WorkPride 2026 day two recap: unconscious bias, mental health and disability inclusion

Day 2 of WorkPride 2025 featured another rich mix of panels and keynotes focused on advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion at work. Attendees delved into critical topics through thoughtful conversations aimed at sparking action and deepening understanding across organizations.

Day 2 Inspirational Keynote

Aasha Tikoo, Director of Strategic Partnerships at MyGwork underlined that policies and statements alone are not enough when it comes to encouraging inclusion.

“Creating inclusive workplaces requires more than good intentions. It requires action, and that's exactly where today's conversation begins.”

In dialogue with Aasha, Robin Panrucker, Head of Talent Development and Inclusion for EME at Winston Taylor and co‑chair of the firm’s Rainbow Network, explored what inclusion looks like in real, everyday terms. Robin pointed to hybrid work, commercial pressures, and rising expectations around authenticity as the biggest current challenges, but also highlighted how small, consistent actions can change people’s experience of work.

“It's not the big statements, it's small things and it's the frequency of those things… those moments, those small moments, they add up and add up, and I think that's hugely important.”

The Business Case for LGBTQ+ Belonging

This panel examined why inclusion is both morally right, and commercially essential. Moderator Thomas Godden, founder of ProudHR and HR recruitment specialist at Oakleaf Partnership, grounded the discussion in his own experience of how early openness in recruitment changed his performance and engagement.

“Straight away, I was at ease. And to then get the job, knowing that I've been completely open up and upfront and honest from the start, really created that sense of belonging for me.”

From a finance and industrial perspective, Luca Condosta of ABB stressed that companies must be honest about the business rationale for LGBTQ+ inclusion, and then back it up with hard policy change. Equalising benefits, parental leave, and pension schemes for same‑sex couples is, for him, a litmus test of seriousness.

“The moment you're able to equalize the benefit, then it's no more just a moral cause, but it's really something you do because it brings value."

HR Director Adel Johnson highlighted the direct link between psychological safety and performance, drawing on both leadership experience and her son’s coming‑out journey. She argued that representation without genuine belonging leads to tokenism and lost potential.

“When people feel safe, and they feel valued, they contribute, they stay, and they innovate. If you've got representation without belonging, it leads to tokenism."

From the talent solutions side, Michael Caley‑Cook of AMS underlined that client expectations and younger generations are pushing inclusion up the commercial agenda. He discussed the value of belonging being hand-in-hand with representation.

"Representation doesn't tell the whole story. Belonging's more about feeling and the extent to which people feel like they can feel completely accepted and valued by people around them.”

Speaking from both museum and school settings, Lisa FitzGerald emphasised the power of visible role models to convert representation into belonging, especially for young people. Recalling a headteacher who came out to students, she said it shifted what felt possible.

“It does make it a different ballgame if the leader is openly out and talking about that."

Consultant and former Thomson Reuters HR leader Nick Creswell focused on the commercial, reputational, and legal risks of failing on belonging, while reinforcing a simple truth about authenticity at work. Quoting Stonewall and his own observations, he said:

“People perform better when they can be themselves… If you create an environment where people can be themselves, they'll show up for themselves, they'll edit themselves less, and you'll get more from them and more of them.”

Inclusion in Global Teams

In the next panel, moderator Belton Flournoy of Protiviti framed the conversation around moving beyond “minimum viable” global policies to practical, context-aware inclusion.

Rich Thompson, who now works in Capgemini’s group Inclusive Futures team after leading its LGBTQ+ network, described employee networks and corporate DEI as interdependent, not interchangeable. Networks create community and act as critical advocates, while HR must own structural change.

“I don't really believe in using the network as an unpaid extension of corporate functions. The employee networks can be there to review, test, give feedback, and promote and share things that are working."

From RX Global, Adam Cartledge highlighted the pivotal role of local managers in translating global values into everyday experiences, especially in client‑facing, cross‑border contexts. He warned against two extremes: imposing HQ norms or letting local norms override inclusion.

“Good companies and workplaces hold steady to their values, and then they adapt their methods locally. You don't want an inconsistent or an unsafe environment for any of your employees, nor do you want the reputational risk of either extreme."

Consultant Nikki Pinyapipat of Trans Talents Consulting Group drew on her own experience as a trans professional in Asia to stress that training alone cannot fix systems designed without certain people in mind. She argued for economic, not just cultural, framing and deep local adaptation.

“We don't fix this kind of issue with only training or speaking events alone… we fix it by redesigning the infrastructures throughout the employee journey from hiring pipeline, performance metrics, reporting lines, and how you measure belonging, not just the headcount.”

Julien Brain, who leads Wipro’s global LGBTQIA+ charter, focused on the tension between beliefs, policy, and shifting politics in different markets. For him, policies are a baseline, but belonging is built in relationships and trust.

“You really can't broadcast belonging from headquarters and hope that it will land and it will magically work in all of the different regions. You need local allies and LGBTQ colleagues who understand the culture… and will help translate that global message into something that lands locally."

Addressing Unconscious Bias

This session took the concept out of theory and into lived experience, showing how bias shows up in hiring, performance, everyday interactions, and even AI - and what organisations can realistically do about it.

From Capgemini, Lee Israel of Colt Technology Services shared a recent moment that forced him to confront his own assumptions - instinctively assuming a male character was a senator in a TV drama - and explained how that kind of self‑checking needs to become habit.

“I did have to kind of sit back and check myself a little bit… I'd like to think that I don't have unconscious bias, but ultimately, we also know that that's just not likely."

Speaking from a talent and DEI lens, Tomás Ribeiro of Unit4 highlighted how affinity bias quietly shapes hiring and promotion unless systems are redesigned. He argued for standardised, evidence‑based decision processes over gut feel.

“For decisions that actively affect the career and life of someone, my piece of advice would be to standardize decision‑making… so you won't have space for subjectivity and judgment.”

Recruiter Teresa Salazar of ESW brought the emotional reality of bias to life with a story of a lesbian colleague sanctioned for mentioning her girlfriend while straight co‑workers freely discussed their relationships. For Teresa, change comes from altering actions and exposure, not just mindsets.

“I really think we have to focus not so much in training about learning definitions, but about giving people that life experience that will open their mind to think of ways of thinking of things a different way.”

At JCDecaux, Head of Talent and Inclusion Jenny Pusey has seen unconscious bias training fall flat when it’s theoretical or tick‑box, and work when it is reflective, continuous, and backed by process.

“It doesn't make sense to hire exceptional talent and then make them feel like they can't progress. There's barriers to career progression or promotions, so throughout the whole life cycle I think as human beings we just need to be super conscious of our bias.”

Sharing a trans perspective from Thermo Fisher Scientific, Malli Manickam questioned how far top‑down systems can go without community power and accountability, stressing that policy wording must be matched by real consequences.

“I think having a zero‑tolerance policy is what's important… just so that people know at the company that if something bad happens, the company is going to act. It is not just going to tell me sorry.”

Mental Health and Well-Being

The next panel explored how workplaces can move beyond awareness to create genuinely supportive environments, especially for LGBTQ+ employees who face higher rates of mental health challenges.

From Booking.com, Berto Barbosa contrasted workplaces that talk about care with those that show it in practice, describing how a manager’s response during a difficult period transformed his experience. For him, real support is relational, not just programmatic:

“What made the difference was my manager… instead of focusing on the performance, they sat me down and they asked me, okay, how do you want to go through this… when people feel supported as human beings, they don't just cope better, but they also do their best at work.”

Andy Goff, Inclusion and Wellbeing Manager at Capgemini UK, laid out stark disparities in mental health outcomes for LGBTQ+ people and argued that employers have clear obligations.

“Globally, 45% of LGBTQ adults report a mental illness in any given year, versus 22% of the general population… workplaces have a real responsibility to their people. We spend such a significant portion of our lives at work, and often those boundaries between our personal and professional blur.”

Shan Li of Deutsche Bank shared how coming out and family rejection collided with early career stress to trigger panic attacks, and how workplace support intervened when his wider support system had disappeared. He highlighted the “double hurdle” many face in seeking help.

“Sometimes it's difficult to open up, not just because of the mental health issue, but also intersectionally, because you cannot open up showing vulnerability, showing trauma without touching the fact that we are in the LGBT community.”

Carolyn Jawahar of Standard Chartered, a mental health first aider and PRIDE network leader, argued that culture and leadership shape mental health as much as individual resilience. She challenged organisations to redesign work so people don’t have to recover from it.

“I would like organizations to stop treating mental health purely as an individual resilience issue and start treating it as a culture and leadership issue. Well‑being is not only about helping people cope better, it is also about building workplaces that people do not have to recover from.”

Belonging for People with Disabilities

In the next session, a panel of disability and LGBTQIA+ advocates explored what it really takes to move from basic compliance to genuine belonging at work. Hosted by Andrea Knowles from Staff Equality Networks, the conversation put a spotlight on culture, accountability and designing organisations with disabled people in mind from the very start.

From Madrid, Jesús G. Amago of CERMI Spain grounded the discussion in intersectionality, drawing on his role as president of CERMI’s Commission of Sexual Diversity and Disability. For him, formal rules are never enough without cultural change that recognises multiple, overlapping identities.

“Belonging is only real when it's intersectional. This means understanding that many people with disabilities are also LGBTQ, women, older people, or part of other groups.”

Shannon Baker from InReach.org contrasted workplaces that see disability as a problem to manage with those that treat different ways of working as simply part of being human. He described how organisations often stop at physical access without asking whether disabled staff are truly valued once inside.

“Compliance is pretty much, can you get through the door? Belonging is, are you valued once you get here?”

Speaking as both a regulatory affairs professional at Reckitt and neurodiversity lead in the company’s disability ERG, Jack Willows highlighted the weight many disabled and neurodivergent employees carry around feeling like a “burden.” He argued that ERGs, informed managers and proactive adjustments can lift that weight.

“To feel like you belong is to not feel out of place… It's to feel like you as a person are considered and cared for as a standard, without being an afterthought.”

Ivana Stojicevic, who leads Culture & Diversity and the disability inclusion programme at Philip Morris International, stressed the need to go beyond retrofitting access and awareness. She linked disability inclusion directly to better performance and culture when it is embedded “by design” in business processes and leadership.

“Disability inclusion is not only a compliance requirement, it's a business and cultural accelerator at the same time.”

From Diversity Scotland, Chief Executive Tony McCaffrey focused on accountability and power. They challenged organisations that rely on token consultation while leaving systems fundamentally unchanged, arguing that disabled people must be in decision‑making roles, not just awareness campaigns.

“Stop asking disabled people to fix a system that we never designed. We weren't in the room for, so put us in the room where the decisions actually get made.”

Inclusive Onboarding for All Employees

The next panel at WorkPride 2026 brought together HR, DEI, talent and technology specialists to unpack why onboarding is often exclusionary in practice, even when it looks inclusive on paper. Panelists explored pre‑onboarding, the importance of visible LGBTQ+ inclusion from day one, the role of managers and ERGs, and how to design end‑to‑end processes that work for diverse identities and learning styles

Speaking both as a professional and as a gender-diverse new joiner, Dimitra Pantazi, Global Talent Attraction and Inclusion Specialist and global Pride lead at Capco, stressed that the earliest days in-role set the tone for authenticity and trust. For her, those first interactions reveal whether the company truly sees and supports who you are.

"What we need to do when we onboard individuals is to make sure, you know, that there is clarity, there is connection and there is psychological safety… Where organizations don't necessarily get it 100% right is when they think that one size fits all, but it doesn't.”

From Boston-based nonprofit Pride in Our Workplace, Executive Director Andy Rubinson drew on his experience leading Pride at SAP to highlight the power of ERGs and ally executives in pre‑onboarding and beyond. He argued that giving candidates access to real people and visibly inclusive policies helps them land already connected, while managers must understand the invisible effort LGBTQ+ people expend just to feel safe. As Andy noted,

“Everybody wants to do their job… I don't think people always understand that there truly is a privilege when you don't have to think about these other identities and intersecting concepts that weigh heavily on so many people.”

Learning and Development Coach Emily Summersgill from UK mortgage firm L&C focused on closing the gap between glossy corporate values and lived experience. She described how recruitment, recognition and feedback processes need to be built around those values, not just branded with them, and how managers must embody them daily.

“Over time you're getting a workforce who naturally encompass the values. They don't need to be told to act with integrity or to be supportive to their colleagues."

Marketing and growth lead Hector Bustillos of hiring platform Reach ATS argued that inclusive onboarding must be designed “end to end” as part of the entire hiring journey, not bolted on after offer stage. Mapping every touchpoint, building human‑centred candidate portals and being transparent about timelines and tools are, in his view, basic requirements.

"Companies that really give a thought about making the candidate experience more human tend to have a higher happiness level of people joining their company.”

HR Generalist Katy Akele from Feeld, a globally distributed dating app company, unpacked some of the most common design failures she sees: processes built around a fictional “average employee,” information overload on day one and rigid structures that don’t flex to people’s realities. She advocated storytelling about DEI, surfacing ERGs early, normalising pronouns and letting people access information at their own pace over the first 90 days.

“I think the main problems arise when organizations think about an average employee and an average employee experience, and they take this imaginary person, which doesn't exist… Not everybody wants to be talked at for three hours on the first day and then given a pile of things to read.”

Celebrating LGBTQ+ Identities

Thi panel at WorkPride 2026 focused on what genuine visibility looks like beyond rainbow logos and Pride Month posts. Panelists discussed psychological safety, the risks and realities of being visible in different regions and identities, the central role of ERGs, and how to keep celebration employee‑led and year‑round rather than corporate and performative.

Speaking from his journey as a gay, gender‑fluid person who migrated to Canada, Med Amine Guerfali of Organon described the power of everyday authenticity at work, right down to small conversations by the coffee machine.

“Today now I feel authentic. I feel real at work, and I feel in alignment between myself, my personal life and professional life. And that is one of the first things I consider as one of my greatest achievements.”

Wayne Russell from UK retailer Superdrug reflected on moving from years of fear and self‑editing to finally feeling able to speak openly about his life and husband at work, while recognising that this level of safety is still a privilege.

“I've been working with Superdrug now for just over 10 years, and I feel like in the environment I'm in now, I've never felt so safe to be who I want to be and who I am… I don't have to hide behind a made-up story, which I have done in the past. It's liberating.”

Susana Hawkins, a procurement professional and Global Pride ERG co‑lead at Kantar, drew a sharp line between surface‑level messaging and meaningful, embedded inclusion, and highlighted how ally participation lifts everyone.

“Performative inclusion tends to be very visible externally, but not backed up by anything very concrete… They didn't understand how lifting up people of one community really impacts all of us that when inclusion is truly embedded, it goes far beyond just the individuals.”

From Capco, Global Talent Attraction and Inclusion Specialist and Pride lead Dimitra Pantazi emphasised intersectionality and the need to translate values into detailed, inclusive policies that reflect the full community.

“Sometimes you hide your whole being, and that's really tiring... From thinking that I was identifying as a lesbian to now that I know I'm fully aware I don't, and identify as a gender non‑conforming individual and I lead an affinity group that represents that, is a long journey.”

Interested in one of the many topics we explored at myGwork on this day? If you think your company could benefit from professional guidance on these subjects, click here to find out more about our referral programme.