Telecom Italia is the top company on the 2015 LGBT Diversity Index, which is the annual ranking by PARKS, the association for promotion of inclusion of LGBT people in the workplace, which analyses companies open to diversity.
This is the first time that Italy has received this recognition, thanks to Telecom Italia's development of programmes aimed at diversity management which were created with the strategic objective of promoting inclusion of LGBT people.
In particular, Telecom Italia has made employee policies more inclusive by extending all employee granted benefits to live-in partners regardless of gender, such as healthcare assistance and extended medical insurance. Live-in couples also have access to company services for their children, including daycare, summer holidays and study holidays. Telecom Italia offers newly married same sex couples the same amount of time off and holiday pay for honeymoon leave as they do for opposite sex couples.
Telecom Italia also organises employee workshops and seminars to promote awareness on best practices of inclusion so that LGBT staff feel comfortable and are encouraged to socialise with their co-workers, also through a company blog dedicated to Diversity.
The company participates in the DJ – Diversity on the job Project of the Equal Opportunity Department of the Prime Minister's Office, which is an experimental initiative promoting the hiring of people who are disadvantaged or subject to discrimination. Under the auspices of the project, the company's office in Naples offered eight internships to people who had suffered discrimination due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Finally, Telecom Italia created the ‘TIM Factory’ in Rome, which is a meeting place dedicated to the valorisation of all types of diversity. The space is used for meetings, performances, debates, work groups and study groups, with the objective of expanding prospects and encouraging understanding.
Rome, 26 June 2015
