In Rolls-Royce, we value the benefits of being visible when it comes to supporting LGBT+ inclusion, and we want to showcase this support not just to our own employees, but to the communities in which we operate and beyond. To assist with this, Prism, the Rolls-Royce LGBT+ network, have become active in a number of inclusion initiatives.

Perhaps most crucially, we’ve adopted the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) as a key date on the LGBT+ calendar to recognise and promote, and this was done in spectacular fashion in 2017. From IDAHOBIT through to Birmingham Pride, and driven by Warrick Matthews, co-sponsor of Prism, our facility in Solihull was rebranded with the Rolls-Royce logo appearing in rainbow colours. This gained a lot of attention around the site and more widely – images of this have appeared in Professional Engineering magazine and in the 2018 Rolls-Royce Annual Report, amongst other places. IDAHOBIT 2017 was also significant for us in Derby – a rainbow flag flew on a Rolls-Royce site for the first time in our 100 year history.

Each October, Rolls-Royce celebrates Inclusion Week, with teams of our employees across the globe involving themselves in inclusion initiatives. Most recently, our team in Lancashire welcomed visitors to site with a rainbow-decorated jet engine and we were proud to again fly the rainbow flag, this time at sites in Derby, Sunderland, Hucknall and Glasgow. In fact, our Derby site has now decided to make the flag a permanent fixture.

In our communities, we attended both Derby and Bristol Pride in 2017 and we’ll be adding Birmingham Pride to the list in 2018. Such events are a fantastic opportunity to publicly demonstrate our support for the LGBT+ community, and we are always grateful for the response we receive. For the third consecutive year, 2018 saw us attend National Student Pride so that we could engage with the hundreds of attendees to raise awareness of the work we are doing on LGBT+ inclusion.

We are keen to ensure our employees understand the need for an LGBT+ network, and we’ve delivered training to over 350 employees across seven UK sites, increasing the profile of Prism and what we are trying to achieve. And we didn’t stop there – the session has also reached employees in the US and New Zealand, and we have been supporting LGBT+ employees in Singapore and Germany.

At Rolls-Royce, we want our employees and our communities to know we are serious about LGBT+ inclusion, and we won’t shy away from showing visible support for inclusion initiatives that allow us to do that. We’re proud to fly the rainbow colours and we’re excited by the plans we have to keep on doing so.