At Berry (and TERRAM being a Berry brand) we are always working to promote inclusion and equality across all our sites.
This 2020 we launched an incredible Employee Resource Group called “Unity”, Berry’s LGBTQ+ network to ensure that workplace environments are welcoming and inclusive regardless of sexual orientations and gender identities.
The group’s mission is to encourage equality through education, training, professional development, policy advocacy and adaptation, and to support the LGBTQ+ community within Berry.
Unity will help us increase our knowledge on LGTBQ+, recognise unknown challenges of the LGTBQ+ people in the workplace and ultimately create a safe environment where everyone can thrive.
Lucy McGrath and Emma Hernandez, both working at Maldon (UK) with TERRAM, are the leaders of the group.
Lucy is passionate about diversity and inclusion, and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, recognises the need for understanding, and support in the work place.
Emma is an important ally, who is keen to move Berry forward, to create a fully inclusive work place where everyone can bring their true selves into work each day. This group is for those who identify as LGBTQ+, and allies alike.
Unity is currently participating in a digital learning series with the UK’s leading LGBT charity, Stonewall. The Stonewall Workplace Conference should have been taking place in April, but went digital due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Over 5 weeks, we have been taking part in digital workshops, and knowledge sharing sessions focusing on issues that are faced in the workplace, including engaging LGBT network groups with a dispersed workforce, increasing engagement with the use of monitoring, leading a successful LGBT network, supporting BAME LGBT employees, and supporting Trans equality.
This opportunity has also allowed us to gain insight from members of other LGBT networks, and diversity and inclusion groups, using their tips for success, to help build a successful ERG within Berry.
We are thrilled to have Jeff Bennett and Achim Schalk as our executive sponsors. Their support, along with the knowledge we are building from training and knowledge sharing, means Unity has the potential to create a community for our LGBTQ+ colleagues and their allies, where they feel comfortable working in a safe and inclusive environment.
