2024 Pride marks our second year with an established Pride Network across the global business.
With network members across the regions, and a global chair based in APAC, the community exists to create safe space for discussion and shared experiences.
“At the heart of Xodus is our inclusive growth strategy, designed to enable a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace where people can feel that they belong and are valued. In other words, they can thrive, and be themselves, whoever they are, and whatever their experience may look like.”
TRACEY HART
Chief People Officer
Our established Pride Network raises awareness and fosters connections with other businesses and organisations, to learn and share knowledge about how we can better support the LGBTQ+ community. This includes holding learning sessions with established networks at Subsea7, Petrofac and BP as well as joining InterEnergy Group alongside Harbour and Baker Hughes.
The network has also engaged with LGBTQ+ charity, Four Pillars in Aberdeen, through LGBT+ Awareness Sessions held in our head office to sponsoring Grampian Pride.
A key objective for the network is to create connections with local charities and organisations in each of our locations and this has already started with a donation made to Freedom Centre Home - Freedom Centre in Perth following a network quiz night and links made with the Montrose Centre in Houston the Montrose Center – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Center of Houston.
We are thrilled to be a bronze sponsor of Grampian Pride, and to share stories from our Pride network - showcasing the inclusive culture being built within Xodus, where we strive to provide a safe space for all, including a place to discuss, support and act for LGBTQ+ awareness and inclusion.
Chief people officer at Xodus, Tracey Hart explains: “We have spent considerable time listening to our staff to better understand what we must to do make them feel comfortable at work, not just because it is the right thing to do, but because it is the right thing for our business."
As we step boldly into Pride month, with all its colourful celebrations, Xodus want everyone to bring their best authentic self to work every day.
The LGBTQ+ community has been home to some of the world’s best innovators including geophysicist, Allan Cox, computer scientist, Lynn Conway, and mathematician and code breaker, Alan Turing.
Eden Coelho, an application support analyst and global chair of our Pride Network understands only too well that diversity can stimulate innovation. With a colourful career journey that includes molecular genetics and computer science, Eden has always found the tech and science space a safe environment for the community to flourish and thrive in.
They explained: “The LGBTQ+ community is full of diverse thinkers and imaginative concepts that test the norm. Having strived for change in so many other areas in our lives, we’re driven by this same momentum at work.
“By challenging conventional thinking and encouraging fresh ideas, promotes creative problem-solving and sparks of ideas that can ultimately lead to exciting innovations!
“Spending most of our lives at work, people need to feel a sense of belonging to do their best and deliver these brilliant ideas. As global chair of the Pride Network, I’m thrilled that Xodus recognises this and embraces all the pioneering individuals that walk through its doors every day.”
Pride is best, when being celebrated and supported by the people around you.
Alison Walker, HSE Lead at Xodus, has been an ally for friends, colleagues and peers since she was a teen, when she was one of the first port of calls when a friend came out. Seeing how hard it was for them to share their truth, made her impassioned to use her privilege to stand up for the community and champion queerness.
She said: “I’m constantly learning and evolving my understanding about of LGBTQ+ issues and challenges, and how to be active in my allyship by speaking up for the community and their needs. The world continues to be a scary place, and it shows with many people choosing not to be fully themselves at work. If I can do just one little thing, to make someone feel a bit better, and more comfortable to show up, and be themselves, I’m going to do it.”
Thanks to Alison, and all the other allies at Xodus, and in the world who help create inclusive environments where everyone can be themselves.