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Meet & Greet: Jack Guest, Senior Group Inclusion Advisor, HSBC

In this week’s Meet & Greet interview, myGwork member and HSBC’s Senior Group Inclusion Advisor Jack Guest shares some of the challenges of being an openly gay professional in Asia, compared to countries like the UK. In a bid to help others in the LGBTQ+ community overcome the difficulties they face, he founded the bank’s Pride network. He shares how he lobbies for much-need changes for the LGBTQ+ community both in work and social spaces spaces in his role as Global Co-chair of Pride at HSBC, and provides insights into his main diversity and inclusion role, as well as a glimpse into his social life.

 

myGwork: Can you tell us a bit about your career journey to date?  


Jack: I joined HSBC when I was 19 at my local branch. I was on a temporary contract as a 'meet and greeter', the person that welcomes you into the branch. It really matched my passion for people so I soon became a full-time employee and performed a variety of other roles until I started thinking bigger. I realized that the most successful people often had international experience, so I started calling unknown colleagues around the world asking what they did to get their international opportunities. After speaking to about 15 different people, one invited me for an interview and that’s how I got my first international placement in Hong Kong in 2011. 

On arriving, I could tell there was a big difference in culture between the two workplaces. I had decided to be open as a gay man early on in the UK, but this was clearly not so easy for people in Asia. I was therefore keen to drive a difference and became a founder of the LGBTQ+ focussed Pride employee resource group in 2011. This was my break into D&I and after becoming increasingly passionate about it, I petitioned to become the first full-time D&I person in Asia in 2014. 

I lobbied for many changes, including same-sex partner benefit equalisation, the improvements to our customer offerings including trans-friendly name and title changing, as well as using the power of the HSBC brand to show our support of the LGBTQ+ community in Asia. 

In 2019 I took on the role of Head of D&I for our global retail bank, applying many of the learnings from UK and Asia to our other markets and most recently in February of this year, became Group Inclusion Advisor, supporting all aspects of our business to drive inclusion and equity. It’s a hugely rewarding role as I can apply many of the breakthroughs we’ve made to our global approach.



 

myGwork: What's the most challenging aspect of managing people right now?  


Jack: With increased diversity can come greater friction and discomfort as you are challenged on your own perspective and biases. Learning to embrace this difficulty as beneficial to your own development is crucial. Taking time to ensure that a very diverse team is fully onboard with your plans and strategy is also rewarding as it results in a strong, holistic approach that ultimately will benefit a much wider customer base.


myGwork: What attributes do you look for in new recruits and why?  


Jack: Curiosity, self-reliance, resilience and patience. Working in a huge, multi-national and complex organization like HSBC requires all of those and more. I’m also keen that people bring their true selves to work; ensuring we have those varied perspectives and insight into the decisions we make are essential to an organization’s long-term success and relevancy.


myGwork: How important is LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace for you personally?   


Jack: Well for me personally, as a founder of our Pride network and Global Co-chair of Pride at HSBC, pretty important indeed! I have seen great success from LGBTQ+ inclusion at HSBC – from the creation of better products and services, to the image of our brand and our relevancy in the 21st century. LGBTQ+ inclusion can seem as a sensitive or difficult strand to address, but if you can do it well as an organisation, other aspects of diversity are easily overcome.

 

myGwork: What's your favorite inclusion campaign to date and why?  


Jack: HSBC is also known in Asia as ‘the lion bank’, due to the two historic bronze statues of lions that have guarded the bank for 100 years. In 2016, we commissioned a local Hong Kong LGBTQ+ artist, Michael Lam, to recreate these lions in swirling rainbow colors to represent the community. 

Taking such an established symbol of the bank and, quite literally, painting them gay, caused quite a stir, but that’s the great thing – it caused conversations around inclusion to happen across the territory and region and firmly established our position on LGBTQ+ rights and inclusion. People still talk about the rainbow lions to today!



 

myGwork: How do you encourage staff to have a work-life balance, especially with the increase in remote/hybrid working?  


Jack: You are only one person and can only do what you can. Always take time to ‘zoom out’ and critically consider what things are important to work on and which can wait. Realize the value of your time and plan accordingly. Have conversations with your manager about your workload and capacity and decide with them which are the most important. Don’t suffer in silence.

 

myGwork: What's the biggest highlight of your career to date and why?  


Jack: Realizing the impact that D&I can have in such a large organisation beyond our four walls and pivoting my career to do just that. I never realised that I could have such an impact in how the organization works and advocates in the public domain. Being able to influence that means I can have a far greater legacy than I ever imagined. 



 

myGwork: What podcast series are you listening to right now for your career development? Are there any DE&I-related podcast series you would recommend?  


Jack: We’ve got a few internal podcasts from our employee resource groups that I enjoy listening to, but these aren’t public! I’d recommend joining the various D&I conferences and summits that occur throughout the year and being brave enough to approach the speakers and other attendees and introduce yourself. It’s a moment of vulnerability that quickly melts as I’ve always found people to be welcoming and grateful to make connections.

 

myGwork: What was your last holiday destination and where do you plan to visit next?  


Jack: My husband and I most recently took time off to go and see my parents in the Midlands – I’d call that a holiday! The next is to Portugal, mostly as a friend has a family villa there, so no hotel costs!


myGwork: What do you do to relax at the end of a hard-working day?  


Jack: I love to garden and have a thriving collection of plans on the terrace. Also I’m a bit of a gamer and love Civilization, Red Dead Redemption. Cycling is also my go-to after work, a zip around the neighborhood is a great way to refresh the head.

 


You can find more about Jack and connect with him here.

 

Check out some of myGwork's other recent Meet & Greet interviews, including:


 


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