How Queer-Friendly Are We as a Company? – A Self-Assessment Using Corporate Maturity Levels
Many companies that focus on diversity are unsure: How queer-friendly are we as a company? Where is there room for improvement? Often, there is a lack of an impartial external perspective. OTTO and PROUT AT WORK show how companies can assess themselves and determine where they stand on their journey toward queer equality.
PROUT AT WORK has developed a simple tool that allows Diversity & Inclusion managers and company network representatives to assess where they stand with their efforts for queer equality in the workplace: the CORPORATE MATURITY LEVELS: QUEER DIVERSITY. In this process, companies evaluate themselves in nine categories, all of which should be part of a comprehensive diversity strategy:
- Anti-discrimination
- Structures and Processes
- Queer Network
- Communication
- Top Management Support
- “Out in the World” Model
- External Positioning
- Trainings
- Queer Diversity KPIs
Depending on the actions companies have already implemented in these categories, they assign themselves a level from one to five:
- Level 1 – Queer Diversity Beginner: At the beginning of the journey to more Queer Diversity
- Level 2 – Queer Diversity Promoter: Positioning the topic among employees and in society
- Level 3 – Queer Diversity Advanced User: Queer as part of the company’s diversity strategy
- Level 4 – Queer Diversity Expert: Driving societal change around Queer Diversity
- Level 5 – Queer Diversity Pioneer: Queer Inclusion Leader
In the interview, Tobias Gruber, Head of Sustainability, and Ingo Bertram, Head of News, Content & Research, share insights into the process of self-assessment using the CORPORATE MATURITY LEVELS: QUEER DIVERSITY at OTTO.
What measures for greater equality of opportunity for
queer individuals have you already implemented at OTTO?
Ingo Bertram:At OTTO, the employee network MORE* has been advocating for queer interests since 2019 and aims to increase the visibility of queer individuals within the company context. In addition to numerous internal information and awareness programs for employees and HR experts, MORE* has, among other things, increased the visibility of queer people in OTTO’s external communications, promoted the establishment of gender-neutral restroom facilities, and co-published a Transidentity Guide with the Diversity & Inclusion team, which was awarded by PROUT AT WORK. As a member of the Board of Diversity Networks at OTTO, the network regularly brings queer topics to the executive board level.
What challenges are you and OTTO
facing when it comes to diversity?
Ingo Bertram: At OTTO, we currently experience a very open, tolerant, and discursive corporate culture that takes diversity in all its facets very seriously. That’s something we’re really happy about. At the same time, the greatest ongoing challenge is to address the many dimensions of diversity—which queerness is only one of—as equally and comprehensively as possible. Even though we believe we’re on a good path, there’s definitely still room for improvement.
What motivated you to assess yourselves using our
CORPORATE MATURITY LEVELS: QUEER DIVERSITY?
Ingo Bertram: MORE* is a network that primarily works internally. That made it all the more important for us to regularly evaluate where we stand—especially in comparison to other companies and networks—using external criteria. The CORPORATE MATURITY LEVELS: QUEER DIVERSITY from PROUT AT WORK provided us with a good and very practical starting point and orientation.
How did you approach the self-assessment?
What was the process like? Who was involved?
Tobias Gruber: In the core team of MORE*, we held a multi-hour workshop where we evaluated ourselves using the CORPORATE MATURITY LEVELS: QUEER DIVERSITY and its subcategories. One by one, we discussed the individual categories and critically questioned our efforts based on the evaluation criteria. It was especially important for us to identify our own blind spots—areas where we saw potential for improvement. In our case, this included international orientation. A colleague from our Diversity & Inclusion team accompanied the self-audit.
You’re already very active in terms of diversity & inclusion.
What were your experiences with the tool?
What worked well and what could be improved?
Tobias Gruber: The tool worked well for us, even though some of the audit’s categories didn’t quite fit with our network’s direct and practical work at OTTO—for instance, international orientation, which isn’t especially relevant for us as a company primarily operating in Germany. What we especially liked was the tool’s simple structure and how easy it was to carry out the self-audit. It was straightforward and smooth and gave us a great opportunity to reflect critically and systematically, and to challenge our current practices. This kind of outside-in perspective is crucial to reviewing one’s own priorities and thematic focus.
What concrete actions have you planned or
taken as a result of the CORPORATE MATURITY
LEVELS: QUEER DIVERSITY assessment?
Tobias Gruber: We didn’t derive any direct measures from the audit, partly because we didn’t see an immediate need for action in every area—or in some cases, action simply wasn’t feasible, such as internationalization. However, we did incorporate the audit results into our 2024 kickoff workshop, where they helped sharpen our strategic and thematic network focus alongside other topics. That worked really well.
Are there any specific results you’d like to share?
Tobias Gruber: We see our MORE* network and its impact at OTTO as Level 4 in the audit, and we’re planning to conduct another audit in 2025. As a network driven by employees who volunteer their time alongside their main jobs, we’re very satisfied with our current audit result—especially considering that we have only limited resources.
Thank you, Tobias and Ingo, for the conversation!
Ingo Bertram is Head of News, Content & Research and a member of the lead team of MORE*, OTTO’s queer employee network.
Tobias Gruber is Head of Sustainability and also part of the lead team of MORE*, OTTO’s queer employee network.
About OTTO: With 17 million products from more than 19,000 brands, around 11.3 million customers, and over 6,500 partners, OTTO (otto.de) is the largest German online retailer. In the 2022/23 fiscal year, OTTO generated a gross merchandise volume (GMV) of 6.3 billion euros. OTTO is part of the internationally active Otto Group, headquartered in Hamburg, and employs 6,000 people across Germany. More info: otto.de/unternehmen.
The interview was published in the 2nd edition of “Diversity in Law and Business.”
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