Listening to and valuing the voices of our LGBTQ+ community

Sofia Nogués of Clarivate discusses the company’s commitment to diversity and the role of SPECTRUM – the global employee resource group for LGBTQ+ colleagues and allies.

Sofia is a Senior External Communications Manager based in the Barcelona office. She spearheads the company’s SPECTRUM group which works to drive continuous improvement in the work environment and company policies for the Clarivate LGBTQ+ community. It provides support and networking opportunities, and promotes activities that raise awareness – all in an effort to make Clarivate an employer of choice for LGBTQ+ talent. Following on from LGBTQ+ History Month, celebrated in February in the U.K., Sofia takes this opportunity to celebrate SPECTRUM’s achievements and set out its 2020 goals: to grow, raise its profile and continue challenging the status quo.

 

Ensuring equality

I’ve always thought it’s incredibly important to fight for equal rights for everyone. We have come far, but more can be done to increase visibility and acceptance in society for the LGBTQ+ community. In SPECTRUM, we work to encourage all our colleagues around the world to value every voice as the best results come from a diverse, collaborative and inclusive environment. As Clarivate colleagues, we want to do more than just talk about our company values, but demonstrate them in our daily work, so that our values permeate our actions.

As SPECTRUM’s global leader, my role is to work with the chapter heads to plan and coordinate activities and decide which initiatives, such as awareness raising events, networking opportunities and communications strategies, we are going to undertake at a local and global level.

 

A welcoming environment for all

Leading SPECTRUM and working on these activities is extremely important to me because it’s essential to make everyone feel comfortable and accepted for who they are. Clarivate has these values at its core and supporting SPECTRUM is one strand of a commitment to supporting diversity as a whole across the business. I would like everyone here to feel that there’s a safe space where they can go to and that Clarivate has their back.

To achieve this, the main focus for SPECTRUM is ensuring that company policies and the work environment are LGBTQ-friendly and welcoming to all. As an example of a recent initiative driven by the group, colleagues were encouraged to share their personal pronouns, e.g. she/her, he/him, they/them, whether in their email signature, social media accounts or their profile on ‘the Lens,’ our internal communication channel. These small actions cost nothing and may have a big impact in making Clarivate feel like a safe environment for transgender colleagues.

 

“I would like everyone here to feel that there’s a safe space where they can go to and that Clarivate has their back.”

 

For me the biggest highlight of the past year has been the activities surrounding the Pride celebrations. Our offices around the world organized their own events to raise awareness and celebrate the 50th anniversary of Stonewall. In the Barcelona office we put up posters providing information about the history of Stonewall and held celebrations such as a quiz to test our colleagues’ knowledge about the LGBTQ+ rights movement.

 

What’s next for SPECTRUM?

This year is set to be just as exciting. Internally, a key objective is to get more colleagues involved in becoming SPECTRUM allies. Seeing colleagues championing LGBTQ+ rights and creating a welcoming environment for all is incredibly powerful and it would be fantastic if everyone could be an ally. Externally, we want to work with employer rankings and other similar initiatives in order to share our commitment to equality and diversity. We are also looking forward to supporting Pride again in 2020, along with other key events throughout the year.

My vision is for colleagues across the world to feel that SPECTRUM is a group where they can share their experience and raise issues that we can all work on together. I’d like everyone to see there’s a strong LGBTQ+ community within Clarivate that protects LGBTQ+ colleagues, along with a strong ally support network. Equality, diversity and feeling included has never been more important and I’m proud to work for a company that is leading the way in this area.

 

To find out more about working at Clarivate and our current opportunities visit: careers.clarivate.com.

 

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