Going Farther Together, with Pride

By Ashley Ruiz | Director of Corporate Social Impact

Each year, McKinstry recognizes and celebrates Pride Month to honor the dignity, respect and equal rights of our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) employees, partners, clients and community members. This is a particularly exciting Pride Month at McKinstry — just last week we submitted for the first time to the HRC Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the premier benchmarking program for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace.

When we first assessed the CEI, we realized the challenging work ahead to become a best-in-class company for LGBTQ+ inclusion. Undaunted, we committed to doing more at McKinstry — not simply for the sake of achieving an external rating, but as a reflection of our deep commitment to advance diversity, equity and inclusion for all. Over the past several years, our teams across the company have rallied to improve our benefits, policies, practices, philanthropy, employee engagement, vendor engagement and more to be LGBTQ+ inclusive. Our progress includes:

• Developing and deploying a new Pride at Work resource site that provides important information, links, resources, and FAQs for the LGBTQ+ community and allies at McKinstry
• Updating Workday to provide optional identity fields for all employees covering pronouns, sexual orientation, and gender identity — ensuring all our people can accurately self-identify in our people system of record
• Bolstering and enhancing medical benefits for transgender employees and ensuring access to gender affirming care for our people
• Providing guidance and inviting our people to share pronouns in McKinstry email signatures
• Amplifying our philanthropy and Building Good opportunities to include opportunities that serve and center LGBTQ+ communities
• Tracking our spend and enhancing partnerships with LGBTQ+ owned businesses
• Launching and expanding our national Pride Alliance
• Engaging our employees in relevant learning opportunities each year through Building Bridges and special forums
• Continuing to raise the Pride flag at our offices nationwide each June — and gearing up for a robust calendar of events celebrating Pride Month in 2023!

I’m excited to find out how we score on the CEI later this fall, and I’m confident we’ll do well. Regardless of how we score, we can all be proud to be part of building a more inclusive, respectful and equitable workplace. Our differences make us stronger — and I’m grateful for the rainbow of identity that adds strength and richness to our McKinstry community every day. Together, we’ll go far.

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