Bristol City Council and UWE Bristol have been rated as among the UK’s top 100 most ‘gay friendly’ employers by Stonewall, the equal rights campaigning and lobbying group.
The council has been rated at 41 – and increase of 25 places from 76 last year and 84 places since 2010.
Council leader Barbara Janke said this reflected “the hard work that has gone in over the last two years in particular to improve the authority’s performance on equalities”.
UWE Bristol achieved a ranking of joint 77 – a 57-place improvement on last year’s position. It is one of five UK universities in the table, which is based on an audit of employers’ policies and performance.
UWE’s equality and diversity officer Yukiko Hosomi, who has led the work to improve the Stonewall standing, said: “We are absolutely delighted at this achievement. It was a collective effort and made possible because we have a strong commitment and support from Ian Apperley, our HR director, equality and diversity champion and other colleagues particularly those from UWE’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Staff Network.”
As a Stonewall Diversity Champion, UWE has been working with Stonewall to create a more inclusive working environment and hosted the University-wide seminar on LGBT inclusive workplace where all staff were invited and key issues such as staff training, bullying prevention and changing culture were discussed.
Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill said: “Competition for a place in the Top 100 was fiercer than ever this year.
“With new, more demanding criteria, every employer securing a position in the Top 100 has performed impressively – and the participating employers collectively employ more than 1.9m people. The Index remains a powerful tool used by Britain’s 1.7m gay employees and 150,000 gay university students to decide where to take their talent and skills.”
A record 378 organisations from 25 different industries made submissions to Stonewall’s 2011 index, up from 352 entries in 2010. Number one this year is accountants Ernst & Young.
The full list is available at: http://www.stonewall.org.uk/at_work/stonewall_top_100_employers/default.asp
