IBM wins Stonewall award

IBM has been named the most gay-friendly company to work for in the UK by lobby group Stonewall.

The technology company scored an impressive 95 per cent in the annual poll of Britain's employers, while last year's number one, Staffordshire Police, took second place.

Stonewall claims that firms are making progress on tackling discrimination and promoting equality in the workplace and has published the annual Workplace Equality Index for 2007, which provides a list of the top 100 gay-friendly employers in Britain.

In joint third place, the Greater London Authority and Manchester City Council both scored 93 per cent, Nacro was fifth with 92 per cent, followed by Lloyds TSB (91 per cent), Brighton & Hove City Council (90 per cent), and Goldman Sachs, KPMG and Transport for London (all with 89 per cent).

The third annual list of UK employers is based on a survey of UK businesses covered policy and practice areas and companies named as gay-friendly employers must demonstrate high standards of good practice in relation Britain's 1.7 million gay workers.

IBM has said that the award gives it "the impetus to further embed" principles of inclusion and equality in its policies.

Criteria for inclusion in the Stonewall index include monitoring the sexual orientation of employees, consulting employee network groups, advertising in the gay media and providing diversity training.

All of the top 100 companies provided equal benefits to gay and straight staff, three quarters (76 per cent) advertised in the gay press, and 92 per cent support gay or lesbian events or organisations.

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Date:11/01/2007 00:00:00