A company I previously worked for had a diversity committee. I joined thinking we could 100% positively impact the organisation, but management pushed back against everything we suggested.

I wanted to see a truly diverse and inclusive workspace. Turns out management just wanted to look like they cared about diversity without any action or change. People spend time and energy on what is important to them and this company’s lack of action indicated they did not really care about diversity.

This week I wrote a tell all Glassdoor review because I heard from someone who still works there that the People team kept going on about how much diversity matters to the company. I had to call out this duplicity and offer a reminder of their lack of action previously.

Here’s my Glassdoor review of Lyst, London, England -

I was a member of the diversity committee which organised the first pride week celebration that the company had ever put on. We decorated the office, we raised money for LGBT+ charities. It was a start. I wanted people to know that they were supported, that whoever they were, however they identified, whomever they loved, that Lyst was an inclusive workplace for everyone.

The diversity committee continued to raise awareness of diversity and inclusivity by celebrating Black History Month and International Women’s Day. But beyond these events we wanted real change, we wanted to see a truly diverse and inclusive workplace.

We proposed to management that they raise awareness of new roles at Lyst with diverse groups and meetups. The diversity committee gave management a list of diverse groups and meetups that they could share new roles with. But this did not happen, it was not a priority for the management team. People spend time and energy on what is important to them and Lyst made it clear through their lack of action that this was not a priority to them.

We proposed tracking (anonymously) how many people from diverse backgrounds and under represented groups that we got into interviews and making improvements on this number each Quarter. I'm data minded. But this did not happen, we got push back from management.

We wanted to see Lyst hire, retain and promote people from BAME and under represented groups. We got told our workplace was diverse because we had people from many countries who spoke many languages working at Lyst. The reality is the majority of our staff at that time were white. We had very few BAME colleagues working along side us. I did not feel that our workplace was openly supportive of people who identified as LGBT+.

The diversity committee proposed a survey to ask our current staff how included they felt and identify where the company could make improvements. It was a survey people could complete anonymously. It was intended to be a start at understanding how inclusive the company truly felt to people who worked there. This survey did not happen, we got push back from management and the then People team manager who has since left.