A workplace where every employee can bring their whole selves to work is a commitment Colonial Life takes seriously, and in the last week the company was recognized for its equality efforts to support LGBTQ and women employees.
LGBTQ equality
For the fourth year in a row, Colonial Life made a perfect score on the Corporate Equality Index, earning the designation as a Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality.
This index is organized by the Human Rights Campaign and is the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ workplace equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees.
Companies are ranked based on non-discrimination policies across business entities, equitable benefits for LGBTQ workers and their families, support to an inclusive culture, and corporate social responsibility.
Colonial Life provides progressive benefits and resources for LGBTQ+ workers, including:
- domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples
- health care coverage for procedures related to gender transition and infertility treatment
- equal opportunity employment and anti-harassment policies
- LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group focused on company-wide education and advocacy
- guidance for LGBTQ+ employees in their growth, development and wellbeing
- best practices on how to be allies for LGBTQ+ coworkers
Gender equality
Driving transparency in gender-related practices and policies, Colonial Life joins the 380 companies across the globe committed to gender equality on the 2021 Bloomberg Gender Equality Index.
The Index brings transparency to gender-related practices and policies at publicly listed companies bringing greater breadth to the environmental, social, governance (ESG) data available to investors.
The Index measures gender equality across five pillars: female leadership and talent pipeline, equal pay and gender pay parity, inclusive culture, sexual harassment policies, and pro-women brand.
Colonial Life is committed to gender equality with best-in-class practices and workplace offerings for women to succeed. Some of these include:
- Ensuring female representation on Board, Executive positions, and overall company workforce.
- Paid time off for maternity leave with access to up to 6 weeks of paid time off to use following birth or placement of a child through surrogacy, adoption or foster care. Birth mothers may opt to use 6 weeks of paid parental leave immediately following an 8-week short-term disability benefit to recover from childbirth.
- Support for nursing mothers with private mother’s rooms at office locations and Milk Stork breast-milk shipping service for those traveling on company business.
- Adoption assistance program, a one-time benefit of $25,000 for full-time employees and $12,500 for part-time employees.
- Financial assistance to best-in-class fertility treatments with all-inclusive access for those covered by Unum’s medical plan.
These awards mean more than a cause for celebration, they allow the company to measure its progress as it works to meet its milestones to become a model of inclusion and diversity. These include:
- Increased diverse representation: Increase the representation of racial/ethnic minorities in management roles.
- An even more inclusive culture: Increase or maintain an inclusion index score of 85%, targeting significant improvement in our lower scoring segments.
- Accountability for people leaders: Establish and realize the expectation that all people leaders embed inclusion and diversity into their performance goals.
