What Non-binary Allyship in the Workplace Looks Like to Us

At Whitbread, we have spent time educating teams and raising awareness around what it means to be non-binary by including this in training for our teams, such as sessions around gender identity, to explain how this is different to sexuality and to educate around different terminology.

We actively encourage the use of pronouns in our organisation by raising awareness about what they mean and why they are important, specifically to the non-binary community and encourage all team members to display them in their email signature or Teams status if comfortable to do so.

It was important to us to make pronouns available on name badges, and we have made this available in all our hotels and restaurants, alongside educating teams about the use of pronouns. We actively encourage all teams to add their pronouns if they wish to allow non-binary team members to feel safe to add theirs so their colleagues and customers use the right pronouns for them.

Pronouns included on badges for employees at Whitbread is one important part of their allyship to the non-binary community

We have recently expanded the data we collect about our teams to include gender identity (along with sexual orientation and disability). With a view to better understanding how our teams identify and their experience of working with us (through our Employee Engagement Survey), we can build actions to help create a more inclusive working environment for the community, and we are acting on behalf of the community, not for them.

We are committed to being an inclusive place for our teams to work and customers to visit; therefore, we will continue to celebrate all of the LGBTQ+ community, raise awareness of the barriers they experience and recruit and educate allies.

"Non-Binary allyship is important to me because of my own journey around my sexuality and gender identity. Growing up, I was always under the impression you had to be one or the other because this is what my own experiences had taught me, whether that came to your sexuality, gender identity or gender expression," says Keiran Bailey (he/they), Diversity and Inclusion Advisor at Whitbread. "After I came out as a gay man, I still had some confusion about my gender identity and how I wanted to express myself. Often being asked if I was a girl or a boy when I used to have long hair and started wearing make-up, I started to feel really uncomfortable and unsure in my own skin. Thankfully, as I had a really supportive group of friends outside of work and because of the amazing work Whitbread have been doing around the topic of Gender Identity, Allyship and Inclusion, I am much more confident and comfortable with who I am and I’m proud to now be using he/they pronouns myself.

It's so important to me that we continue to promote allyship for the non-binary community and educate and raise awareness overall so that no one feels they can’t be themselves at work, and we continue to strive towards a truly inclusive society and make every space a safe space. I’m so proud of the work Whitbread have been doing over the past 2 years, and I am grateful to be a part of the journey moving forward.”

Keiran Bailey (he/they), Diversity and Inclusion Advisor at Whitbread