For all the scandalous and depressing behavior in
corporate America that regularly comes to light, there are
goodchanges, too. Many companies are now increasing
workplace equality by offering gay- and lesbian-friendly
policies and benefits, such as parity in retirement and
health-insurance benefits, diversity training, and job
protection.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has been monitoring these
changes, rating hundreds of companies each year on their
performance in this area. HRC's 2010 "Corporate Equality
Index" gave perfect ratings to 305 of 590 companies (that's
52%), up from just 260 with top scores last year, and 195 the
year before. Here are some of the companies that improved
their ratings to a perfect 100 this time around:
Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG)
Alcoa (NYSE: AA)
Costco (Nasdaq: COST)
General Mills (NYSE: GIS)
Monsanto (NYSE: MON)
ExxonMobil and
The Laclede Group were rated zero; ExxonMobil
earned its demerits for not yielding to shareholder requests
to reinstate policies and benefits that were in place at
Mobil when it merged with Exxon.
Increased diversity, increased performance?
This trend toward greater acceptance should be
welcome to investors chasing
high-performing companiesthat can
deliver great results. These high-rating companies are
likely to curry the favor of gay consumers, who make up more
than 6% of the population. And according to research by
HarrisInteractive, gay consumers' purchasing power topped
$690 billion in 2007 -- a market definitely worth pursuing.
Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), has used focus groups
and other initiatives to research ways to attract more gay
consumers, and car companies such as
General Motors and
Ford have been supporting gay organizations
and events.Â
Gay-friendliness can also be a
competitive advantage, helping companies attract and
retain talent. As
CarMax (NYSE: KMX) CEO Tom Folliard said, "We
hire associates with diverse and unique backgrounds and
understand the competitive advantage they bring to our
organization." And Seth Zachary of the Paul, Hastings,
Janofsky & Walker law firm said that its diverse
workforce "gives us a competitive edge and the ability to
deliver the best possible service to our clients
worldwide."
As the financial incentives of greater equality become
clearer, it's likely that next year, many more companies will
have made the necessary changes to earn perfect scores.
This article was originally published as
Businesses Welcoming More People, More Profitson
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