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Diversity Matters
is edited by
Annette Merritt Cummings
Vice President, Diversity Services
800.438.9911
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Gay and Lesbian Pride Month
The value of building inclusive policies into the workplace cannot be underestimated. This includes implementing a framework for non-discriminatory principles regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) workers. Such a building block for equality has become the foundation for many successful organizations. Diversity Matters highlights such progress this month, an annual time of celebration for the GLBT communities.
Rainbow Connection
Are GLBT workers making strides in American organizations? Daryl Herrschaft, director of the Workplace Project of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, answers in the affirmative. Herrschaft, who monitors and evaluates corporate policies surrounding GLBT workers, consumers and investors, says he’s seen a lot of positive changes in American corporate culture toward gay workers since he began working at HRC in 1998. Read More >
Rainbow Connection (continued)
Herrschaft says those changes can be measured via HRC’s annual Corporate Quality Index. “The Index rates corporations on a scale of zero to 100 based on the policies and practices that we think define responsible corporate behaviors in this area.”
Nowadays, companies frequently call on HRC to find out how to improve their score and how to become a part of the list. Herrschaft says the response has been formidable. “We’ve really seen not only a race to the top in terms of adding policies and benefits that are friendly to GLBT employees,” he says, “but we see a very strong appetite to receive recognition for those policies. We have seen, for example, our response rate go from 13 percent to 31 percent as of last year.”
Herrschaft does see some common apprehensions employers have in integrating GLBT-friendly policies. “You will find concerns around cost, particularly regarding health insurance benefits for domestic partners,” says Herrschaft, though he contends the research does not bear out this worry.
“There has now been more than two decades of experience showing that domestic-partner benefits add little or no cost to health insurance rates,” Herrschaft says, adding that it’s a particularly low-cost and high-benefit kind of policy to have. “It improves productivity for employees who have an uninsured partner,” he says. “They don’t need to worry about their spouse’s lack of health benefits and can focus more on work. It improves recruitment potential and retention as well.”
HRC continues to see enormous measurable growth in terms of companies respecting the rights of GLBT employees. In 2002, the first year that HRC released a Corporate Equality Index, Herrschaft says just 13 companies scored a perfect 100 percent. Just three years later, in 2005, that number rose to 101 companies.
Progress for GLBT workers, says Herrschaft, simply goes hand in hand with profit. “Corporations see a GLBT market that is worth more than 600 billion dollars,” he points out. “They see their competitors and their peers in the industries advancing rapidly on GLBT issues because it’s the right thing to do for their business.”
Herrschaft says the difference between where organizations are today and where they were in the ‘90s is that the richness of the data around the business case and the GLBT market has been substantially developed. “It’s to the point,” says Herrschaft, “where it would be hard for a reasonable, fair-minded business person to look at the numbers of companies that are instituting policies and purchasing behaviors of GLBT people, and not see a way to make money. It’s gotten significantly easier in my time with HRC to demonstrate the business value of inclusive policies.”
So, what are some of the actual policies that employers can implement? Herrschaft says that to begin, it’s important to include sexual orientation in the non-discrimination policy. It is legal, he says, in 33 states to fire someone just because they’re gay.
Another policy, says Herrschaft, is a domestic-partner benefits plan. This, he says, improves retention and recruitment because it is looked at as a bellwether for diversity. “A company that has tackled gay issues in the workplace,” says Herrschaft, is a company that can be regarded as having a broad, comprehensive and inclusive view of diversity in their workforce.
There are GLBT family partner households in more than 99 percent of counties in the United States, according to the 2000 Census. Herrschaft contends a benefits plan that does not include domestic partners is ignoring an increasingly large portion of the workforce.
When making the business case for equality, Herrschaft says simply, “Protecting GLBT employees is a value in and of itself that is good for business and is in line with the American value of equal opportunity and equal respect.”
He says it is crucial for company leaders to make it clear that they’re not trying to change personal beliefs. “Rather,” says Herrschaft, those top executives should make the point that “they are working to bring individuals with different backgrounds together to beat the competition. And that treating people fairly is one of the things that are going to make the organization successful.”
To read more of our interview with Daryl Herrschaft, please visit www.hodes.com/interview
Milestones in Gay Rights
- 1982—Wisconsin becomes the first state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
- 1996—In Romer v. Evans, the Supreme Court strikes down Colorado's Amendment 2, which denied gays and lesbians protections against discrimination, calling them “special rights.”
- 2000—Vermont becomes the first state in the country to legally recognize civil unions between gay or lesbian couples.
- 2004—On May 17, same-sex marriages become legal in Massachusetts.
- 2005—Civil unions become legal in Connecticut in Oct. 2005.
© 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
RELEVANT DIVERSITY SITES
Echelon Magazine
http://www.echelonmagazine.com/
Gay.com
Gay Business World
Gaywork.com
Human Rights Campaign
Planet Out
http://www.planetout.com/people/
National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
http://www.planetout.com/people/
The Advocate
Out and Equal
Out Professionals
Bernard Hodes Group Diversity Services
Workshops & Presentations/Exhibitions & Sponsorships
Annette Merritt Cummings, vice president, Diversity Services, Bernard Hodes Group, will speak at the following:
6.16.06
Health Care Workshop 2006
Strategic Solutions for Human Resources Challenges
New York, NY
Friday June 16, 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Sponsored by: New York Times
6.6.06
Atlanta Association of Healthcare Recruiters
Atlanta, GA
wwww.aahcr.com
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