Touchstone are delighted that we have once again made it into the top 100 of Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index – a recognition of our work to ensure that staff and job applicants find Touchstone to be a safe and supportive environment.
Ruth Hunt, Chief Executive, Stonewall said: “Touchstone and all of those employers that secured a place in the Stonewall Top 100 Employers 2016 list performed fantastically this year. We have had more submissions than ever before and so making the list is a huge achievement. I’d like to thank all of those organisations for their continued efforts to ensure that their lesbian, gay, bi and trans staff feel comfortable to bring their whole selves to work and are accepted without exception”.
What is the Workplace Equality Index?
Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers is the definitive list showcasing the best employers for lesbian, gay and bi staff.
The list is compiled from submissions to the Workplace Equality Index, a powerful benchmarking tool used by employers to create inclusive workplaces. Now in its twelfth year, the list celebrates the pioneering efforts of leading organisations to create inclusive workplaces.
How the Index works
The Workplace Equality Index is free to enter for any employer, and in 2015 attracted the highest number of entries since the Index first opened in 2005. Each entrant compiles a submission demonstrating their organisation’s performance against a set of best practice criteria. Entrants must supply supporting evidence where necessary to prove that this work is underway.
The criteria explore ten areas of employment policy and practice:
- Employee policy
- Training
- Employee network group
- All-staff engagement
- Career development
- Line managers
- Monitoring
- Procurement
- Community engagement
- Additional work
To supplement evidence submitted by employers, Stonewall also seeks feedback directly from the entrants’ staff. The feedback is sent direct to Stonewall and is anonymous. This year Stonewall received 60,506 responses to the staff survey, making it one of the largest national employment surveys in Britain.
The survey asks 11 short questions covering key indicators of workplace culture including:
- Are lesbian, gay and bisexual people comfortable disclosing their sexual orientation at work?
- Are there visible lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans role models in the organisation?
- Are lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans employees supported by managers and senior managers?
- Are staff confident reporting homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in the workplace?
