Now in its 11th year, the CEI is a credible, fact-based assessment of corporate commitment to LGBT workplace issues. This year, 688 companies participated, including 293 of the Fortune 500 companies. The HRC toughened its criteria last year, assessing four areas: equality of benefits for same-sex partners and spouses; transgender benefits; organizational competency (training, resource groups); and public commitment to the LGBT community.

“HRC has long rejected the idea that LGBT people should have to depend exclusively on the ballot box to guarantee equal protections in the workplace, and our corporate allies have surged well ahead of lagging legislation to afford these crucial workplace protections,” the organization stated.

Companies that score 100 percent receive a Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality designation from the HRC. Fortune 500 companies had an average score of 81, with 110 of the 293 (37.5 percent) receiving a perfect score. By comparison, DiversityInc Top 50 companies had an average score of 96.8, with a total of 38 (76 percent) receiving a perfect score compared with 28 (56 percent) last year.

What Sets DiversityInc Top 50 Companies Apart 

Looking at the criteria of the HRC, the DiversityInc Top 50 companies do better on every front compared with the Fortune 500.

• Have same-sex domestic-partner healthcare benefits: 100% vs. 62%
• Prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation: 100% vs. 88%
• Prohibit discrimination based on gender identity: 96% vs. 57%
• Have LGBT resource groups: 96% vs. 83%
• Offer organizational cultural-competency practices such as training with measurable results: 100% vs. 42%
• Have public commitment to LGBT issues (recruitment, marketing, philanthropy): 100% vs. 48%

All of the companies on the DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for LGBT Employees received 100 percent CEI ratings.

Here is a list of the 38 companies in the DiversityInc Top 50 that received a 100 percent CEI rating:

PricewaterhouseCoopers (No. 1 in the DiversityInc Top 50)
Sodexo (No. 2)
Kaiser Permanente (No. 3)
AT&T (No. 4)
Ernst & Young (No. 6)
Kraft Foods (No. 7)
Deloitte (No. 8)
Prudential Financial (No. 9)
Johnson & Johnson (No. 11)
Accenture (No. 12)
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (No. 13)
American Express (No. 14)
MasterCard Worldwide (No. 15)
Merck & Co. (No. 16)
IBM (No. 17)
Cummins (No. 18)
KPMG (No. 22)
Aetna (No. 24)
Dell (No. 26)
Automatic Data Processing (No. 27)
General Mills (No. 28)
Eli Lilly and Company (No. 29)
Target (No. 30)
Bank of America (No. 31)
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (No. 32)
Wells Fargo (No. 33)
Booz Allen Hamilton (No. 36)
Medtronic (No. 38)
Verizon Communications (No. 39)
Time Warner (No. 40)
Toyota Motor North America (No. 41)
Monsanto (No. 44)
Chrysler Group (No. 45)
The Coca-Cola Company (No. 46)
Capital One (No. 47)
Lockheed Martin (No. 48)
Kellogg Company (No. 49)
MetLife (No. 50)

The post CEI Index: Twice As Many Top 50 Companies Have 100% Ratings vs. Fortune 500 appeared first on DiversityInc.

The HRC gave its corporate participants three years’ notice that it was creating more stringent qualifications for companies to be ranked as best places to work for LGBT employees. Those requirements included more emphasis on health benefits and full inclusion for transgender employees, demonstrating consistent organizational competency for LGBT employees through such initiatives as diversity training and resource groups, and demonstrating public commitment to the LGBT community through such arenas as recruitment, supplier diversity, philanthropy and public support for legal changes advocating LGBT rights. For more on the public support of LGBT rights, read about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech on Human Rights Day that opened the door for companies to be more openly inclusive.

The HRC’s 100 percent rating, like The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity, is based on empirical data and has high credibility in corporate America as a ranking of inclusive workplaces. Companies use the 100 percent ranking to attract new employees, retain and engage existing employees, and gain marketplace support from LGBT people and their allies.

What the Numbers Show

The CEI rankings reflect the evolving, more stringent criteria and the fact that not enough companies are willing to be completely inclusive for LGBT employees. Last year, 337 companies earned 100 percent rankings. This year, 190 earned 100 percent rankings. Of the 2011 DiversityInc Top 50, 28 companies earned a 100 percent ranking this year, compared with 41 last year. Of DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies in 2011, nine earned 100 percent rankings , compared with 15 in 2010. The Noteworthy Companies are those our senior editorial staff evaluates as making enough progress to be contenders for the DiversityInc Top 50 the following year.

DiversityInc strongly believes in the validity of the HRC CEI ranking. In the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 ranking, companies that receive less than an 80 percent CEI ranking will be penalized in scoring. We have always required a company to have a 100 percent CEI ranking to be included on the list for The DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for LGBT Employees. In 2011, Merck & Co., which was No. 9 on The DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for LGBT Employees list, lost its 100 percent ranking. Thus Merck & Co. will be ineligible for the The DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for LGBT Employees list in 2012.

Methodology

The HRC’s methodology is transparent, as is DiversityInc’s. The HRC sent invitations to participate to all Fortune 1,000 companies, plus others that expressed interest and/or are involved in LGBT inclusiveness. A total of 1,737 companies received invitations, according to the CEI report, and 481 submitted surveys. The HRC also ranks some major companies that do not actually submit surveys, so 636 were officially rated. In 2011, 1,567 companies were sent invitations, 477 submitted surveys, and 618 were rated. The HRC also negatively spotlights Fortune 500 companies that, after repeated invitations, have never responded.

The DiversityInc Top 50 methodology is different. We send survey invitations to companies that meet our minimum criteria (1,000 employees) and express interest in participating.  After the survey closes, we count participants as companies that fill out at least a part of the survey. Since our survey has 300 fields requiring detailed data, virtually no companies answer every question. Anyone interested in applying can contact top50@DiversityInc.com.

Which Companies Got 100%

The companies on the 2011 DiversityInc Top 50 list that received a 100 percent CEI ranking were:

Sodexo, No. 2 in The 2011 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity
PricewaterhouseCoopers, No.3
AT&T, No. 4
Ernst & Young, No. 5
Johnson & Johnson, No. 6
IBM Corp., No. 7
Deloitte, No. 8
Kraft Foods, No. 9
Bank of America, No. 11
The Coca-Cola Company, No. 12
American Express, No. 13
Prudential Financial, No. 16
Cummins, No. 18
Aetna, No. 19
Accenture, No. 23
General Mills, No. 27
Time Warner, No. 28
KPMG, No. 29
Dell, No. 30
Booz Allen Hamilton, No. 32
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, No. 34
Automatic Data Processing, No. 38
Eli Lilly and Co., No. 39
Wells Fargo & Co., No. 40
Toyota Motor Co., No. 46
Ford Motor Company, No. 47
Whirlpool Corp., No. 49
Chrysler Group, No. 50

DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies with a 100 percent rating in 2011 were:

Brown-Forman
Capital One
The Chubb Corporation
The Dow Chemical Company
Hyatt
ING North America
Kellogg
MetLife
Pfizer
Staples
The Walt Disney Company

 – Barbara Frankel

The post Corporate Diversity: Our Analysis of the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index appeared first on DiversityInc.