Grant Thornton earns top score in Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index

Firm receives a perfect 100% score for the seventh year in a row

CHICAGO — Grant Thornton LLP, one of America’s largest audit, tax and advisory firms, received a perfect 100% score for the seventh year in a row on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality. Grant Thornton joins the ranks of 545 major U.S. businesses that also earned top marks this year.

“Building a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace remains a priority at our firm,” said Rashada Whitehead, national managing principal of Culture, Immersion & Inclusion. “What we hope is represented in our score this year is Grant Thornton’s ongoing commitment to fostering an environment where our LGBTQ+ colleagues feel welcomed, encouraged and empowered to contribute and grow.”

The results of the 2023-2024 CEI report how 1,384 U.S.-based companies are promoting LGBTQ+-friendly workplace policies in the U.S. and abroad. Grant Thornton’s efforts in satisfying all the CEI’s criteria earned the firm a score of 100 and the designation as recipient of the Equality 100 Award: Leader in LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion.

The CEI rates employers providing these crucial protections to over 20 million U.S. workers and an additional 18 million internationally. The CEI includes companies from Fortune magazine’s 500 largest publicly traded businesses, as well as companies listed in American Lawyer magazine’s top 200 revenue-grossing law firms (AmLaw 200) ― and hundreds of publicly and privately held mid- to large-sized businesses.

The CEI rates companies on detailed criteria falling under four central pillars:

• Non-discrimination policies across business entities.
  
• Equitable benefits for LGBTQ+ workers and their families.
• Supporting an inclusive culture.
• Corporate social responsibility.

“For well over two decades, businesses have played an important role in furthering LGBTQ+ equality by centering employee needs and voices when it comes to workplace inclusion. While there is much more work to be done, year-over-year growth in CEI participation is evidence of a business community that recognizes the responsibility and value in upholding equity and inclusion,” said RaShawn “Shawnie” Hawkins, Human Rights Campaign senior director of Workplace Equality. “Our goal at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation is to work in a spirit of partnership with companies, providing educational resources and leading benchmarking, and collaborating on ways for businesses to support the LGBTQ+ community at a time when we face unprecedented legislative attacks, heightened anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and physical violence. The CEI is an ever-evolving tool – a blueprint that companies can use to show up more effectively in supporting their LGBTQ+ employees and their families.” 

Grant Thornton’s commitment to inclusion has garnered the firm several awards in 2023: It was named to the 2023 “Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion” list for the fourth year in a row, receiving a top score of 100% by Disability Equality Index®. The firm was also named one of Seramount’s 100 Best Companies for the 18^th year in a row, which recognizes companies for how well they support employees and their families.

For more information about the 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index, visit here. To learn more about Grant Thornton’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, visit https://www.grantthornton.com/careers/diversity-equity-and-inclusion.