News

Volume 1 Issue 6 - November 15, 2003

BT tops Europe's equal opportunities' employer list

Recently, Employers' Forum on Disability, in its annual corporate award ceremony 'Global Inclusion Benchmark', aimed at setting standards on disability as business priority, chose BT as a company truly committed to disabled people.

Employers' Forum on Disability is an authoritative voice on disability as it affects business. Its members represent over 380 major organisations employing more than over 20 per cent of the UK's workforce.

The other corporate awardees were Centrica, The Co-operative Bank, Abbey National, CIS Co-operative Insurance, BAA, Kingfisher, Aviva, Novo Nordisk and Barclays.

Employers' Forum on Disability's 'Global Inclusion Benchmark' identified 10 key areas where companies should report on disability within their social reports. It is understood that 68 social reports of various companies were analysed with quality assurance by research firm Account Ability.

The awards, based on a survey, found that disability was moving up the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda of European companies.

The survey found that 33 per cent of European companies demonstrated real commitment to disabled people in their social reports as against 20 per cent last year. It was also found that 66 per cent included disability in their equal opportunities or diversity policy.

Another positive finding was that 59 per cent of the respondent companies reported on programmes to improve recruitment, retention and career development prospects for disabled people.