First UK LGBT business champion named
Iain Anderson, the executive chairman of PR firm Cicero, has been appointed by the government to improve workplace equality in small businesses, the minister for women & equalities, Liz Truss, has announced this morning.
The news follows a report earlier this year by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) which found that 40 per cent of LGBT people, and over half of trans people, had experienced conflict at their workplace.
Anderson, who is also an ambassador for LGBT charity Stonewall, promised to build a bridge between business, the government and the LGBT community, according to the BBC, who first reported the news.
“If businesses see me, and in turn government, putting in place tangible ways to allow LGBT people to be themselves,” he told the BBC, “they’ll understand that this is a priority area and do more about it.”
He acknowledged that large businesses have already put significant efforts into improving their workplaces for LGBT staff and he hoped to help small businesses collaborate with larger companies to do the same.
As part of his role as LGBT champion, which is an unpaid position, Anderson will help “showcase the UK as an inclusive place to live and work” ahead of the UK’s first global LGBT conference scheduled for June 2022.
His appointment follows an earlier failed attempt by the government to create an LGBT advisory panel earlier this year, which was dissolved after three members quit including one, Jayne Ozanne, who accused the government of creating a “hostile environment” for LGBT people, according to reports.