Alcoa celebrates inaugural Global Pride Week

Alcoa continues to champion LGBT+ inclusion in the workplace and community, with the announcement of an inaugural Global Pride Week being held at its locations across the globe from 16-20 November, 2020.

A long-term sponsor of the annual Perth Pride Parade, Alcoa Australia celebrated Pride over the last four years as part of its approach to inclusion and diversity (I&D). With participation rates and interest amongst employees continuing to grow, the decision was taken to dedicate a week to celebrating Pride at Alcoa sites globally.

Vice President HR Operations and Executive Sponsor of Alcoa’s Australian EAGLE (Employees at Alcoa for Gay and Lesbian Equality) network, Kath Soumanis, said that the company’s Australian operations were long-time supporters of LGBT+ I&D.

Alcoa's employees taking their commitment to Pride Week quite literally

“We believe that by creating understanding and awareness of underrepresented people, we can demonstrate that every employee can bring their whole self to work and be safe, welcomed and respected. We also want to ensure that our workforce continues to reflect the diversity of the communities in which we operate. Expanding our LGBT+ activities across a full week and encouraging our global colleagues to get involved, is a fantastic opportunity to reinforce our position as an employer of choice,” said Kath.

Within Australia a range of activities taking place across the week, including:

• Raising and flying of the Rainbow flag
• LGBT+ inclusion education and awareness sessions
• Ally affirmation campaign
• EAGLE recruitment activities
• ‘Alcoa Pride’ aerial photo opportunity

Currently Alcoa Australia has more than 500 EAGLE members who support I&D in the workplace, with plans to increase that number to 600.

Alcoa firmly believes that focusing on a range of inclusion and diversity activities including Pride Week, is delivering both short and longer-term benefits.

“We’ve had lots of feedback from our current and prospective employees that our I&D strategy has positively impacted their working life, even their decision to apply to Alcoa. For parents of LGBT+ people, they have gained a greater appreciation for the challenges their children face and are better able to support them,” said Kath.

Alcoa was named as a Silver Tier Employer in the Australian Workplace Equality Index Awards in 2018 and 2019, the national benchmarking instrument for LGBT+ workplace inclusion.