As a follow-up…
In January 2016 I retired from Corning, Inc. For 12 years I was a part of our LGBT employee affinity group. The Human Rights Campaign does a yearly survey called the Corporate Equality Index (CEI). From the responses, compared to the criteria, a ratings number is developed. This isn’t a matter of throwing nice words on a page. It is a pretty comprehensive survey that asks very particular questions about corporate policies regarding LGBT folks and you have to be able to document what you say you are doing.
What we eventually figured out was that the CEI could be used as a recruiting tool. Corning has alway been very protective of its public image. Doing well on a nationally recognized quality LGBT survey sends a strong message to potential employees, as well as potential customers. The number of people who check the degree of social conscience exhibited by a potential employer is steadily increasing.
Several years ago one of the areas of the survey dealt with medical benefits related to trans people. It took a while, and a lot of convincing in terms of the recruiting message, but policies were put into play to address this. The survey set $50,000 as a minimum. A few years later the amount was raised to $75,000 in the survey. That was a no-brainer and didn’t require any lobbying on our part as corporate officials had already realized the value of the CEI.
I don’t know about your company, but recruiting very good scientists and engineers is crucial to Corning’s business model. The concentration is on inventing materials and processes that no one else has. That is what justifies high profit margins. We are not very good at commodity businesses.
You can find current and historical information at the HRC web site HRC.org
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