When we see the headline from the latest Pride in Energy survey that 50% of respondents have witnessed or experienced discrimination against those who are LGBTQIA+ in the workplace, which is higher than all previous years’ surveys, it really affirms what many people already know.

It is also really concerning that people’s views of how inclusive the energy industry is, is the worst yet, with only 22% believing the industry is inclusive. However, in the right workplace, with the right culture and environment, and the right people, we know that this is not always the case and that many members of the community can, in fact, flourish at work and feel like they truly belong, including in our energy industry.

We know that the number of people who believe their own workplace is inclusive has increased to 73%, which is fantastic. So we need to build on this. Individual companies are doing more, and 77% of respondents told us they have an LGBTQIA+ staff network. So, what do we need to do as an industry?

Well, the respondents of the survey told us that the number one thing we can do to build inclusion in the energy industry is to have more support from senior leaders and more openly ‘out’ role models. Understandably it’s a bit chicken-and-egg, as our role models may not feel comfortable coming out in an environment deemed to be so non-inclusive. But it’s so important to be able to be who you are and bring that diversity of thought into what our industry does to help us progress. We need you, we need your voice, we need your visibility.

We also need allies. When I started our LGBTQIA+ Network at SSE Retail, now OVO, I started it with all allies, as the LGBTQIA+ community were reluctant to get involved at first. We worked hard to create a safe space where our LGBTQIA+ people felt safe to come and connect and tell us what we had to do to make them feel like they belong.

That started with a review of our policies to ensure they were inclusive. We found they weren’t. As a group we reviewed all of our people policies and changed the language throughout to be more inclusive and gender neutral, for example ‘parental leave’ as opposed to ‘maternity/paternity’, ‘people who have periods’ or ‘go through menopause’ as opposed to ‘women’. This naturally led us to look at our benefits; we needed trans-inclusive healthcare and we had to feed back to our benefits providers around the inclusivity of their services to ensure they met the needs of our people.

We got senior sponsors involved in the network to show their support and role-model how to build an LGBTQIA+ inclusive workplace. We trained all of our managers, and our people shared their own stories, experiences and journeys through a series of ‘Human Libraries’ to help people learn more about the LGBTQIA+ community, their challenges at work, and what allies can do to show their allyship. We worked hard to change the culture, to get people involved and engaged, and really listened to what our people told us and proactively asked our people for input and feedback.

The respondents of the survey told us that the number one thing we can do to build inclusion in the energy industry is to have more support from senior leaders and more openly ‘out’ role models.

We were proud to be named Corporate Ally at the Proud Scotland Awards and Diverse Company Award at the National Diversity Awards in 2023, and the 2024 Most Trans Inclusive Organization at the Trans in the City Awards. But this is an ongoing journey for us; there’s always more we can do. And we always need our allies to be visible and to be active.

In the industry, we need more allies to step forward and start leading some of the work that the LGBTQIA+ community has tried so long to do on its own. How inclusive are your policies, your benefits, what language do you use, and how do you support, recognise and celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community?

For business leaders, are you role-modelling ally behaviours, getting involved, creating an inclusive culture and safe space and listening to the voices of your staff networks? Pop the name of your organisation into Google, for example, ‘OVO LGBTQIA+’, and see what the results are. Are you talking about LGBTQIA+ inclusion externally? Are you sharing what you are doing internally with potential candidates the industry and your customers? If not, its a good place to start.

I always refer to back to David Smith, former Chief Executive of the Energy Networks Association, who said: ‘Digitalisation, decentralisation and decarbonisation are often talked about as the three Ds of the energy transition, but in reality, there is a fourth: diversity’.

To ensure we can progress and solve the energy crisis we need to have a diverse and inclusive industry and workplaces.

Join Pride in Energy today by signing up here and get involved to support our LGBTQIA+ employees and customers.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are strictly those of the author only and are not necessarily given or endorsed by or on behalf of the Energy Institute.

• Further reading: ‘Leading the change: energy company CEO speaks about gender diversity’. Alistair Phillips-Davies FEI, Chief Executive of electricity utility SSE outlines how the company is working to improve the gender balance of the energy industry, and within its own corporate structures.
• People are the fuel to power a transitioning energy sector and diversity will produce the blend needed to accelerate this change. This was the theme of a few sessions at International Energy Week 2024.