Member Article

Gentoo tops Stonewall’s 2014 list of gay-friendly employers

North East social business Gentoo Group has been placed number one in Stonewall’s Work Equality Index. The charity published its Top 100 Employers, showcasing Britain’s best employers for lesbian, gay and bisexual staff.

This is the first time that a housing sector employer has taken the top spot and the first time the award has been won by a North East company. Gentoo, who formed a partnership with West of Scotland Housing Association last year, is named as 2014’s top gay-friendly employer; in second place is Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and The Co-operative is third. Accenture and EY complete the top five.

Ben Summerskill, Stonewall Chief Executive said: “Gentoo and every single employer in the Top 100 has performed remarkably this year as competition for a place on the list of gay-friendly employers has never been fiercer. This commitment from organisations - across 38 different industries - is changing the face of workplaces for the better for all staff - regardless of their sexual orientation.”

Peter Walls, Gentoo Chief Executive Officer said: “Winning this award is an amazing achievement. It truly is the people at Gentoo that make this business great and it is vital that everyone feels able to be themselves at work and give us all they’ve got. This award will motivate us to continue to find new ways of working towards our vision.

“Having two North East companies in the top 10 is brilliant and having 10 regional companies in the list is fantastic. Our success is the result of long term, sustained commitment. It’s been an incremental journey over several years, and we’ve worked closely with Stonewall and learnt from best practice examples along the way.”

The Top 100 list is based on the results of Stonewall’s Workplace Equality 2014, the tenth published by the charity. The Index is based on a range of key indicators which include a confidential questionnaire of lesbian, gay and bisexual staff, with over 9,700 participants. This consistently revealed that employees from organisations ranked in Stonewall’s Top 100 exhibited higher levels of staff satisfaction and loyalty

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Laura Facey .