International business equality index 2009 / [Index Committee]

IGLCC (International Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce) was founded in 2007 because it was becoming increasingly clear that the LGBT business community transcended national borders and needed a unified, global forum. As one of its first initiatives, IGLCC (with the support of its corporate partners) embarked on the development of an International Business Equality Index. Workplace equality for LGBT people is the foundation of the IGLCC's initiative. It was inspired by the profound change in corporations that has followed the introduction of the Corporate Equality Index in 2002 and the Workplace Equality Index in 2005. The International Business Equality Index is a tool that asks major international corporations to be accountable for fair and equal workplace policies and practices. The Index encompasses all aspects of business from discrimination-free employment in a safe environment to participation in supply chain distribution that includes LGBT vendors. But this is not a tool created to benefit only the global LGBT community. It will benefit business as well. The Index allows corporations to assess their own progress in hiring and retaining qualified employees, finding diverse suppliers and tapping into the lucrative and often unexplored LGBT market segment.To make the index corporations respond to an online survey of sixteen questions covering four major issues and are scored according to an equitable methodology. Respondents include data for every country they will be indexed in.