York St John retains its place in Stonewall Top 100 Employers List

The University was ranked 61^st according to equality charity Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers for 2016.

The Stonewall Top 100 Employers are those that perform best on Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index 2016, an annual audit of workplace culture for LGB staff.

The list is compiled from submissions to the Workplace Equality Index, a powerful benchmarking tool used by employers to create inclusive workplaces. Now in its twelfth year, the list celebrates the pioneering efforts of leading organisations to create inclusive workplaces.

As part of the Index there is a staff feedback questionnaire that participating employers can ask their staff to complete. This year Stonewall received 60,506 responses to the staff survey, making it one of the largest national employment surveys in Britain, with 11,980 lesbian, gay, bi and trans respondents. All of the Top 100 are members of Stonewall’s Diversity Champions programme.

Vice Chancellor Professor Karen Stanton said:

“We are incredibly proud of not only remaining in the Top 100 Employers but also improving our ranking by 17 places. What’s particularly pleasing is that the Stonewall Index is partially based on direct feedback from our staff and clearly demonstrates the University’s commitment to LGBT equality in the workplace. This is a wonderful achievement.”

Ruth Hunt, Chief Executive, Stonewall commented:

“York St John University and all of those employers that secured a place in the Stonewall Top 100 Employers 2016 list performed fantastically this year. We have had more submissions than ever before and so making the list is a huge achievement. I’d like to thank all of those organisations for their continued efforts to ensure that their lesbian, gay, bi and trans staff feel comfortable to bring their whole selves to work and are accepted without exception”.

York St John’s LGBT Staff Network has been instrumental in achieving this result. The groups’ recent activities have included contributing extensively to York LGBT History Month and also hosting a launch for Stonewall’s new book ‘Christian Role Models’ in December 2015.