HAYLEY VAUGHAN

Hayley Vaughan is the Co-Chair of Unity, LGBT+ network at EY

What is your professional background?

My name is Hayley, my pronouns are she/ hers and I identify as a gay woman.

I’ve been with EY for just over four years and joined the Talent Team as a senior Talent Consultant. I now sit within the Resource Management Team and I’m also the Co-Chair of EY Unity, which is our LGBT+ Network.

What does your role as Co-Chair of EY Unity involve?

EY Unity has an overarching vision to empower EY’s LGBT+ community to be visible and vocal within the business, to feel comfortable bringing their whole self to work and to role model belonging to the wider working world. My role involves leading the Network, being responsible for the development, implementation and delivery of the Unity strategy. I (and Unity’s additional Co-Chair) oversee all of Unity’s activities and provide support, advice and guidance to Unity Members and the wider business. We actively represent Network members in a variety of situations, both internal and external.

How important do you think a positive culture of diversity and inclusion is in the workplace and what benefits does the successful implementation bring to both the individual and to the wider workplace?

It’s not just important to have a positive culture of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, it’s paramount.

How does one go about fostering that culture of diversity and inclusion?

To foster a culture of diversity and inclusion, first you need to understand where you are… and then where you want to go. When you have this, you can then build upon it through representation. Representation of different views, perspectives and lived experiences.

To use an analogy, think of it like building a house: knowing where you are currently at as the foundation. You can then lay the building blocks through different perspectives. And when you have these, you can then begin the construction work of “allyship” around this.

And… Inclusion is very much a journey.

To me, it’s many things:

  • The ability to bring your whole self to work
  • To be your authentic self
  • To bring your lived experiences
  • To not feel overlooked, under-represented or invisible.
  • To not have to keep some areas of your life private hidden for fear of repercussion personally or professionally
  • To not feel like you are disrupting the status quo.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been in workplaces where I have felt like this, where microaggressions were fairly common place, which is why I and my colleagues at EY are passionate about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and why EY Unity are committed to pushing the dial on LGBT+ inclusion and Allyship.

One ether a personal or a professional level what do you consider to be your proudest achievement?

On a professional level, my proudest achievement was being thanked by a colleague, for how visible EY Unity have been internally and externally and how it gave them confidence to “come out” to their friends and family. To know that the efforts, energy and passion that the entire Network have had, even upon one person and made a significant difference to them is something I am very proud of.

On a personal level, I’m a blue badge holder. I had a pretty horrific car accident and after a heap of resulting significant of surgeries. As a result, I had to learn to walk again.

What is a typical day in the life of Hayley Vaughan?

No two days are ever the same!