Careers

Gay Friendly Employers

Gay rights organisation Stonewall has published its list of leading gay-friendly employers – and Ernst & Young has made it into the top three.

Top of the pile was IBM, followed by Hampshire Constabulary. Goldman Sachs was fifth; Deloitte was 39th; HMRC 45th; and PwC came in 63rd position. The survey this year was based on the largest ever survey of lesbian, gay and bisexual employees, with over 7,000 participants. This consistently revealed that staff satisfaction levels were highest at the top-ranking organisations in the index. Gay staff working at the top 25 workplaces reported a satisfaction level almost 10% higher than workplaces outside the Top 100. Staff were also more likely to disclose their sexual orientation in monitoring exercises at the highest ranking organisations.
As well as overall third place, Ernst & Young landed the award for Employee Network Group of the Year. E&Y’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Network (EYGLES) was established over 10 years ago and has male and female joint chairs. EYGLES provides networking and business development opportunities for their members, specifically workshops and cross-networking events, such as the ‘Power and Politics in Organisations’ event run in conjunction with the Gay Women’s Network. The group supports its members using mentoring and buddying programmes, and undertakes an annual survey of members’ experience at work.
Ernst & Young provides other resources and support for EYGLES, such as recognising work done for the network in employees’ annual performance reviews and ensuring that EYGLES has a clear two-way communication route with the firm’s Diversity and Inclusiveness Team.
“I am thrilled that EYGLES has been awarded Employee Network Group of the Year,” said Cameron Cartmell of Ernst & Young. “It’s wonderful to work for a firm where I can be myself and EYGLES has been a key part in achieving this.”

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