This year, Lloyds Banking Group takes the top spot on Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers list, which recognises organisations “at the forefront of driving LGBT inclusion in the workplace”.
Credit: moneybright.co.uk
The list represents the best places to work for lesbian, gay, bi and trans staff.
It is determined using The Workplace Equality Index, which is free to enter and measures employers based on criteria including employment policy, training and community engagement.
Once an organisation has been entered to be evaluated on the Index, employees are also surveyed for their opinions on the culture at their workplace. They’re asked questions such as, “Are lesbian, gay and bi people comfortable disclosing their sexual orientation at work?” And, “Are lesbian, gay, bi and trans employees supported by managers and senior managers?”
Lloyds was ranked the number 1 employer in the UK for inclusivity in 2017, in part due to a new volunteering programme. The programme saw the Banking Group forming official partnerships with charities; colleagues and leaders at the company volunteered over 1,000 hours and raised £30,000 for charity throughout the past year.
Lloyds also supported Bisexual Awareness Day and Transgender Day of Visibility using social media campaigns and new training tools. They flew the bisexual flag and transgender flags at 35 of their sites.
Stonewall surveyed over 92,000 staff from organisations across the UK about their employers' attitudes towards diversity and inclusion.
The responses reveal that LGB employees in London are more likely to be comfortable being completely out in the workplace, to all colleages, managers and customers/service users (33%). Meanwhile, only 20% of LGB employees in the East Midlands said they were comfortable being completely out in the workplace.
Promisingly, the majority of lesbian, gay and bi respondents say they feel able to be themselves in the workplace (82%). But only two thirds of trans respondents said the same (64%). One in five trans employees wouldn't feel comfortable disclosing their gender identity to any colleagues at all.
Here are the employers who made it into the top 10, alongside Lloyds.
You can read more of Stonewall's findings and the full top 100 list here.
2. Pinsent Masons
3. J.P. Morgan
4. Clifford Chance
=5. MI5
=5. National Assembly for Wales
7. Baker Mckenzie
=8. Berwin Leighton Paisner
=8. Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service
=10. Norton Rose Fulbright
=10. KPMG