Pride at TotallyMoney — this month and every month
By Sam Johnson
Jun 30th 2021Celebrating our staff and our customers is something TotallyMoney is very passionate about. So, we wanted to make sure we honoured Pride to showcase our commitment to diversity and inclusion for both our staff and customers, while also acknowledging there is still work to be done.
Slaying the game
Organisations can often be accused of being performative during Pride, or “rainbow washing”. This is where they add the pride flag to their products, website and logos… but only for June, and with little tangible benefit to the LGBTQ+ community.
This was something we were very conscious of avoiding, not to actively escape being tarnished with this brush, but to ensure we were truly doing right by our LGBTQ+ staff and customers.
Our initiatives across the month were designed to specifically raise awareness of issues that the LGBTQ+ community still face, start making TotallyMoney a more representative and inclusive app, and ensure we give back to the community the best we can.
Moving forward together
It’s no secret that gender and trans issues are topical right now. And, with greater awareness comes a need for education.
To ensure we got this important message right, a speaker from The Gender Identity Research & Education Society spoke to TotallyMoney staff about the trans experience: what being trans is, what it means to be a transperson in the UK right now, and how to be a better ally for trans people.
Category is, sharing
One of our core company values is “Help Everyone Step Up”, which is all about our staff sharing their own knowledge, skills and experiences for the benefit of the wider team.
So, we opened up our weekly breakfast meetings slots, and staff were encouraged to come forward to talk about a topic within the LGBTQ+ community that meant a lot to them. Over the month, there have been whole-company presentations about:
LGBTQ+ representation in sport
The history and significance of the dance style ‘Voguing’
Pride, not Predujice: Language and the LGBTQ+ community
Not just for June
To ensure our efforts had a far-reaching and continued impact, we also set up a donation to the London-based charity, which was chosen by our staff.
We chose the Kaleidoscope Trust, a lobbying group which focuses on fighting for the human rights of LGBT+ people across the Commonwealth.
What’s more, we’ve kick-started projects to make our product and service more inclusive. This will involve some seemingly small, but profoundly important changes to TotallyMoney, from making our sign-up form more gender-inclusive to ensuring our illustrations and imagery represent the diversity of our staff and customers.
June has been an exciting and educational month for TotallyMoney. It’s reminded us of the true value of diversity and inclusion, and brought the whole team together for that single purpose.