At Ascenti we take great pride in our diverse workforce and as part of our Social and Sustainability Strategy, we want to make Ascenti a more inclusive place for all. To support this strategy all Ascenti employees were invited to get involved in our Pride month hub, where they could connect with peers, share experiences and tell us what Pride month means to them in a safe and open place.
We created a competition where our employees who posted in the hub were entered, to be in with a chance of winning four tickets to the Pride Village Party in Brighton. The lucky winner of this competition was Talent Acquisition Lead, Wednesday Watson, with the below entry.
Wednesday Watson, commented:
‘I am so excited to go to Brighton Pride as I've always wanted to go. This competition was such a lovely way to spread the feeling of Pride throughout the company & it was inspiring and lovely to read everyone's stories on the Pride Hub. It’s so refreshing to work in such an inclusive environment! If anyone needs me I'll be practising my dance routine for Christina Aguilera!’
Last year we introduced optional pronouns on email signatures and intranet profiles to help recognise and respect all employees’ gender identities, so we took this opportunity to remind all Ascenti staff of this via our newsletter.
Ascenti has also continued to run ‘Voices for Change’ this year, a series of online talks for staff where we invite external speakers to discuss a range of social issues and protected characteristics including race, disability, mental health and family-friendly working.
In June, Ascenti re-shared with all staff the talk by LGBTQ+ activist and diversity and inclusion advocate Tash Thomas who covered LGBTQ+ identities and allyship. Tash explained the different flags used by the LGBTQ+ community and what they represented and discussed how the associated terminology has developed over the years. This ‘Voices for Change’ session was attended by over 60 employees, and sharing it again this year gave new employees the opportunity to watch it.
Head of People and Culture at Ascenti, Helen Cave, comments on what Pride month means to Ascenti: ‘
At Ascenti we are proud to support the LGBTQ+ community all year round, through our Social and Sustainability Strategy and by continuing to educate and make Ascenti a more inclusive place for our staff, patients and partners.
This year we focused on celebrating our own employees and it has been amazing seeing how many people have shared their stories in our Pride month hub. Thank you to each and every one of you for sharing your stories and congratulations to the winner!’
