Lloyds TSB bank is UK's most gay-friendly employer

Taipei News.Net
Wednesday 7th January, 2009 (ANI)

London, Jan 7 : Lloyds TSB, the leading financial institution, has topped the league table of the UK's most gay-friendly employers in a new survey.

The police services, banking and management consultant firms have outshined the public sector, media and education at the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index 2009.

Goldman Sachs, the global bank holding company landed at the 11th place.

In the survey involving more than 7,000 gay and lesbian employees, Hampshire constabulary was placed at the second spot as the most gay friendly employers. Kent police also made it to the top 10 on the fourth position.

While 17 forces were listed in the top 100. The metropolitan police came in at number 43.

From the public sector, Brighton and Hove council made it to the third spot while 13 others made it to the top 100.

The professional services companies such as KPMG, Ernst and Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers also made it to the top 25.

Britain's single largest employer, the NHS, failed to make it to the upper reaches of the index and only one NHS trust, Tower Hamlets, was among the best, ranked at 58.

"There are sectors such as the police which perform exceptionally well in the index but then there are sectors such as construction and media which don't," Guardian.co.uk quoted David Shields, director of Stonewall's Workplace Programme as saying.

"But it can take a few years from when an organisation decides to improve in this area to begin to see some results. We are always working with organisations in [under-represented] sectors such as the NHS, retail and the media to help them improve," he added.

Shields said that it could be difficult to identify why some sectors far outperform others.

He said that the strides made by so many police forces may be part of "a broader effort to effect cultural change".

"I think for banks, for example, there is a real emphasis on the bottom line and they are recognising that fair employment practices directly impact on performance. I wonder if with the education or media sectors they believe they are already good and don't feel the need to measure it," he added.

Fiona Cannon, head of equality and diversity at Lloyds TSB, said good diversity policies "simply make good business sense".

"I think the financial services sector is good at recognising this. At Lloyds we have worked hard and it's wonderful that it's paying off," she added.

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