Global energy giant Shell marked Coming Out Day last weekend by illuminating two of its offices in the Netherlands in rainbow lighting on Monday.
The offices concerned were the company’s headquarters in The Hague and the Shell Technology Center in Amsterdam.
Commenting on the initiative, Shell’s Marloes Michon, Vice President of Human Resources Benelux & France, said in a statement: ‘We at Shell believe in creating an open culture. A working environment that allows for differences is essential to innovate, develop and retain the talent that we as competitive and innovative energy company desperately need.
‘If LGBT staff do not feel safe to come out at work, they are forced to hide who they really are. This results in tensions. Research shows that LGBT employees who are unable to be open about their orientation are 20-30% less productive.’
The gesture was welcomed by David Pollard of Netherlands-based LGBT advocacy group, Workplace Pride.
‘Shell is setting the pace for visibility surrounding LGBT inclusion in the workplace with the rainbow lighting on their research center in North Amsterdam,’ he told Gay Star Business in a statement.
‘Workplace Pride is delighted to see one of its members proudly showing their support so creatively and publicly for National Coming Out day. This gesture underlines the fact that employers (both public sector and private sector) can do much more to show their employees and all of society that they support LGBT inclusion.’
The engineering sector has generally not embraced LGBT diversity and inclusion as visibly and convincingly as the financial and legal sectors, but there are signs that this is beginning to change – particularly in the energy industry
Earlier this year, Exxon-Mobil allowed members of its LGBT employee resource group to march at Houston Pride for the first time.
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For a fourth year running Shell in the UK marked Pride in London by flying a rainbow flag from its London headquarters – one of several global Shell headquarters to do so.
Shell’s stance was applauded Mark McBride-Wright, founder of UK-based LGBTI engineering network, InterEngineering.
‘It is fantastic to see Shell take a stance to show support for its LGBT employees.
‘Shell have in fact in the past included a story of an LGBT employee on its company intranet, which was viewed by a quarter of its workforce. It is important to recognize they have operations in some dangerous countries for LGBT employees. This sends a strong message of their support.’
In the US, Shell Oil is a corporate partner of the Human Rights Campaign. It scored 95 (out of a maximum 100) in HRC’s latest Corporate Equality Index. Shell first launched an LGBT employee resource group in the US in 1997, and has since launched network groups in other countries, including the UK, Netherlands, Canada and India. Earlier this year, it launched an LGBT Network in South Africa.
Shell operates in 70 countries and employs around 94,000 people. Its 2014 earnings were $22billion (€19billion).
Despite its growing reputation for embracing diversity and inclusion, it has frequently made headlines for being involved in environmental controversies.
Last month, it announced that it was abandoning gas and oil exploration in the Artic following disappointing test results – and widespread criticism from environmental groups.
Earlier this month, a Netherlands Court ruled that people in the Groningen area of the country whose homes had been damaged by earthquakes linked to gas drilling carried out by Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM) – jointly owned by Shell and Exxon Mobil – could claim for compensation.
Veteran human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell welcomed Shell’s Coming Out Day initiative but said that the company’s environmental impact could not be overlooked.
‘Shell’s celebration of Coming Out Day is a positive initiative in support of LGBT communities,’ he told Gay Star Business. ‘This does not, however, cancel out the deserved criticism the company has received over the environmental effects of its oil operations and its contribution to global warming and climate chaos.’
McBride-Wright suggests that multinational giants such as Shell have an important role to play in spreading the diversity message to the smaller businesses with whom they work, and to the many countries in the world in which they operate.
‘Within the energy sector, oil and gas firms are advancing ahead for LGBT diversity and inclusion initiatives. Change can be cascaded through the entire supply chain if oil and gas firms were to mandate a requirement for secondary and tertiary suppliers to demonstrate what they are doing on diversity and inclusion. So, in essence, attitudes in energy firms are changing, but progress remains frustratingly slow on the whole.’