Prism

Our purpose and mission

We seek to create an inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves and our strategy is simple – to embed best practice as defined by Stonewall so that we create a fully LGBT+ inclusive culture. This allows us to improve in all areas of our business, from recruitment to supply chain, community outreach to employee support. We also embrace collaboration in the work that we do, and we’re delighted to have been able to support and seek support from our customers, our suppliers and the wider engineering sector. This collaboration benefits everyone and helps to accelerate inclusion in engineering and our supply chain, delivering positive change to more people, more quickly.

Type of activities and events we organise/support

As well as embedding Stonewall best practice, our activities typically fall into one of five categories:

Educate and raise awareness. Our in-house training helps us to engage lots of Rolls-Royce employees. It enables us to ensure our people understand not only the issues faced by the LGBT+ community, but also what they can do to support them. In addition, we run sessions specifically tailored to trans issues and to bi issues, helping everyone understand their role in making Rolls-Royce more LGBT+ inclusive.
Show visible support. Thousands of our employees proudly wear the Prism pin badge, and we recently launched new Rolls-Royce Pride shirts. We typically attend Pride events in Derby, Bristol and Birmingham so that our larger communities can see our support for the LGBT+ community, and Pride flags fly regularly across our sites.
Attract Diverse Talent. We’ve attended the National Student Pride recruitment fair for 5 consecutive years as we seek to encourage more LGBT+ students to consider careers in Rolls-Royce. We also work closely with our recruitment teams, ensuring Prism are represented at apprentice open evenings, university graduate events and at new starter induction sessions.
Community outreach. We work closely with partner organisations in the key communities in which we are based. We support charities such as Derbyshire LGBT+ not just through fundraising, but also through the use of our facilities in assisting them with their work. We also partner public sector organisations, such as the Avon and Somerset Police and Derbyshire Fire and Rescue, to ensure our message of inclusion and equality has a wider reach.
Connect our members. We regularly facilitate social events across our key locations, bringing our members together for less formal sessions. We also believe diversity is key when it comes to social events, so we do more than just go to the pub – before social distancing came into force, we’ve been to crazy golf, had evenings out at fine restaurants, delivered virtual pub quizzes, and been for walks in the countryside.

Some highlights from the last 12 months

Over the last 12 months, Prism has made significant progress towards LGBT+ inclusion.

These improvements have been recognised through Prism winning the inaugural Dame Helen Alexander Award for Diversity and Inclusion at the Rolls-Royce Excellence Awards and with recognition at the Civil Aerospace Trusted to Deliver Excellence Awards. Externally, Prism were recognised for the second consecutive year at both the IChemE Awards and the British LGBT Awards. But it is the stories we hear from our own people that make us feel most proud, and none more so than that of Wayne Harris.

Wayne is an engine fitter at Rolls-Royce in Bristol, and after a huge 43 years in the closet at work, he finally realised that the time was right to come out to his team. Not only was he fully accepted, but his line manager has since said that he has never seen Wayne happier or performing better – a true reflection on the benefits that inclusion can bring. We’re delighted that we now have Wayne as an active member of Prism and to know that we really are changing perspectives of life in Rolls-Royce.