Traditionally, companies have thought that diversity is all about race and gender. Nowhere is that more the case than in the hospitality industry, which, in many jurisdictions, is held to certain legal standards.

But Fred Keeton didn’t want to just meet those standards. As Harrah’s Entertainment’s chief diversity officer, he has spent the past three years attempting to revolutionize the concept of diversity and, in the process, demonstrate to senior management that inclusion is the key to business survival. “So many professionals are caught up in the old way of thinking about diversity,” he says. “They have not even taken their definition of inclusion beyond the politically correct attachment solely to identity.”

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Traditionally, companies have thought that diversity is all about race and gender. Nowhere is that more the case than in the hospitality industry, which, in many jurisdictions, is held to certain legal standards.

But Fred Keeton didn’t want to just meet those standards. As Harrah’s Entertainment’s chief diversity officer, he has spent the past three years attempting to revolutionize the concept of diversity and, in the process, demonstrate to senior management that inclusion is the key to business survival. “So many professionals are caught up in the old way of thinking about diversity,” he says. “They have not even taken their definition of inclusion beyond the politically correct attachment solely to identity.”

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Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) professionals are being increasingly targeted by corporate America — as both employees and customers. According to new research, the industry doing the best job of it is the financial services sector. In the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) most recent annual Corporate Equality Index, 32 employers in the financial services industry received a perfect score of 100 percent, the most of any other industry.

Daryl Herrschaft, director of the study, says financial services firms like JP Morgan Chase and Capital One ranked so well for both humane and business reasons. “The GLBT community is estimated to have $680 billion in purchasing power,” he said in a release. “Not only does being good on these issues allow companies to tap into that market, it also creates a more productive workplace and improves recruitment and retention.”

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So you read the previous article and want to make your company more friendly to your gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (GLBT) employees (and therefore the GLBT community). A good first step is offering domestic partner benefits as a recruiting tool. Simply put, domestic partner benefits are benefits offered to an employee’s unmarried partner, regardless of sexual orientation. Besides being an effective recruiting tool, domestic partner benefits also send a message that all employees are valued equally.

The average benefits plan can amount to nearly one-quarter of an employee’s total compensation package, with roughly half of that devoted to health insurance. For most GLBT employees, the portion of those benefit plans that covers a traditional employee’s dependents is unavailable, creating significant disparity in compensation and the inferred value of that employee’s contributions to the company.

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Senior citizens — those 65 and older — aren’t just sitting around in their rocking chairs. More and more, they are making up a vital part of the workforce. Here are some statistics about Americans age 65 and older from the U.S. Census Bureau.

• There were 37.3 million people 65 and older in the United States on July 1, 2006. This age group accounted for 12 percent of the total population. Between 2005 and 2006, this age group increased by 473,000 people.

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The New York State Department of Correctional Services will pay almost $1 million to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The department was accused of providing inferior benefits to female employees on maternity leave.

Both male and female employees with work-related injuries were given up to six months of paid workers’ compensation leave. However, pregnant employees on such leave were involuntarily switched to maternity leave at or around the time they gave birth. The EEOC said that practice resulted in lesser benefits for those women due to their sex and thus violated the Equal Pay Act (EPA).

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