On the 27th April 2016 Bournes Relocation Solutions hosted a thought provoking event exploring the challenges and considerations in Global Mobility for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans employees.
If you missed the event you can now access all of the resources online here.
The event featured guest speaker Lynn Pasterny from Stonewall, the UK's leading LGBT rights charityand an interactive panel discussion featuring specialists from across the spectrum of global mobility.
Lynn shared some insights into the business case for Diversity and Inclusion, the International Situation for LGBT people and their experiences worldwide as well as practical ideas for how to support staff in your policies and practices, during their decision making process and when on assignment.
Some key points included the difference between legal protection and social norms, for example inSouth Africa where legislation supports LGBT rights but where corrective rapes are still often reported, or in Singapore where legislation is not so advanced but many companies are actively championing diversity and inclusion - everyone's experiences, it seems, differ.
Following on from the expert knowledge and advice from Stonewall we were thrilled to hear from our panel who answered questions from our guests as well as some that had been submitted in advance from our clients and members of the Expat Academy (of which Bournes are a Training Partner). The Panel (Nick Jackson of Lloyds Register, Ben Fletcher of Dentsu Aegis Network, Ben Anstiss of Arup, Irene Boccardo of Ferguson Snell and Michael Grover of Mercer) shared their insights from their various perspectives in the world of global mobility leading to some great conversations around the wide ranging challenges for LGBT people in global mobility.
Discussions included how LGBT networks can play a valuable role, avoiding assumptions and bias, duty of care and supporting decisions and the steps that leading organisations take toward best practice. Key points included the fact that every assignee should be well informed and have the right to refuse an assignment without detriment and that organisations can explore various 'workarounds' and provide a range of relocation support services (including cultural training and partner career support) to help make an assignment work.
A big thank you to our friends and clients Dentsu Aegis Network for providing the venue and drinks reception for our guests, to Stonewall and our panel and to everyone who came along and contributed to a wonderful event.
Our next event will be in the Autumn so look out for more information coming soon!
Download the Event Pack NOW!
We've put together all the content from the event for you to download and refer back to, with all theinformation and best practice tips that were shared on the day to help with your own global mobility programmes.
The full event pack is free for you to download at any time and includes:
- The full presentation from our guest speaker from Stonewall
- Highlights of our panel discussion
- Stonewall's best practice guide
- A copy of Mercer’s 2014 North America LGBT Mobility Pulse Surveykindly provided by Michael Grover at Mercer
About Stonewall
Stonewall are the UK and Europe's leading Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights charity.
Stonewall’s Diversity Champions programme is Britain’s leading best-practice employers'forum for sexual orientation and gender identity equality, diversity and inclusion. They currently work withover 700 organisations across public, private and third sectors to help them create inclusive and accepting environments foralmost a quarter of the UK workforce.
For more information on joining the programme please email james.haq-myles@stonewall.org.uk
* upcoming Stonewall event: On the 26th May 2016 Stonewall are celebrating the launch of their country briefing series with a seminar/webinar on Global Mobility and a networking reception in London, both exclusive to Diversity Champions. The seminar will be broadcast, enabling dial-in from around the world. This is a perfect opportunity to engage your global network leads, HR leads and mobility teams around this important topic and hear about this new invaluable resource.
