Stonewall recently released its Top 100 Employers list for 2016 compiled from submissions to the Workplace Equality Index, a benchmarking tool used by employers to assess their progress on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) equality in the workplace. M15 was named as number one on the list followed by Lloyds Banking Group.
Although many large organizations featured in the Top 100 Employers list are ploughing resources into improving the workplace culture for LGBT employees, there is no room for complacency in the workplace. The campaigning body released findings from an anonymous survey of 60,000 staff from participating organizations. It revealed that there was still much work to do in creating an inclusive working culture for LGBT staff. Only 27% of LGBT people felt comfortable disclosing their sexual orientation to all colleagues and customers. Figures were lower for lesbians than gay men and considerably lower for bi individuals (12%). “There is no such thing as a perfect workplace,” said Sarah Foster, major partnerships manager for Stonewall. “The key thing is to recognize the diversity within the LGBT community. A lot of LGBT initiatives are skewed towards men but it’s about recognizing that lesbians and transgender have distinct needs too. The second key issue is organizational disparity where there are parts of the business that get it but parts of the business that are still struggling with it.”
The anonymous survey also revealed that the LGBT community wanted to see more visible LGBT role models in the workplace. Just 11% of respondents believe there are bi role models at work with the figure rising to 53% of respondents seeing gay role models at work.
Organizations can do more to improve the workplace culture for LGBT employees, remarked Kathryn Nawrockyi, gender equality director for Business in the Community (BITC). “We have equality for LGBT people on the surface such as equality of marriage but abuse and hate crime is still a problem. For example, our Project 28-40 found 52% of women aged 28 to 40 had experienced bullying and harassment at work in the last three years but this rose to 61% of bisexual women and 54% of gay/lesbian women in the same age group. Many employees are still nervous about being out at work and the fear of abuse and bullying is likely to be a key part of this. That’s why it’s important employers create a culture of openness and a safe working environment where all employees feel they can be themselves.”
Foster urged organizations to prioritize how to engage with the majority of the workforce. “I’ve seen organizations getting effective at reaching out to LGBT workforce but a big proportion of the workforce think it’s a fluffy thing to do, so how do you turn those cynics into supporters and how do you mobilize passive supporters? That is an on-going challenge for HR. She also believes that organizations have been slow on the up-take in the capture of data on sexual orientation. “Those organizations that do capture data are able to drive the effectiveness of initiatives.”
