Why Siemens strives for a 100 percent rating on the Corporate Equality Index

This week, Siemens Corp. earned a 100 percent rating on the 2020 Corporate Equality Index. The top grade designates us as a ‘Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality’ by index publisher Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

Companies that earn 100 percent must have comprehensive non-discrimination policies, benefits and practices to ensure greater equity for LGBTQ employees and their family members.

Human Rights Campaign Foundation encourages businesses to use the index and its rating criteria as a guide to help ensure policies and benefits are inclusive. It guides companies as they build more inclusive cultures and deeper corporate social responsibility.

At Siemens, we believe a workforce drawn from all segments of society is both the right thing to do and a core part of our business strategy.

I speak honestly and openly when I say Siemens takes this guidance seriously. While we earned 100 percent in 2017 and 2018 on the index, we fell to 95 percent in 2019 because the benefits we offered for spouses were different than what was available to partners. So, while we prided ourselves on our diversity, equity and inclusion programs and public commitment, our supplier diversity program, and our active employee resource groups (including the Siemens Pride ERG), we realized a gap emerged, and we could do more to promote LGBTQ equality.

And that’s what we did. Our HR and Legal teams worked together to amend our benefits in 2019. Last year, we also joined the Business Coalition for the Equality Act, a group of U.S. employers who publicly support the passage of the Equality Act.

As a leading employer in the United States, it’s our obligation to provide the best workplace we can – and that includes equity for all. In a continuously evolving culture at work, the importance of accountability cannot be underestimated. I urge every company that’s striving for inclusiveness to utilize the guide constructed by Human Rights Campaign Foundation and join Siemens on the index next year.

This article originally appeared as a Siemens Story.