Lorcan, a graduate Engineer, speaks about how he has been supported as part of the LGBTQ+ community at Frazer-Nash.
How Frazer-Nash Supports Its LGBTQ+ Community
I recently joined Frazer-Nash Consultancy, as part of their graduate recruitment. While I’ve only been at the company 3 months, I’m already settling in and feeling the most positive I ever have about an employer.
I was nervous to start a new role, as most people are, but even more so as someone who identifies as LGBT+. This brings new challenges, such as fear that the company won’t have an accepting culture or that you won’t ‘fit in’ with others – especially in a stereotypically masculine field such as engineering.
Upon starting at Frazer-Nash Consultancy I was immediately hit with how welcoming everyone was. During my initial meeting with my manager, he was wearing one of our rainbow lanyards, and during IT inductions everyone was shown how to include their pronouns on Teams. Little things like this mean a lot and represent the experience I’ve had across the business.
The fact I can just be myself at work means I can instead focus on delivering results to clients. D&I isn’t just important for the individuals but helps drive innovation and success as everyone is able to be their best self.
I have also joined the Pride and Allies ERG, which meets twice a month to discuss both strategy and socially check-in with each other. It’s great to have the opportunity to talk to others with similar life experiences, and how that influences our work and general wellbeing. Colleagues across the business came together only a couple of weeks after I started, to march in Bristol Pride, giving me group of friendly faces to go with and celebrate.
Allies in the group, and across the company, are loud and visible. I was glad to see that even those in senior roles step forward to promote the importance of acceptance. This has been particularly evident during the recent Pride Week, where employees were able to come together and share their experiences. In an engineering consultancy, there are people from all different backgrounds, and at Frazer-Nash Consultancy people are not only willing to share their knowledge but engage and learn how they can better support others.
Inclusivity is present at Frazer-Nash Consultancy from the highest level, and I know there are talks about how the (already excellent) health insurance can be expanded to include trans’ healthcare. This makes you feel safe and supported in a wider world which often isn’t. Members of senior leadership will often approach the ERG to get insight into how people feel about working with certain companies, or in certain areas of the world and use that to feed into the bid/no bid process.
Work for me feels like a safe space, where I can come and get on with my role and the only thing which matters is my skills – not anything else whether that’s sexuality, gender identity, race, or disability.