WorkPride 2026 day five recap: trans inclusion, mentorship and belonging for ageing employees

Day Five of WorkPride 2026 drew the week to a close while also looking to the future, concentrating on final reflections and on core priorities for lasting inclusion: trans and non-binary inclusion, cultural competency, mentoring and sponsorship, and age inclusion.

Day 5 Inspirational Keynote

The final day of WorkPride 2026 opened with a keynote conversation between myGwork's Lauren Schweppe and Kyndryl senior leader Ben Hughes, setting the tone for a day focused on “Inclusive Futures.” Together they explored how belonging, accountability and the ethical use of technology will define genuinely inclusive workplaces in the decade ahead.

Host Lauren Schweppe, who leads community and partnerships at myGwork, tied the week’s themes to clear expectations from younger talent, noting research that more than a third of students and graduates identify as LGBTQ+, and most would avoid employers where they cannot be authentic. She stressed that culture comes from consistency, not token gestures.

“It's not just about one initiative or one event. It's about this infrastructure that you put in place, these everyday actions, these consistent resourcing of the communities within your company that create that culture.”

Ben Hughes, a senior leader at Kyndryl and chair of its UKI LGBTQ+ inclusion network, argued that future‑ready organizations must pair vocal advocacy with scrutiny of the systems they build, especially AI and people processes that can quietly encode bias. He closed with a call for shared responsibility and visible allyship, particularly amid backlash against LGBTQ+ rights.

“Inclusion doesn't move forward when we go quiet, or when we let things slip under the radar. I think it moves forward because of everyone making their everyday decisions, their everyday behaviors, and choosing to take ownership.”

Trans & Non-Binary Inclusion at Work

The next panel brought together trans and non-binary leaders to move the conversation beyond basic policies and pronouns. Moderated by creator and host Thea Bardot, the session focused on safety, community, leadership courage and everyday allyship in a hostile wider climate.

Santander UK’s Jack Eves, a proud trans man who transitioned while building a career in financial crime, spoke about the isolation of being closeted at work and then overhearing colleagues’ uninformed views about “people like you.” He stressed the importance of managers listening to what an individual needs to feel safe, rather than deciding for them, and of networks like Santander’s Embrace in creating confidential support.

“Equality is equity, it's not always everybody getting the same thing, it's everybody getting what they need.”

Booking.com Innovation Lab Specialist and Be Proud UK leader Isobel Heikkinen highlighted how trans and non-binary people in companies are often turned into “the” spokesperson whose experience is wrongly treated as universal. She urged allies to step in consistently all year round, and to own their objection to transphobia rather than leaving all the emotional labour to trans colleagues.

“You don't have to be trans and you don't have to be non-binary to be affected by discrimination."

Crowe LLP product accessibility lead and disabilities BRG co‑lead Allie Schulke shared her experience of transitioning at work after previously being fired for disclosing she was trans. What made the difference this time was a formal transition plan, a named liaison to handle systems and questions, and HR that backed her when colleagues refused to use her name and pronouns.

“I was just absolutely blown away by the fact that my company had a transition plan and a transition liaison… so that I didn't have to answer all the questions.”

Strategy lead and Priders ERG co‑founder Alex Parmar‑Yee from Awin, who also helps run the UK Trans+ Solidarity Alliance, focused on the power of well‑resourced ERGs and visible corporate advocacy. She pointed to the 650‑business open letter opposing the EHRC’s bathroom guidance and described how much it meant when Awin’s senior leaders checked in on her personally after damaging court decisions.

“That's what true leadership is, and I think it has been noticeable that all these companies that are proudly at Pride parades… are often absent from these conversations.”

Cultural Competency for LGBTQ+ Inclusion

This sessio brought together practitioners, researchers and creatives from across sectors to unpack what meaningful cultural competency looks like in practice. Rather than treating it as a one‑off training or checklist, the panel focused on curiosity, humility, history and storytelling as the foundations of truly inclusive workplaces.

Vivian Hung, global co‑lead for Pride at Standard Chartered Bank, drew on her experience working across more than 50 markets to stress that cultural competence starts from recognising you don’t already understand everyone’s reality. She described how deep listening and personal sharing can transform relationships:

“I think the general principle is storytelling is super powerful. And once they tell their story, then that sense of trust between the two of you like automatically increases by a whole lot.”

Rohan Mapara from Chambers and Partners, who works on DEI and pro bono research, highlighted how LGBTQ+ history and colonial legacies should shape modern inclusion work, especially across regions where queerness is criminalised. For him, cultural competency is as much about confidence and channels as content:

“Genuine cultural competency really, for me, needs to be about instilling the confidence in someone that they can just ask… and reminding people in your organization, especially people managers, that LGBTQ+ people are just normal people.”

Arup EDI lead Jesse Vernon encouraged organisations to swap talk of “competency” for “cultural humility,” starting with self‑awareness about one’s own assumptions and privileges. They pointed to the need for systems‑level change, built in from the start rather than bolted on:

“Cultural humility starts first with self-awareness and then curiosity… and then letting the person that we're interacting with show up as themselves because some of those things might be, you know, the fifth most important part of their identity.”

Premier Foods culture and engagement partner Lisa McCandless spoke from decades of experience as a gay woman who once felt compelled to hide at work. She argued for inclusion‑first strategies and for storytelling from both LGBTQ+ people and allies, backed by visible signals like Pride flags and senior leaders who share their own journeys.

“Lead with inclusion. Make sure that those doors are wide open and everybody's welcome.”

Queer multidisciplinary artist Saman Me Kala, joining from India, shared how workplaces can become a “second home” for those whose families or hometowns may not be accepting. He urged organisations to listen to and platform perspectives that come from very different starting points, and to treat LGBTQ+ inclusion as core duty rather than fashion.

“I wish it's not only a trend, but also a responsibility from organizations.”

Mentorship and Sponsorship

Through the next session, LGBTQ+ leaders and advocates explored how intentional mentoring, thoughtful matching and active sponsorship can transform individual careers and organisational cultures, especially for marginalised staff.

Dr. Alex Baird, a senior lecturer and EDI lead at the University of Bedfordshire, shared research on formal LGBTQ+ leadership programmes in higher education, stressing that pairing LGBTQ+ mentees with LGBTQ+ mentors enables deeper, faster trust and more honest conversations about navigating politics and progression.

“What I found was really meaningful about this was that there was trust, openness and mutual respect within these relationships and conversations… it allowed reciprocal queer knowledge sharing, and it allowed both mentors and mentees to navigate political and career pathways.”

Mars Petcare commercial strategy manager Ben Hawes spoke from the mentee side about joining the company as a graduate, initially closeted and holding back in a people‑oriented culture. A randomly assigned mentor who later disclosed he was also gay helped Ben come out at work, connect into the Pride ERG and eventually step into leadership himself.

“I remember on one of the first times that I went, he said, ‘I can see you running that one day.’ And I was like, absolutely no way… and then four years later, here I am running our European ERG.”

JP (Jonathan Palmer) from Outvertising described running a cross‑industry LGBTQIA+ mentorship programme for people in advertising and media, built around careful, intersectional matching and clear expectations on both sides. He emphasised that the right mentor is often the one who shares your lived experience, not just your job title.

“What we really deal with is kind of, it is that whole cliched expression, be what you can see… if you can get a partner who is as close life experience to you as possible, who is in that position, you can really go, I can do it. I can actually do it.”

Richard Jefferies of Sustainable Fitch outlined how mentors, coaches and sponsors play distinct but complementary roles, and why marginalised staff often miss out on informal sponsorship in particular. He urged LGBTQ+ professionals to build networks and make their achievements visible so others can champion them in rooms where decisions are made

“The key thing for me about a sponsor is they're there for you when you're not in the room… doing good work is great, please everyone continue to do great work, but having somebody talk about your good work when you're not there is super, super powerful.”

Ageing Employees and Belonging

The closing WorkPride 2026 panel focused on how longer lives, multigenerational workforces and changing careers are reshaping what inclusion needs to look like. Speakers shared both personal experiences and organisational research, urging employers to move beyond seeing older staff as “nearing the exit” and instead build strategies that work across every life stage.

Canada Life UK’s Head of Brand and Content Orla Peters drew on the company’s longevity research and her own late‑career job search to highlight how age bias often shows up first in recruitment and narrow ideas of “flexibility.” She argued for deliberate, data‑driven strategies that recognise changing demographics and non‑linear careers.

“By 2030, over 50% of the UK population are going to be over 50… longevity isn't going anywhere, and the changing demographic isn't going anywhere, so it’s something everybody needs to be conscious of.”

Premier Foods culture and engagement business partner Lisa McCandless spoke candidly about the “sandwich generation,” juggling dependent children and ageing parents while still wanting development and second or third careers. She challenged both ageism against older staff and the dismissal of younger colleagues, insisting inclusion must start from day‑one signals and everyday language.

“Lead with inclusion… If those doors are open wide, everybody is welcome, and you are inclusive from the start, then that's when you'll get your diversity in.”

Simone Whitfield, customer success professional and head of the Women’s Network at Colt Technology Services, described completing a Level 7 apprenticeship at 48 and the difference that continued learning made to her confidence and contribution. She pushed leaders to remove arbitrary age limits on training, rethink redundancy assumptions, and recognise that many people neither want nor can afford a traditional early retirement.

“We spend so much time in organisations teaching people to have a growth mindset… so don't stop them from then wanting to use that.”

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