"Making It Real" in corporate America

Corporate America is coming out to create an LGBT-inclusive workplace. More and more companies are adopting diversity training, sexual orientation nondiscrimination policies, and same-sex domestic-partner benefits. This is perhaps most evident in the September 19 announcement of a record number of companies receiving 100% on the 2006 Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index. An unprecedented 138 major U.S. companies earned the top rating, a tenfold increase in the four years since the index was introduced in 2002.

Companies that support LGBT workplace equity recognize that an HRC 100 rating is a notable achievement, but it’s not the finish line—it is a good beginning.

In that spirit, Ernst & Young, the first of the Big Four professional services firms to receive an HRC 100 rating, hosted the first LGBT Inclusiveness Roundtable in July. Several HRC 100 companies and nonprofit groups came together with HRC to discuss how to promote and facilitate an inclusive workplace, as well as to share thoughts and best practices with other organizations.

Knowing that knowledge and awareness create change, a report titled "Making It Real" (to download a PDF of the report click on this link) was created—based on the roundtable discussion—to highlight examples of how leading companies are moving beyond basic nondiscrimination policies toward a more LGBT-inclusive culture.

Key recommendations from the report urge companies to shift from a diversity culture of “them” to an inclusive “us” culture, to use a team approach to adopt and promote policies by partnering senior leadership and human resources officials with representatives from all employee ranks as well as external nonprofit partners, and to document accomplishments toward LGBT workplace inclusiveness goals.

The full recommendations of “Making It Real” are available online at www.ey.com/us, and businesses can customize solutions to fit their industry, location, or departmental function, rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all plan toward inclusiveness.

One thing that is applicable across the board: A commitment to equality at work inevitably expands within employee ranks, beyond the cubicle and the office walls. In today’s highly competitive business environment, a company that not only adopts but also projects a philosophy of respect and fairness for all employees is critical to the recruitment and retention of top-tier candidates.

In other words, doing the right thing pays off for both employees and companies.