Out & Equal's Dallas-Fort Worth Affiliate Panel Presention at NACE June 2, 2011 in Grapevine,TX

This June, the 2,500-strong National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) conference  learned about LGBT workplace issues compliments of Out & Equal's Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Regional Affiliate and LGBTCareerLink.  Each year the NACE conference convenes corporate recruiters and university career services professionals. This year, for the first time, NACE planners decided to include the LGBT employee perspective in their workshop line-up and naturally reached out to LGBTCareerLink to provide resources.

 

What did these talent recruitment professionals want to know about us?    

• Firing LGBT? Can an employee be fired for being openly LGBT at work? DFW affiliate member John Connell, and other members of the panel, explained that in 36 states employers can refuse to hire and also fire anyone for being LGBT. This fact surprised the audience as most thought LGBT people were a protected group in all states. 

• Come out during interviews? University career counselors wondered whether to advise their LGBT students to come out during campus interviews.The panel covered the implications and consequences of coming out during a job interview and suggested that a student, when knowledgeable of the facts, can then make this significant decision with eyes wide open.  

• Is this employer friendly? Attendees also wondered how job-hunters can determine if a corporation is LGBT-friendly. Out & Equal's LGBT CareerLink, where employers are actively recruiting LGBT employees at all levels, reviewing Out & Equal's 2011 Workplace Sponsor List, and the Human Rights Commission's Corporate Equality Index are three of the best ways to research prospective employers.   

• Recruit LGBT employees? Corporate recruiters asked if there was a way to include LGBT employee recruiting in their diversity recruiting initiatives. They were provided with LGBTCareerLink recruiting subscription information, Out & Equal's direct online LGBT hiring opportunity. As panelist Jeffery Gorczynski of Citi, opined, "Corporate America is leading the way in the fight for LGBT equality and Out & Equal Workplace Advocates is the best resource for bringing true and effective change throughout the workplace."       

   

Debra Davis (Bank of America); Evelyn Caldwell (Siemens); Heather Lueth (PriceWaterhouseCoopers); Jeff Snook (Sodexo); Jeffrey Gorczynski (Citi); Jonn Connell (consultant); John Trevino (American Airlines); and Paul von Wupperfied (Texas Instruments).

 

Their willingness to provide role modeling and information to a large group of employers and career counselors, most of whom had been unfamiliar with LGBT workplace issues, benefits all of us.

New research from a popular jobs board proclaims LGBT employees are more likely to earn six-figure salaries than others in their diversity sample.

  

What do you think? Is it true? Click to read the research. 

Out & Equal Workplace Advocates  CareerLink Hotline: (415) 694-6535