Today, as So So Gay continues its month-long focus on careers, Stonewall has published its Top 100 Employers 2012 index. This annual list showcases Britain’s best employers for LGB staff, and there are 25 new entries who have made the cut this year.
While the full results won’t be announced until tonight’s official ceremony, Stonewall has revealed that global professional services firm Ernst & Young tops the list, with the Home Office and Barclays coming in second and third respectively.
Among the new entries this year is MI5, who secure a place within the top 100 for the first time. Such a high presence of new entries could be down to the fact that this year’s index was revised to ensure entrants met the most demanding criteria to date, including the introduction of a new weighting system for global employers that recognise worldwide LGB support.
The Index – which is based on a range of key indicators each year – included a confidential survey of lesbian, gay and bisexual employees this year, with over 7,500 participants responding. These criteria consistently confirmed that the satisfaction levels of gay staff were paramount at the Index’s highest-ranking organisations.
Other winners include global management consultancy firm Accenture, who claims the Employee Network Group of the Year award; while the Department of Energy and Climate Change has been recognised at the Most Improved Employer. The Individual Champion of the Year award goes to Bill Payne, the former Chief Executive of Metropolitan Housing Partnership.
Ahead of tonight’s ceremony – where the Top Employer award will be presented by Minister for Equalities, Lynne Featherstone, MP – Ben Summerskill, Stonewall’s Chief Executive, has noted how competition for a place in the Top 100 was ‘fiercer than ever this year’
‘With new, more demanding criteria, every employer securing their place in the Top 100 had performed impressively,’ he noted. ‘This index remains a powerful tool used by Britain’s 1.7 million gay employees and 150,000 gay university students to decide where to take their talent and skills.’
Also commenting on the Index today were Liz Bingham, Managing Partner for People at Ernst & Young, who said that embracing the LGB community is a ‘business imperative’ in what is an ‘increasingly competitive and interconnected world.’
Meanwhile, the General Director noted that while the firm was pleased to be recognised by Stonewall, ‘there is still more we can do’. He added, ‘we will continue to support lesbian, gay and bisexual staff to make MI5 a truly inclusive place to work.’
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