Pride June 2022 marks 50 years of Pride, making this year’s celebration of the global LGBTQ+ community a noteworthy milestone.
As a result of the Stonewall riots in June 1969 in the US that made a powerful impact on gay rights worldwide, Pride is a chance to focus on how far LGBTQ+ rights have come and how far some places still need to go. It encourages equality and acceptance, championing the history of LGBTQ+, the work of its people and the ongoing issues they face.
We believe celebrating one another’s differences brings us closer together – that diversity and acceptance make a business succeed in every way that matters. Despite being a Work From Home Business with employees spread throughout the UK, our goal has always been to foster a strong sense of belonging and empowerment. Promoting inclusion, equality, and diversity among our employees and communities is core to our beliefs.
Our commitment extends beyond acceptance – listening, learning and acting are crucial to success and making people feel accepted and seen. That’s why we have an open-door policy for employees that encourages everyone to be open and honest, and feel safe and validated in the process. No one in the company is off-limits, whether they want to speak to their team, line manager, or our CEO.
Listening to our employees also helps to improve our pro-diversity enhanced benefits that encourage everyone to live a healthy and flexible work-life balance. It could be time off for adoption leave, enhanced maternity/paternity leave or extra health benefits, or celebrating a holiday, like Pride!
We’re proud of what we do and always listen for what else we can do to support the Touch family. In a recent survey, we asked employees to measure how well they see management promoting inclusive behaviour, non-discrimination and commitment to fair appeals, and we’re happy to report results of 97%, exceeding the 2021 Great Place to Work® benchmark by 3%.
