Pride at Allianz Trade in Germany: strengthening a culture of acceptance

Peixiang: I first joined Allianz Trade in 2020 and currently work as Strategy Project Manager responsible for IT transformation and our sales platform. Last year, Jan and I helped form our local Pride squad, which we co-chair, out of our office in Hamburg. While we work on topics specific to our local organization in Hamburg, our squad is also part of the larger Germany Pride network.

Jan: I’ve been with Allianz Trade for 34 years. I’ve always worked in controlling functions and am now a Senior Commercial Controller. As Peixiang said, we first met last year through the formation of our local Pride squad.

Jan: Last March, one of our colleagues had the idea to raise a rainbow flag outside of our office during Pride week in Hamburg starting in late July. This event is called “Hamburg zeigt Flagge” – literally translated as “Hamburg shows its flag.” He asked the CEO of Allianz Trade in Germany, Milo Bogaerts, if this might be possible. Milo said yes, but insisted we back it up with tangible actions to benefit the community. That led him to publish an article on our intranet recruiting people to start a Pride initiative, which is how I discovered it.

Peixiang: For me, it was different. I had been training to be Scrum Master for an internal transformation project which creates initiatives that contribute to our community culture. Employees can pitch ideas to the Power Team, who bring it to management and, if it’s approved, create a squad to cover the topic. For Pride, this process was unusual as our colleague brought the idea of a flag to our CEO directly – which ended up being the pitch he immediately went for! 

Jan: Spreading awareness has been one of our main priorities, which we try to achieve through organizing events. Our first event was a diversity day where we placed signs on tables in our canteen that read “reserved for everybody.” We later held a demonstration during Christopher St. Day, a national day of remembrance dedicated to the rights of LGBTIQ+ community members. We also held a panel discussion on the topics of diversity and coming out the week before. In autumn 2024, we organized a keynote on LGBTIQ+ topics which were screened throughout the organization, so employees from other cities could also engage.  

Peixiang: One of our most popular events were two guided tours of Hamburg, led by drag queens who spoke about coming out and queer life in Hamburg. We had more than 100 employees wanting to participate, which goes to show that people at Allianz Trade are pretty open. Our main goal is to keep it that way so everyone feels comfortable at work and may deepen their understanding of the Pride community through joining different inspiring events. 

Peixiang: Having a Pride initiative presents learning opportunities for everyone, myself included – if I weren’t part of the Squad, I wouldn’t have learned so much about queer history and other LGBTIQ+ topics. I think it’s a great chance for people to open their minds and know how to talk about this topic. We’re providing a safe space for discussion as well as for anyone who needs support.

Jan: What I really like about the Pride Squad is that no one asks, “why are you here?” We’re all coming together to support the idea of Pride, whether you’re queer or a straight ally. Especially looking back at the corporate landscape 30 years ago, there has been a hugely positive shift in society that’s echoed within our company. We want to maintain the culture of openness and acceptance we already have – which is why we’re working so hard to build awareness and understanding for this topic. 

Peixiang: We’re looking forward to intensifying our connection with the larger Allianz Pride network. By collaborating with Allianz Pride to create more events, our aim is to activate even more involvement across regions. For example, we recently travelled to Munich for a strategy workshop with members from other locations in Germany.

Jan: We’re also excited to enjoy next year’s Pride demonstration with more colleagues. We had a walking group in the parade last year – now we’re hoping to have a truck!

You may have noticed that we didn’t bring up the need for support from our management. That’s because they already provide us with such strong support – so far, we’ve never had to justify certain events or activities. We just inform them and they take part. The doors are already open, we just have to go through them!