Inclusion and Diversity - A Stonewall Diversity Champion

Basildon Council joined the Stonewall Diversity Champions Programme in 2016.

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The Stonewall Diversity Champion's Programme is Britain's leading best-practice employers' forum for sexual orientation, gender identity equality, diversity and inclusion. Over 700 organisations work with Stonewall through the Diversity Champions programme understand that creating an environment where lesbian, gay, bi and trans staff can be themselves is not only the right thing to do, but makes perfect business sense.

This year Stonewall will be working again with Basildon Council as we prepare for an assessment of the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index in September of 2017. The Stonewall Equality Index is a way of measuring how inclusive an organisation or company is. Each organisation is scored against others with the intention of getting into the top 100.

Last year (2016), Bala Mahendran, Gary Ormes (Chair of Essex Pride) and Paul Burkinshaw, Stonewall Diversity Champion signed up to Stonewall's "No Bystander" pledge. It demonstrated the Council's commitment to being an inclusive employer. A place where everyone is valued regardless of who they are.  So far more than 16,500 people have signed up signed up to Stonewall's "No Bystander" pledge.
    
At Stonewall we know that when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees are able to be themselves at work, their performance improves. They enjoy going to work, are more loyal, more creative and make greater contributions to the organisation. We work with over 750 employers to help them create inclusive workplaces and we're incredibly proud of the impact they have on the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender staff.

Why focus on LGBT equality?

As part of the Stonewall Top 100 Employers 2015 guide, 50,070 employees across the UK responded to Stonewall' s staff survey. Of those 50,070 employees, 10,592 identified as lesbian, gay and bisexual. The survey found that only 57 per cent of respondents were open about their sexual orientation to all colleagues.

The survey also found differences in the experiences of staff who were open about their sexual orientation to those who were not:

• 86% of openly out staff were satisfied with their sense of achievement compared to only 54% of staff not open about their sexual orientation.
• 76% of openly out staff were satisfied with their job security compared to only 50% of staff not open about their sexual orientation.

Further information and enquiries

• Stonewall's Diversity Champions programme (opens new window)
• Enquiries please to Basildon Council's Inclusion and Diversity Team, see contact details below.