what we do during Pride Month, we can celebrate what is great about the LGBTQ+ community, and how we can form a fabulous part of the Howden family!

Last year, our key event was the second annual Drag Bingo event. Not only did our fabulous Queens put on a great show, but we raised over £7,000 for the Terrence Higgins Trust. This was thanks in no small part to the assistance of our Executive Sponsors, and supporters from throughout the organisation, who donated raffle prizes and covered the costs of the entertainment, and the Howden Benevity platform which matched the funds raised in full.

But of course we do not want to be active for just one month a year. We maintain our presence year-round. We look to mark the key dates through the year such as Pride History Month in February, Lesbian Visibility Week in April and World Aids Day in December with awareness pieces communications through our various work platforms, Intranet and socials so that all colleagues can increase their awareness and see how much progress we are making, and how we can help this to continue further.

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We also work with LINK (The LGBTQ+ Insurance Network) to hold events and allow colleagues across the industry to compare notes and best practice. We hosted two networking events last year in our own venue within Howden’s London offices, and we are looking forward to hosting more in the future which will allow Howden to spread the People First message farther and wider, and be a part of ending discrimination and fostering the most inclusive environments. We were privileged to attend their 10th Anniversary Awards ceremony, with a nomination for D&I Lead of the Year to highlight the work that Howden has been doing.

In January this year, our esteemed colleague Matthew Searby (Chief Underwriting Officer, Rethink Underwriting Ltd) was the subject of an article with Attitude Magazine on how he has faced discrimination and used this to push forward in the fight for equality.

This contributes to the ERG’s mission to champion the LGBTQ+ community within Howden, to progress the awareness of the community within the organization more widely, and allow all members of the community to feel that they are part of a safe and inclusive environment where anyone can progress and you can be who and what you want to be, without fear of discrimination, and this is what IDAHOBLIT is all about, and the more we can do within the financial services industry more widely to promote IDAHOBLIT and the fight against discrimination the better!

Everyone deserves to live in a world without discrimination. Share with us what you are doing to make this a reality.