LGBT+ Pride: bringing all our technology closer to bridge the gap

At Telefónica we are celebrating International LGBT+ Pride Day by once again reinforcing our commitment to diversity and inclusion, because, as well as being a matter of social justice, it is also an important stimulus for our business that makes us stronger and more competitive. For us, diversity in any of its manifestations is growth and talent, because working in diverse teams multiplies professional development and activates innovation within the organisation, also boosting our results.

In this context, we aim to guarantee the well-being of all the people who work at Telefónica, regardless of their orientation, sexual identity or gender expression. Therefore, the inclusion of LGBT+ employees in our teams is a necessary step in our global strategy, adding to the wealth of diverse talent represented by the different genders, cultures, skills, backgrounds, functional experiences, leadership styles, etc. that already exist in the company.

In short, we have a great commitment to diversity in all the societies in which we are present, to which today we especially want to “bring all our technology to remove differences”, in a scenario in which we are aware that there is still much to be done.

Main milestones in LGBT+ diversity in the last year

• The Federación Estatal de Lesbianas, Gais, Trans, Bisexuales, Intersexuales y más (FELGTB+) has recently considered Telefónica to be one of the companies most committed to the collective. According to the organisation, we lead, along with Google and NYX, the commitment to equality and inclusion of LGBT+ people in Spain.
• We continue to strengthen our local affinity groups in the countries in which we operate, highlighting the launch and growth in Latin America of our ‘Sostener’ network, which since its creation has promoted at least one awareness-raising action per month in the region.
• We remain committed to the integration of transgender people into the labour market. In Spain, in addition to participating in FELGTB’s YesWeTrans project, we are organising employability workshops for trans people and we have launched a guide on gender transition at work to guide both the transitioning employee and their manager throughout the process.
• In Brazil, we already have more than 70 trans employees and expect to reach 100 by 2023.  In addition, we fund 100% of the training of our trans employees.
• In the UK, we have trained HR teams on the inclusion of trans and non-binary talent. In addition, our employees can now choose how to express their preferred pronoun on company ID badges.
• We have an important network of agreements and collaborations that help us to design and make our progress visible. At the local level, we have alliances with entities such as FELGTB or REDI in Spain, Stonewall in the UK, or the Fórum de Empresas e Direitos LGBT+ and Transempregos in Brazil.
• On the occasion of LGBT+ Pride month, we reinforced our agenda of training and visibility activities in the different countries where we are present through courses, workshops, employee meetings and participation in the main Pride marches.

And we continue to advance in this journey to promote LGBT+ equality in society, the first steps of which we began in 2018 based on two key projects: adherence to the United Nations Standards of Business Conduct; and participation in the ADIM Project “Advancing LGBT+ Diversity Management” to raise awareness of sexual diversity among social agents, business leaders and the university population with the aim of advancing more inclusive corporate policies.

But none of this would have been possible without a consolidated structure of internal bodies and figures that monitor progress on equality, diversity and inclusion within the company. In this regard, we have, among others, a Global Diversity Council and a Transparency Committee.

In short, all these milestones and initiatives show that at Telefónica we place people and values at the centre to drive our future and transformation, to grow as a company and also as a society, to which we offer all our technology to end differences.

#ConnectingDiversity