"Equal opportunity is a feature of a modern society," explained German Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries in her opening speech. Companies that actively encourage diversity have a clear competitive advantage, she said, because "progress and growth stem not from the mainstream, but from diversity." The "Equal opportunity: at work – in Europe" conference was organized by the Völklinger Kreis, a German association of gay managers.

Allianz Deutschland AG hosted the event at their Treptowers offices in Berlin. Michael Beckord, head of Allianz Deutschland AG's Northeast Service Region, highlighted the high proportion of women in management, 40 percent in his area of responsibility. He also emphasized that diversity needs to be systematically encouraged, which Allianz does by coordinating diversity management throughout Germany.

Other large companies also attended the event. As a manager, Christian Noll, IBM Vice President Global Technology Services for Central and Eastern Europe, is responsible not just for business in his region, but also for ensuring equal opportunity with respect to sexual orientation. He is faced with a whole host of different legal and cultural situations depending on the specific eastern European country, but essentially he must ensure that "the basic values of the company create a respectful, secure and discrimination-free corporate culture for its employees." For this reason, he continued, each and every manager at IBM is expected to uphold the company's commitment to workforce diversity.

Volkswagen Bank's approach is to strengthen internationality through intercultural exchanges, but it also encourages diversity locally.  Barbara Rupprecht, head of diversity at the bank, spoke about how the company sponsors the Gay Pride parade that takes place in its hometown Braunschweig, complete with advertisements in the local print media.

Implementing the EU guideline, now enshrined in law by the German General Equality Act, was absolutely no problem for any of the companies participating in the conference, which had already met the criteria in the years leading up to its introduction. The main problem is actually implementing cultural change, and "creating a common basic understanding," explained Brigitte Preuss of the central HR department at Allianz Deutschland.

But equal opportunity really is necessary, she continued, "it is something we will hear about more and more in the future, because diversity is worth the effort." In Germany, for example, women make 75 percent of all private consumer purchases. A diverse workforce can better serve new markets and customer groups. Also, more diverse employee structures could resolve a likely shortage of managers caused by the demographic shift.


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