Organising Company Events to Celebrate Pride Month

So, Pride Month is back and you want to know what events your company could throw to show their support?

Organising company events for your workplace can be tricky, but the support you give is a reflection on your organisation. Pride Month is about celebrating the positive changes that have occurred over the years in the LGBTQ+ community. It's also is an opportunity to peacefully protest and raise awareness of the current issues the community are still facing.

People within community have often faced countless amounts of discrimination in the workplace over the years, which makes it even more important for organisations to stand in solidarity and celebrate their rights.

Here’s 5 event ideas you can use this Pride Month to show your support…

1. Trivia Games. Either virtually or in the office, this is a cheap way to celebrate which can involve all your staff. Set the theme as LGBTQ+ and you can learn more about the community as you play!
2. Lunch and Learn. Make it corporate event in a restaurant and hire out a private room or just order pizza for the office! A lunch and learn is a great incentive for your employees to gather together and have a good time. At the same time, they will get the chance to either hear from a speaker/watch a presentation on LGBTQ+ to learn more on the topic.
3. Fancy Dress Charity Day. Here at Scalability, we came to work in our best fancy dress outfits. We hosted a bake sale and gave the funds to Myeloma UK Charity. If you do this, don't forget to post pictures on your social media!
4. Drag Show. Take your employees or even invite clients that you work with to a drag show! Full of songs, dancing, drinks and food – where better to celebrate than with some LGBTQ+ friendly queens during Pride Month!
5. Participating in Local LGBTQ+ Pride Events. If you’re stuck on ideas to get your employees together or simply don’t have the funding, then you could join your local events! A great example of a company that does this is Salesforce, every year they have a huge presence at Pride events around the world!

How to organise your event with staff

Firstly, it’s important to remember that not everyone may want to celebrate Pride Month, for religious, private and in some countries even legal reasons. If someone doesn’t want to participate for whatever reason, you must respect their wishes. For those who do want to join in, here’s a couple of ways you could reach out:

• A great way to try and reach all your employees at once is to send an e-shot/newsletter round the whole office. Detail this with event info (or ask for ideas/create a poll for staff to choose). This way no one is pressured to attend and you’ll have an idea of how many employees want to be involved.

• If you’re looking to host an event for clients that work with you, a creative idea would be to send out merch invitations. This would include your Branded/Pride themed gifts such as rainbow flags, t-shirts, stationary and more! This helps show your clients that you not only support LGBTQ+ in your own company, but clients too.
• If you only have a small company, you could simply gather in the office/conference room to discuss what everyone would like to do. Create a flyer to leave on your co-workers desks if you would prefer to give them a more anonymous decision.

Be Genuine

It's good to recognise that celebrating Pride Month in your organisation should not be just viewed as an advertising opportunity. More companies are hopping on the bandwagon of giving a ‘corporate effort’ with their marketing. This results in their efforts not looking genuine and in turn, raising authenticity questions to the LGBTQ+ community. That’s not to say you have to spend all your work hours focusing on Pride, but doing more than just the standard rainbow coloured logo change could show a more true effort.

There are plenty of ways your organisation can get involved without having to even spend a penny! Arrange a small in-office party after work to show LGBTQ+ employees/allies that you’re a company who cares. Show you appreciate and celebrate everyone’s differences as this is important if you want to grow your company.

According to statistics as of 2019, 21% of LGBTQ+ employees in Europe reported discrimination in the work place, specifically transgender people. If your company has no tolerance for discrimination, it will lead to a retainment in employees. You'll also see an increase in applications with prospective employees when they see the type of brand you represent yourself as!

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