CHICAGO – Cushman & Wakefield announced today that it received a perfect score of 100 on the 2019 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the nation’s premier benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ workplace equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation. Cushman & Wakefield joins the ranks of over 560 major U.S. businesses that also earned top marks this year.
The 2019 CEI evaluates LGBTQ-related policies and practices including non-discrimination workplace protections, domestic partner benefits, transgender-inclusive health care benefits, competency programs and public engagement with the LGBTQ community. Cushman & Wakefield’s efforts in satisfying all of the CEI’s criteria results in a 100 percent ranking and the designation as a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality.
“The top-scoring companies on this year’s CEI are not only establishing policies that affirm and include employees here in the United States, they are applying these policies to their global operations and impacting millions of people beyond our shores,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “Many of these companies have also become vocal advocates for equality in the public square, including the dozens that have signed on to amicus briefs in vital Supreme Court cases and the more than 170 that have joined HRC’s Business Coalition for the Equality Act. Time and again, leading American businesses have shown that protecting their employees and customers from discrimination isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s also good for business.”
Cushman & Wakefield has established a number of Diversity & Inclusion initiatives, including its UNITY Employee Resource Group for LGBTQ+ employees, which now has over 10 chapters in the U.S. and Canada. The firm also has accelerated and strengthened employee and management training around LGBTQ+ diversity in the workplace and has implemented gender pronouns in e-mail signatures across its global platform, a first for the commercial real estate industry. Additionally, Cushman & Wakefield’s national leadership has partnered with UNITY to create and implement additional LGBTQ+ friendly policies, including requiring vendors to follow the firm’s anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination guidelines and requiring providing tools and resources to HR in order to actively recruit members of the LGBTQ+ community in roles throughout the Americas.
“We couldn’t be prouder of achieving top marks from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, which reflects a tremendous effort on the part of our LGBTQ+ colleagues and allies here at Cushman & Wakefield,” said Janice O’Neill, Cushman & Wakefield Global Head of Talent Management and Diversity. “A focus on diversity, inclusion and workplace equality isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s the right thing to do for our business. A more diverse workforce reflects our clients, creates more opportunities for innovation and helps us to better understand markets on local and global levels.”
Added Adam Stanley, Cushman & Wakefield Global CIO and UNITY Executive Sponsor, “We’ve made incredible progress in promoting diversity, inclusion and workplace equality. We want to establish Cushman & Wakefield as an industry leader in commercial real estate and more broadly across the corporate sector. Recognition from HRC is a great accomplishment and will be a strong foundation on which we may strengthen our efforts to promote workplace equality in the Americas and across our global platform.”
For more information on the 2019 Corporate Equality Index or to download a free copy of the report, visit www.hrc.org/cei.
Follow this link to access Cushman & Wakefield’s Diversity & Inclusion page.
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is the educational arm of America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.
About Cushman & Wakefield
Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE: CWK) is a leading global real estate services firm that delivers exceptional value for real estate occupiers and owners. Cushman & Wakefield is among the largest real estate services firms with approximately 51,000 employees in 400 offices and 70 countries. In 2018, the firm had revenue of $8.2 billion across core services of property, facilities and project management, leasing, capital markets, valuation and other services. To learn more, visit www.cushmanwakefield.com or follow @CushWake on Twitter.