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Gay people perform better at work when they can be themselves. Gay people are also far more likely to buy goods and services from companies who demonstrate a positive commitment to recruiting lesbian and gay staff. Both of these findings – the results of recent Stonewall research – send out a powerful message to employers. Now, more than ever, it pays to be gay-friendly.
Stonewall's top 100 employers for 2009 showcases Britain's most gay-friendly workplaces. Topped by Lloyds TSB, it's a marked difference from Stonewall's first index – just five years ago – when six of the top 100 employers insisted upon remaining anonymous. Happily, in 2009, the opposite is true. We received more entries than ever.
One of the most remarkable aspects of Stonewall's engagement with the graduate recruitment market in the last three years has been the willingness of young gay people to demand of employers how they will be supported and, perhaps most telling, exactly how their careers will progress in future. The best demonstration of this is, of course, where employers can point to senior staff who feel comfortable being openly gay at work. That's the sort of benchmark reflected in the index.
Counterintuitively, given the current credit crunch, it was the recruitment director of an investment bank who pointed out this week that it was precisely in difficult times that he would be seeking to source the very best graduate recruits this year.
Stonewall/IBM research conducted in 2008 found that lesbian and gay staff who feel able to be out at work and are well-supported, were significantly more effective and motivated than previously. While the Daily Mail's Richard Littlejohn might deride "diversity tsars", it may be the brightest workplaces that rely on their skills during the first downturn of the 21st century. (It was David English, the former editor-in-chief of Littlejohn's employer, of course, who boasted just a decade ago that he had never knowingly employed a homosexual.)
The most gay-friendly employers in Britain have clearly taken heed of this. The 7,000 staff who made direct contributions to the index consistently revealed that the satisfaction levels of gay employees are highest in workplaces with consciously gay-friendly working environments. And, contrary to the imaginings of the world's Richard Littlejohns, diversity initiatives needn't be costly. Nacro, the crime reduction charity, proved this by triumphing as Britain's most gay-friendly employer in Stonewall's 2008 index. A charity committed to careful financial stewardship, they demonstrated that limited resources are no barrier to creating a supportive workplace.
Perhaps the most historic journey enjoyed by the 450 major employers engaged in Stonewall's diversity champions programme has been that of the armed services. Just 10 years ago, Stonewall finally succeeded in overturning the ban on gay people serving openly in the armed forces. Last summer, we started working with the army supporting gay personnel serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo.
Employers now working with us employ 4.5 million people between them. That means that four-and-a-half times as many people go to work every weekday for a Stonewall partner as attend the Church of England every Sunday. It is a stark sign of how Britain is changing in the early years of a new century.
• Ben Summerskill is chief executive of Stonewall
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