Stonewall Workplace Equality Index

The Stonewall Workplace Equality Index is an annual benchmarking exercise conducted by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality charity Stonewall to showcase Britain's top employers for lesbian, gay, bi and trans staff. The index was launched in 2005 as the Corporate Equality Index, changing its name to Workplace Equality Index in 2006.

Methodology

The Workplace Equality Index is free to enter for any employer. Each entrant compiles a submission demonstrating their organisation's performance against a set of best practice criteria, accompanied by supporting evidence. The criteria currently explore ten areas of employment policy and practice:

• Employee policy
• Training
• Employee network group
• All-staff engagement
• Career development
• Line managers
• Monitoring
• Procurement
• Community engagement
• Additional work

New criteria are developed every three years to reflect up-to-date best practice.

Staff Feedback Questionnaire

The Staff Feedback Questionnaire was first introduced in 2009. To supplement evidence submitted by employers, Stonewall seeks feedback directly from entrants' staff.

The survey consists of questions covering key indicator of workplace culture. In 2016, these included the following:

• Are lesbian, gay, bi and trans people comfortable disclosing their sexual orientation at work?
• Are there visible lesbian, gay, bi and trans role models in the organisation?
• Are lesbian, gay, bi and trans employees supported by managers and senior managers?
• Are staff confident reporting homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in the workplace?

Trans Inclusion and the Index

Trans inclusive questions were first introduced in 2016, but did not count towards an employers' final score or rank. Answers were used to gather best practice and provide a baseline assessment of work. In the new three year cycle beginning with the 2018 index, trans criteria will count towards overall score and ranking. It will not be possible for an organisation to be a Top 100 Employer without specifically demonstrating their trans inclusion work.

Results

See also

• Stonewall
• Equality Act 2010
• Corporate Equality Index, maintained for U.S. businesses by the Human Rights Campaign

References