2005 HRC Corporate Equality Index

[bjarvis]

Our LGBT employee group co-ordinator at work circulated a PDF file of HRC's latest corporate equality index. My own employer has improved over last year but still earns less than a 100% rating.

Looking through the tables, I was surprised how low some major corporations rank still. I wasn't surprised that Daimler Chrysler, Ford and Toyota ranked 100%, but was shocked that Nissan was dragging at the bottom of the list with a score of only 29.

Almost a dozen large financial firms scored 100%, but Morningstar and Franklin Templeton don't even have nondiscrimination clauses in their policies.

Pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer ranked 100, but Bayer only 29.

Retail firms Best Buy, Borders, Estee Lauder, Replacements, SC Johnson & Son, Sears, Walgreens and Staples all scored 100, but Radio Shack, Rite Aid and Meijer were all bottom-feeders. All that could be said about Meijer (score 14) in the report is that they weren't currently an active sponsor of anti-LGBT activities!

I find it slightly ironic that HRC offers an affinity Visa card via Providian Financial, an organization which scores only 86, admittedly an improvement over last year's 71.

More info at: http://www.hrc.org/Template.cfm?Section=Press_Room&CONTENTID=28963&TEMPLATE=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm

Comments

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Just to note that the reality on the ground may be different from such scorings based on written policies. Some companies with enlightened cultures wouldn't dream of supporting discrimination or harrassment, but haven't gotten around to embedding that in their written policies -- "we just don't do that kind of thing!" And conversely, just because HR droids have put out a written policy doesn't mean the management effectively supports it. The financial industry (for example) is notorious for allowing personal bias of managers to determine conditions of employment, with nearly perfect deniability. Morningstar, for example, is supposed to be terrific despite a lack of written policies. Meanwhile, evaluations like this one just encourage hypocrisy.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

And further: some companies aren't included because responding to surveys from outside lobbying groups simply isn't a priority for their HR staff. Perfectly supportive firms may have been excluded by a lack of response, or were simply overlooked.

The item I tend to look for is offering domestic partner benefits. Anyone can write a policy of nondiscrimination but offering DP bennies makes it a budget item, the most tangible statement of a firm's priorities, intents & practices.