First global valuation measuring the LGBT diversity business case released

Global Diversity mainThe world’s first valuation – in dollar terms – of the business case behind LGBT workplace diversity has been released.

The new LGBT Diversity: Show Me The Business Case report reveals that most companies can save many hundreds of thousands of dollars as well as increase reported staff productivity as a direct result of well-implemented LGBT staff diversity policies.

The business savings arise from the money not wasted on replacing staff who indicate they become much more likely to stay with an employer when they are able to move from being out to none of their colleagues to being out to all at work.

Productivity benefits reported in the research typically represent 20% – 30% improvement in staff reporting they feel valued and respected as productive members of their workplace teams.

Business has been quick to support the groundbreaking findings of this new Out Now research.

“By nurturing a fully inclusive environment where each and every person feels inspired to share their individual perspective, we all reap a collective benefit, while enabling all our people to bring the best of who they are to AXA every day,” says Mark Pearson, CEO, AXA US and the Global Champion of Allies@AXA PRIDE employee resource group.

Ian Johnson, CEO of Out Now, said the release of the new research marks an important moment in the development of better implementation of LGBT diversity policies at work.

“For years we have watched as LGBT workplace diversity policies have improved, but our data showed these policies for many workers were not improving their daily working lives,” said Johnson.

“There is still much work to do and we are now working with clients to benchmark their workforces against national averages in their countries of operations, to help them better assess where to focus their own efforts for making the practical outcomes of LGBT diversity match the promise of great policies. Being able to measure these key aspects of LGBT diversity is a necessary start.”

The new report includes metrics on the value of effective implementation of LGBT workplace policies to businesses of varying sizes in ten countries as well as reporting on the productivity benefits likely to be achieved when creating workplaces able to shift workers from being closeted to being out with all their work colleagues. The report includes a section called “Workers’ Voices” which reports, in five languages, what work is like on a daily basis for LGBT people.

For more information and to download a copy of the report: LGBT Diversity: Show Me The Business Case, visit: www.OutNow.LGBT for details.