Brilliance is Frontier’s employee-led network that supports colleagues with varying health conditions, neurodiversity, physical or mental disabilities, helping each individual to bring their full potential to their role and improve their experience at work.

The network started in 2021, with the aim to provide a safe environment where employees are encouraged to discuss their lived experiences and any difficulties they might face, raise awareness about health conditions, neurodiversity and disabilities, and identify gaps in support to continue to improve working life for Frontier staff.

We are here to listen – but this is only the first step

We want Frontier to be somewhere where everyone can get the support they need – but most importantly where everyone can thrive in an inclusive workplace. In Brilliance, we want to push Frontier not only to help each other, but also celebrate our unique lived experiences and contributions to shared goals.

Since the launch of Brilliance, we’ve seen a shift in conversations around health conditions, neurodiversity and disabilities. We are here to facilitate these conversations, and to listen, in the way our colleagues prefer, be that over a coffee, or anonymously.

There is still a lot more to do. We want to ensure that we as a firm are much more comfortable with so-called ‘difficult’ discussions and can actively make Frontier a workplace that truly works for all. This is how we can nurture a genuinely inclusive environment, where we value unique strengths, and work flexibly to allow the whole team to perform at their best.

Brilliant ways to raise awareness and learn

There is a lot of misunderstanding about health, neurodiversity, and disability in general. We at Brilliance pull together resources and organise events to learn, both internally from each other, and from outside our neat little ‘box’ of economics.

Fact sheets are available to everyone at Frontier, providing important information around significant occasions such as Migraine Awareness Week and Colour Blind Awareness Day. We’ve also organised events for staff that encourage them to ask questions and learn about a wide range of topics:

• Our launch event in 2021 included a discussion on workplace adjustments and a brilliant comedy performance.
• We joined forces with Frontier’s LGBTQ+ inclusion network, Spectrum, to co-organise a Coming Out Day seminar to discuss experiences around disclosing one’s gender/sexuality and health conditions, neurodiversity or disability.
• Frontier celebrated Autism Acceptance Week with plenty of activities: we enjoyed a neurodivergent (some might say neurospicy) comedy session, explored popular (yet often inaccurate) representations of autism in films and TV shows, and shared interesting books and podcasts. We finished the week with a social event in our London office to allow space to reflect.

Putting it to work

Brilliance is working to ensure that Frontier is actively changing the way we work, implementing changes that work for all and ensuring we can have fun along the way!

We work together with our People Team and our firm’s mentors to ensure that our recruitment process continues to truly reward talent, and that new joiners get the adjustments they need. Brilliance created Frontier’s “ID Cards”: an easy way to discuss adjusted working styles, preferences and non-negotiables. Frontier’s Learning and Development team worked with Brilliance to design manager training that shone a light on the diversity of colleagues’ needs and ways of communicating. And there’s much more on our to-do list!

Our pursuit of a more diverse and inclusive workplace is proactive and always evolving. But we’re still above all an informal space for a discussion – about frustrations, joys or just exchanging ideas (such as what protein bars others eat when taking ADHD medication).

In the spirit of autistic author and educator Jolene Stockman: there is no such thing as ‘normal’. It’s something we define.

Brilliance is part of a wider Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Programme at Frontier. We have four other employee networks focusing on gender (Prism), ethnicity, culture and religion (Kaleidoscope), LGBTQ+ inclusion (Spectrum) and support for those with caring responsibilities (Working Families Group).

Learn more about Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at Frontier