Freedom to be your true self
We're all about bringing as much of yourself to work as you want and encouraging others to do the same. Our Purpose drives everything we do and ‘making you happier about money’ is about supporting every person to be the best they can be as often as possible. We actively promote a culture that fosters respect for others and reinforces self-esteem and self-regard. We have a zero-tolerance approach to any form of discrimination in any way on the basis of gender, gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation. We’re committed to creating and maintaining a workplace where everyone connected to Virgin Money is treated fairly and equally.
Championing equality, understanding, respect and inclusivity for LGBTQ+ colleagues, customers and clients is important to us. We recognise that sexual orientation and gender identity are only one part of people’s identity and want them to feel free to express who they are at all times.
Our action plan
To help us achieve our commitments and create a bank that is more representative of the communities in which we live and work, we have taken the following action;
Our LGBTQ+ focused development modules for customer-facing colleagues explore the assumptions we make about our customers and the impact this can have on their experience. Our goal is to improve the conversation around LGBTQ+ to make sure everyone feels included and to make our LGBTQ+ colleagues, friends and family feel safer in an increasingly diverse global marketplace.
Stonewall, the UK’s leading advocacy organisation for the LGBTQ+ community, will help us improve our understanding of LGBTQ+ identities and experiences, and ultimately create a fully inclusive work environment.
Our aim is to include additional options for colleagues to self-identify so everyone can feel confident bringing their whole selves to work.
We’ll work with colleagues across the bank to refresh our approach to titles and gender on our products and services. One of the ways we encourage this is to highlight the use of gender-neutral pronouns, including the use of singular ‘they’ or ‘ze’.
Misgendering is to refer to someone using a word, especially a pronoun or form of address, that doesn’t correctly reflect the gender with which they identify. It’s always best to check what terms and pronouns a person prefers to use.
We’ve chosen to add an optional field for our colleagues to write the pronouns they best identify with in their email signatures. Thanks to our partner Hive Learning, we’ve also been able to include further context in our email signatures as to why sharing pronouns is so important.
To foster a culture of understanding, respect and inclusivity, we provide support to all colleagues to understanding of Gender Diversity and Transitioning in the workplace. People leaders are equipped to support transitioning colleagues by creating a workplace transition plan which is modified to meet individual needs.
Working in the communities we serve is important to us and we work hard to forge links where we can. Our commitment to working with Pride, Stonewall and other LBGTQ+ charities and community groups will help us push the boundaries in our marketing and advertising, making it much more inclusive and representative of our customers.
Vibrant
Virgin Money’s Vibrant Network enables and empowers LGBTQ+ colleagues and everyone else to champion equality in all its forms, with customers, colleagues and in our communities. By focusing on creating connections, collaborating with internal and external partners and amplifying events and initiatives to educate and inform, our Vibrant network are a fundamental pillar of support in representing our LBGTQ+ community.
A Life More Virgin
A huge part of living A Life More Virgin is being your true self at work and we recognise that being able to showcase your true self is not always easy. That's why we're committed to continuously support, champion and progress our colleagues from the LBGTQ+ community. We have received Gold Employer award in Stonewell's Workplace Equality Index and ranked top 100 employer within their Index. We will continue to leverage on our partnership to maintain this status. Our ongoing relationship with Pride and the ongoing initiatives within our Vibrant employee network group are just a few ways in which we show our commitment to the LGBTQ+ community.