Latest Free Now Discount Codes & Vouchers - May 2025

Up to the standards: 96% of FREE NOW colleagues feel safe and included

We are UN Signatories

At FREE NOW, we're truly passionate about making everyone feel equal and included and about bringing inclusion and diversity to the core of our business. That's why we're now proud signatories of the United Nations Standards of Conduct for Business Tackling Discrimination Against LGBTI People. In a recent internal survey, we learnt that 96% of all our surveyed colleagues (all employees, also the LGBTQ+ community) feel safe and included, 85% of those surveyed at FREE NOW agree on supporting the LGBTQ+ community through company actions and initiatives, and 97% of our LGBTQ+ colleagues feel generally accepted at work, although 31% said they did not feel accepted by everyone, so we know we still have work to do as an organisation.

The five Standards of Conduct

With the help of our internal LGBTQ+ community and their self-organised initiatives, we are fighting discrimination based on the UN Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights. We want to match the input of the hundreds of other companies across diverse sectors that have already joined.

But what does signing this agreement mean we commit to, in concrete terms? The UN sets clear standards for the private sector to respect international human rights. They provide a platform for companies to implement these standards and to advance them in their broader community. And we gladly accompany them in their effort to make everyone feel safe in the workplace. In signing, we commit to follow the five Standards of Conduct:

Results From an Internal Survey Amongst our LGBTQ+ Community at FREE NOW

As an organisation, we want to make it clear that fighting for and supporting everyone’s rights is essential. In order to ensure that all our people feel fully accepted for who they are, we ran a survey in June 2021 to better understand how our LQTBQ+ community feels at FREE NOW and take into account all employees’ perceptions of us supporting LGBTQ+ rights. Roughly 100 people were surveyed, and from them, 29 people identified themselves as LGBTQ+.

These are some of the results so far:

96% percent of all surveyed colleagues feel safe and included at FREE NOW.

85% percent of all the people surveyed at FREE NOW feel completely comfortable supporting the community through the company.

80% percent of people surveyed like working for a company that supports the LGBT+ community.

97% percent of our LGBTQ+ colleagues feel accepted at work, although 31% said not by everyone.

69% percent of our LGBT+ community feel more accepted at FREE NOW than at other workplaces.

Additionally;

83% of our LGBTQ+ colleagues have not had or faced any negative experiences based on their sexuality. However, we will work intensively to raise this percentage.

At FREE NOW, there is still work to be done – 55% of our colleagues would like to express themselves more often – and even though our colleagues are generally satisfied, there is still room for improvement. 28% of our people feel like there aren’t enough initiatives.

Lastly, we asked, ‘What initiatives would you like to see FREE NOW provide to address LGBTQ+ topics?’ We received the following answers:

The results could be better, and we are trying to improve the situation of the community at work by:

• Making FREE NOW a place where everyone can just be themselves no matter their sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

• Creating a safe space where LGBTQ+ people and allies can support one another and raise awareness for the LGBTQ+ community and their struggles, challenges and celebrate their joys.

• Keeping our eyes and ears open for people in the community facing discrimination. We are willing to help and speak up for you if you are unable to speak up for yourself.

‘If we are to achieve faster global progress towards equality for lesbian, gay, bi, trans, and intersex people, businesses will not only have to meet their human rights responsibilities, they must become active agents of change.’ Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. At FREE NOW, we believe it’s on us to be active agents for change and help drive this global progress.