WORLDWIDE: The Human Rights Campaign Foundation has published its Corporate Equality Index for 2023-2024, with several major hotel groups receiving the top Equality 100 Award.
The index is considered the national benchmarking tool measuring policies, practices and benefits relating to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) employees in the United States.
A total of 1,384 employers were rated in the latest index, across a number of criteria including workforce protections, inclusive benefits, transgender inclusion best practices, efforts of outreach or engagement to the broader LGBTQ+ community, and LGBTQ+ internal training and accountability.
Of those businesses participating 545 earned the highest possible 100 points and received the Equality 100 Award: Leaders in LGBTQ+ Inclusion. These include Hilton, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, IHG Hotels and Resorts, and Marriott International.
Other major hotel groups rated in the index include Choice Hotels International, which received a score of 90, and Wyndham Hotels and Resorts which received a score of 80.
IHG said that it was the ninth year in a row that it had earned the top score, and highlighted its Out and Open Employee Resource Group, which provides employees with a platform to participate in LGBTQ+ focused conversations and activities and support their local LGBTQ+ community.
In November the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) published a report on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) efforts in travel and tourism.
Among the findings of the report were that the UK’s travel and tourism industry employed a higher share of LGBTQ+ employees (5.2 per cent) than the overall economy (four per cent), with a near 2.7 percentage points increase since 2011.
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation was created in 1984 and “envisions a world where all LGBTQ+ people can participate fully in the systems that shape our daily lives”.
Announcing this year’s index, the foundation’s president Kelley Robinson said that it was “about more than compliance; it’s about changing hearts and minds, and fostering workplaces where everyone, regardless of who they love or how they identify, is valued and respected”.
Image supplied by IHG