Promoting equality in the workplace pays off

NET RESULTS:JUST OVER a decade ago, Richard Florida, then an economic development professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, released a controversial study that noted a direct correlation between cities and regions that are havens for high-tech companies and those that are home to a large gay population.

Florida had noted the connection anecdotally and wondered if there was more to it than coincidence. He took a list of the leading high-tech cities in the US, complied by the Milken Institute, and compared it to the gay index, a list of cities with large gay populations, created by another researcher.

“And, lo and behold, the lists looked the same,” Florida told Minnesota Public Radio back in 2001.

Cities at the top of both lists included San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and Washington DC, while the Minneapolis/St Paul “twin cities” region of Minnesota aligned closely on both lists – 19th on the tech list, 17th on the gay list.

The gay list was the single strongest indicator of technology innovation and success for a region, according to Florida. Not because of any direct cause-and-effect link, he said, but because open, less conventional places that support diversity tend to attract both gay people and the technology sector – or, to look at it in another chicken-or-egg way, the kind of workers who are attractive to the tech sector.

Florida famously developed this idea more broadly into the notion of “creative cities” – those special urban locations that attract ideas, innovation and entrepreneurship (as well as artistic and cultural energy).

But I think there is actually a stronger and more direct connection between technology and diversity. I’ve noted here before that, back in the 1990s, a gay friend who worked in technology in Silicon Valley used to jokingly refer to the sector as “the hairdressing of the ’90s” because it was so attractive to gay workers.

In part, this was surely because Silicon Valley technology companies not only had generally diverse and tolerant workplaces, but also that, on a more practical level, they were to the forefront in bringing in gay-friendly policies such as same-sex partner benefits.

But of course there were solid reasons why they did this. Tech companies are among the most competitive in looking for, and seeking to retain, a creative workforce. Treating your workforce equally, at all levels, has to be a major attraction for any worker to stay with a good employer.

Exactly those points were made last week at the launch in Dublin of a free online assessment tool kit for companies called Excellence in Diversity ( excellenceindiversity.ie).

Developed by the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (Glen) and co-launched by Ernst Young, the tool kit helps businesses assess whether they offer a good environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees, and offers suggestions on how to improve their workplace using short-, medium- and long-term goals.

As Glen chairman Kieran Rose noted at the launch, there was a “good for business” case for openness, and “a wider economic and competitive case for promoting a culture of diversity and equality” in the city and workplace.

In a study Glen carried out with Dublin City Council, it was found that a culture of diversity helped to attract and retain talent, attracted high-growth companies such as those in the technology sector, improved “the conditions necessary for innovation and entrepreneurship”, and made Dublin “a city of choice for international students and researchers”.

As Rose noted: “We have to compete with cities across the world. Qualities of openness, diversity and equality can be another global competitive advantage for us.”

The same goes for companies – and the tech sector gets this more than many other areas of business. Among the Irish companies active in Glen’s “Diversity Champions” workplace programme – of which the new online tool kit is part – are Microsoft and IBM.

The Diversity Champions programme ( glen.ie/workplace) is aimed not only at helping employers to be more inclusive, but also to be more competitive.

Glen says one Irish survey has shown that the most important issue for LGBT people is workplace equality, with 60 per cent saying they still feel they cannot be open about their sexuality in the workplace, and 40 per cent saying they would change their workplace if they felt discrimination on the job.

This is a significant risk for businesses that clearly wish to retain talent. And it is an economic risk for any community that thinks basic human rights, equality and fairness issues like this do not matter.

Of course they do. And the added bonus is that doing the right thing pays off – literally.

As Rose said: “Equality and diversity are not just good for business, they are good for the economy as a whole.”