How to celebrate pride in the workplace

People are more able to achieve their full potential when they can be themselves at work. That’s one of the reasons Dotdigital focuses on creating an environment where everyone feels they belong, are supported, and can be their true selves.

As Pride month in the UK comes to an end for another year, and our team prepares to join the London Pride march as sponsors this weekend, we spoke to Nicky Penkov, Dotdigital’s DEI lead and Global People Director, to discuss what Pride means at Dotdigital and how our learnings can help other organizations.

Why Pride matters at Dotdigital

Nicky, can you tell us why Pride is such an important cause to celebrate for Dotdigital?

I started working at Dotdigital almost 15 years ago and took on the DEI Lead role 5 years ago. It’s extremely important to me that we’re enabling employees to feel confident in being their authentic selves.

Pride is an important part of our DEI work as a global company. We are committed to making sure everyone knows they’re welcome in our offices and as part of our wider community. The marketing industry is filled with incredible, diverse professionals and we want to ensure true representation. With Pride falling in different months around the world, the Dotdigital DEI group runs its own ‘DotPride’ celebration every July. The month aims to make all employees feel safe and seen, regardless of their gender identity and sexual orientation.

It’s vital that our employees are empowered to steer how we celebrate Pride at work, and we feel lucky that our people have been so willing to be part of this journey. Dotdigital colleagues are great at sharing their own stories and experiences, and having such openness to learning and supporting others. I’m very proud of the work that’s being done all over Dotdigital by individuals and teams to support inclusion and belonging.

How Dotdigital celebrates Pride

So, Nicky, how does Dotdigital celebrate Pride?

Storytelling is always an important part of Dotdigital Pride celebrations, be that employees telling their own stories, sharing inspiring stories they resonate with, or inviting others to speak to us.

We run panels, virtual and in-person, and the most important part here is that we let employees take the lead on what they think needs to be spoken about each year.

With gender and sexual orientation being such an emotive and complex subject, we always ensure that employees can share their stories in whatever way they wish to, whether that’s an anonymous internal blog post, an in-person panel event, or anything in between. Pride at Dotdigital is about inclusivity and comfort, and the style of our celebrations stays true to that. We also have a system in place so that employees can raise an issue or simply speak with a member of the People team completely anonymously if they wish.

We also put a lot of emphasis on allyship. Not everyone is a member of the LGBTQ+ community themselves, but they still want to get involved and support and celebrate. Allies play an essential role in building that culture across the entire business.

Pride celebrations also mean a lot of joy and color. We’ve had a spot in London’s Pride parade since 2017, and it’s a great day where lots of the team and their loved ones can all march together.

Why workplaces should celebrate Pride in 2025

Nicky, why do you think it’s important for workplaces to celebrate Pride?

People forgot how recently same-sex relationships were classed as criminal activity. It wasn’t until 2003 that the USA decriminalized same-sex sexual activity nationwide. Obviously, a lot of states had already made that change, but the final act didn’t pass until that time.

While England and Wales decriminalized homosexual acts in 1967, it wasn’t until 1980 that Scotland followed suit, and 1982 that Northern Ireland caught up. And then it was decades more before the laws around same-sex marriage changed, and the age of consent was equalized to heterosexual relations.

If that wasn’t shocking enough, there are still so many countries around the world that sadly still haven’t passed these basic laws of human rights. People can still be fired and outcast for being who they are. We can’t ignore this.

It’s also sadly the case that this progress isn’t always linear or guaranteed to remain, so loudly supporting and advocating for LGBTQ+ rights is very necessary in 2025.

Advice on how to celebrate Pride in the workplace

Nicky, how do you recommend that organizations show support during Pride?

Employers need to stay curious and be aware that it’s an ever-changing landscape with legislation and attitudes still evolving all the time. Keep in touch with news and updates that impact the LGBTQ+ community and look out for things that could impact your employees.

To avoid ‘rainbow washing,’ your organization has to actively support LGBTQ+ employees and the wider community. Rainbow logos don’t count if your workplace culture doesn’t match. Humanize the celebrations and focus on your current and future employees above all else.

Ultimately, the most important thing is to put measures in place that extend beyond one singular Pride month.

5 tips to celebrate Pride at work

• Listen to your employees, and support them all year round
• Give employees freedom to own the celebrations
• Address the elephant in the room and have the difficult conversations on the hard topics
• Approach the topic with genuine curiosity and openness
• Encourage your employees to build a community, such as employee groups or an LGBTQ+ Slack channel

Recent changes in LGBTQ+ and Pride in the workplace

Nicky, any final thoughts you’d like to share?

I’ve been lucky to have always worked in progressive and accepting businesses. Over the last few years, there has been a shift towards a greater understanding of the meaning and benefits of allyship and in providing a clear and visible way that people can support colleagues. Allyship’s inclusion in the topic means the whole business can get involved.

There’s also certainly been a greater understanding and recognition of transgender issues in the last few years, and the importance of clear support. This year, we’re going to be launching a series of transgender support pieces to recognize, celebrate, and educate our employees and their loved ones, as well as setting out a clear intent of how we as a business can support transgender individuals.

People are at the heart of everything we do, and I hope that LGBTQ+ employees feel that they can be open about themselves and that they feel acceptance, support, and love! And if for any reason they, or any of our employees, don’t currently feel that way, they can raise it knowing it will be met with understanding and a commitment to change that.