thecareerbeat.com Blog

Judge performance, not gender identity

Most Americans agree that transgender employees should be judged on performance, not on their gender identity, according to a new survey.

The research shows that 71% of heterosexual adults agree that job performance should be the measure of an employee, regardless of whether or not the employee is transgender.  The 2008 Out & Equal Workplace Survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive in conjunction with Out & Equal and Witeck-Combs Communications.

In other workplace news relating to the LGBT community, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation released its annual Corporate Equality Index, rating U.S. employers (using a 100-point scale) on their treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees.

I’m happy to report that my employer, Yahoo!, received a perfect 100 for the second year in a row.  

Happy Pride weekend!

This weekend is Pride weekend, with big parades in San Francisco and New York. I want to give another shout out to my employer, Yahoo!, for its support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) employees. The company has created a special site, pride.yahoo.com, and will have a booth at San Francisco’s Pride celebration on Sunday.

Below is a photo I took as I volunteered at Yahoo!’s Pride booth last year. It exemplifies one of the most frequent thoughts I have every year as I observe some of the people enjoying Pride: “What does this person actually do for a living?”

Gotta give props

I’m delighted to see my employer get into the spirit of this month…

Top companies for diversity

When you’re looking to switch jobs, one thing you should always do is research companies you’d like to work for. And one item to watch for is the company’s commitment to diversity.

DiversityInc magazine just released its annual list of The Top 50 Companies for diversity, and some of the nation’s top employers — like Verizon, Procter & Gamble, IBM — are on it.

In releasing the list of 50 companies, DiversityInc noted some key findings about the group:

• Among the listed companies, 25% of management employees are black, Latino, Asian, or Native American, compared with 15% in companies nationwide.
• Women make up 22% of boards in the Top 50, compared with 15% nationally.
• All of the ranked companies offer domestic-partner health benefits for same-sex couples, compared with 53% of Fortune 500 companies.

You can read more about it here. Also check out the other great resources at DiversityInc magazine.

Here are a few more relevant articles on diversity issues:

• Avoiding isolation when you’re the only minority
• Gay employees weigh coming-out issues
• AARP names best employers for people over 50