Senior Leaders – Showing Up as Allies
By Alice Jackson, Link UK Policy and Executive Engagement Lead
It’s not easy for senior leaders to support their LGBTQ+ employees right now.
Many firms are consolidating their DEI roles, leaving fewer people to manage multiple workstreams. Some firms are also restricting their DEI budgets.
At the same time, those employees who run LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Groups within an organisation are often quite junior. Not only does this mean they can struggle to be heard or to influence others, but they are also still progressing in their careers – into roles that leave them little time for ERG work, or into other firms; thereby undermining the accumulation of their expertise on LGBTQ+ issues.
Add to this the growing need for executives to wear multiple hats, which makes any sponsorship of LGBTQ-focused DEI activities much more of a struggle.
All of this pressure is being noticed by those employees. In Link’s 2025 LGBTQ+ UK Insurance Industry survey, 1 in 5 LGBTQ+ respondents felt support from senior leadership was lacking in their organisation. As one anonymous respondent wrote:
“I don’t see many senior leaders showing up as allies, attending events or hosting an event for example. This means lack of role models too.”
Bridging the gap
This is why I have joined the steering committee as our new Policy and Executive Engagement Lead. I’ll be working with Link’s Sponsorship Coordinator Maisie McCarthy to reach out to sponsors and dig a little deeper into your LGBTQ+ support needs and any barriers you may be facing, to see how we can help.
After all, Link as an organisation understands the challenges Exec Sponsors and HR leaders face. We’ve been supporting sponsors for years and we see the same issues pop up time and time again.
That said, this role and this new engagement strategy is not about telling you what we think you should do. It starts with listening to your challenges and your needs and building a targeted support approach that reflects your reality.
Every organisation is different, after all – even in the same industry. And when you consider the diversity of company types in insurance – from carriers to brokers to MGAs, tech platforms, legal firms and more – it’s natural that executives may have differing priorities when it comes to their diversity, equity and inclusion needs.
HOW we can engage with you
Our aim is to create tailored engagement formats that work for busy Exec Sponsors, HR teams, and senior leaders. What this means in practice will evolve as we receive more feedback. Broadly, however, we’re thinking about discussion-led informal group events such as roundtables, workshops, and Q&A sessions to create a safe environment for senior leaders to ask questions without judgement.
We know it can feel daunting to engage with LGBTQ+ issues. Especially when some of them could be controversial, where they reflect changes in government policy or legal guidance, or where these issues personally impact employees. It can be even more daunting now that DEI has been a concept in insurance for so long. Yes, it feels like you should know all the answers by now. Believe me; it’s ok that you don’t. And these are often complex and subtle issues, in an ever-changing landscape.
So, open forums or closed discussion groups – whatever works best for you. We can facilitate the informal sharing of ideas between execs and HR leaders at various companies, or we can hold Q&As for your execs alone to bring out the current challenges and explore possible ways forward.
Whatever formats prove popular, we’re certainly keen on offering 1:1 follow-up tailored to each firm, that build on our existing 101 sessions.
Key topics for discussion
As for what to discuss, this is another area where you can tell us what you need. Some topics that we’re considering covering include:
- Employee wellbeing: how LGBTQ+ inclusion can help support this for LGBTQ+ employees AND everyone else
- Supporting LGBTQ+ candidates from the application and interview stage onwards
- Building creative, collaborative and productive cultures, and fostering greater teamwork
- The huge inclusion, innovation, and productivity gains that come from being LGBTQ+ allies – and how to do this without it seeming heavy-handed, patronising, or exclusionary
Over to you…
Now it’s your turn. We want to increase engagement and offer you more support. But how this works, what to offer, and how – this is where you can really help.
What topics would you like to learn more about? Where do you need more support?
What barriers are you facing? What have you tried before that didn’t work?
If you have any topics you’d like to discuss, or you want more information, please reach out to me at alice.jackson@dwf.law
If you enjoyed this article, please consider joining Link for more great insights and events from the LGBTQ+ community
