A workspace accelerator has partnered with an accreditation membership body for LGBT+ equality to help their organisation become more inclusive across their sites in London, Dublin, and Manchester.

Huckletree seeks real inclusion for LGBT+ groups

As part of the year-long partnership, Certified Proud “will be conducting an audit” of Huckletree’s “seven workspaces” and will deliver “quarterly workshops” to its team and workspace members.

In return, the LGBT+ organisation will become a member of the Huckletree workspace community and be supported “with their business growth.”

Huckletree has gifted Certified Proud free membership to its Dublin city centre workspace throughout 202: “As Huckletree members, the Certified Proud team will learn how to scale and upskill through tailored educational programmes and be connected with valuable investor, corporate and advisory contacts,” said a statement.

For Huckletree, this partnership is seen as their “commitment to providing a more inclusive and safe working environment for their team, their members, and the wider community.” Earlier this year, it launched Alpha, a 12-week accelerator programme for underrepresented startup founders.

A spokesperson for the partnership said: “It’s a great positive story of two innovative companies coming together to build a more inclusive working environment for people in Ireland and the UK, and we hope that it inspires more companies to take action and change the way their business operates.

“They will collaborate on events, workshops, and LGBTQ+ support opportunities across Huckletree’s seven locations. The ‘Certified Proud Principles’ developed by the Certified Proud founders will be used to assess the network of hubs, ensuring equality, respect, and dignity for LGBTQ+ employees and customers.”

Crucially, the partnership will ensure that Huckletree furthers real inclusion for LGBT+ people beyond making shallow statements of allyship which does little for the community.

Aislinn Mahon, General Manager at Huckletree Dublin commented: “At Huckletree, inclusivity is core to our business and how we operate. We want our team, and our members to feel at home when they are in Huckletree. Certified Proud’s aim is to create a collective of safe spaces so that members of the LGBTQ+ community can live a life free from discrimination and unease. Through our partnership with their team, we will ensure that our shared workspaces remain safe spaces for everyone to work from.”

Liam Redmond, Co-Founder of Certified Proud said: “We’re incredibly honoured to have been selected by Huckletree as an Irish diversity champion, their innovation, commitment to equality and the prioritisation of partnership is unrivalled.”

Eve Kerton, Co-Founder of Certified Proud added: “We look forward to collaborating with Huckletree to make their workspaces safer and more comfortable for LGBTQ+ people across the UK and Ireland. This is an incredible opportunity to spread our mission of equality.”

Here are a few initial steps organisations can take to be more inclusive of LGBT+ groups

• Identify if you’re pinkwashing and change it. Pinkwashing includes; promoting LGBT+ rights to distract from other (sometimes unethical) business practises, profiting from appearing LGBT+ inclusive, showing support only sporadically, (such as during Pride month in June)
• Set your intention to promote the safety, wellbeing, and inclusion of LGBT+ staff in your mission statement, job postings, social media, and company website
• Include all employees in LGBT+ D&I training so they can become better allies
• Work with HR to make your workplace a place of psychological safety for LGBT+ people. This means a place where they can be their authentic selves.
• Think about what could make LGBT+ staff physically uncomfortable, think about gender-neutral toilets
• Make LGBT+ people feel acknowledged by highlighting important LGBT+ dates in the calendar via company-wide emails, raise money for community charities, and invite external LGBT+ figures to speak to your workforce
• Ensure HR teams have the training to support people that are transitioning and communicate the firm’s LGBT+ inclusion policies to all onboarded employees should they want advice or support
• Promote the fact that LGBT+ employees can create a community group within the business