Swiss Market Leaders: The Investment Case for LGBTQ+ Inclusion Transparency


This report provides Swiss investors, corporate leaders, and business strategists with the first comprehensive data-driven analysis of LGBTQ+ inclusion transparency among Switzerland’s largest companies. It’s aimed in the corporate community: board members, Chief Sustainability Officers, HR practitioners, and public and corporate affairs leads – looking to enhance their business strategies by incorporating LGBTQ+ perspectives; and those in the LGBTQ+ community: civil society organisations, employee resource groups – who want to encourage proactive corporate support for LGBTQ+ inclusion, internally and externally.

What is LGBTQ+ Inclusion Transparency?

LGBTQ+ inclusion transparency refers to the degree to which companies publicly disclose policies, practices, and data related to LGBTQ+ inclusion. This report measures 13 indicators covering workforce policies, governance, supplier diversity, leadership representation, public advocacy, and consumer engagement. Each indicator is weighted based on its strategic significance and business relevance.

Using these indicators, the report found that ABB, Logitech, Nestlé, Roche, and Zurich Insurance were the top performing companies.

Corporate transparency around LGBTQ+ inclusion matters because:

  • Transparency serves as a signal. When companies openly report on their LGBTQ+ inclusion efforts, they signal to employees, customers, and investors that they recognise the business value of inclusion

  • Transparency enables measurement. What gets measured gets managed. Companies that disclose their LGBTQ+ workforce data, supplier diversity figures, and other metrics are better positioned to identify gaps and track progress

  • Transparency creates competitive pressure. As more companies disclose their LGBTQ+ inclusion practices, it establishes new market norms that encourage others to follow suit

Key Findings

  • Market Leadership. Swiss companies with high LGBTQ+ inclusion transparency are 2.2 times more likely to be market leaders

  • The Inclusion Dividend. Top quartile transparent companies achieve an average Return of Equity of 26.19%, significantly outperforming the bottom quartile’s 18.22%

  • Transparency Gap. 86% of major Swiss companies exhibit minimal LGBTQ+ inclusion transparency, presenting substantial first-mover advantages

  • Consumer Engagement. Only 6% of major consumer-facing Swiss companies engage LGBTQ+ consumers, despite the global LGBTQ+ community's estimated purchasing power of $4.7 trillion

  • Generational Shift. 86% of Swiss companies risk falling behind the expectations of Gen Z, who are six times more likely to identify as LGBTQ+ than previous generations

Further Insights

In addition to the transparency score, we classified companies according to their level of maturity regarding LGBTQ+ inclusion tranparency and realised that:

  • The majority of Swiss companies cluster at the extremes. A combined 86% operate at either no maturity (34%) or baseline ESG levels (52%)

  • The "missing middle" presents an exceptional opportunity. With only 4% of companies achieving strategic integration, there's a substantial gap between basic compliance and sophisticated implementation

  • Impact ESG leaders represent proven differentiation. The 10% achieving impact-level maturity demonstrate comprehensive integration spanning workplace policies, supplier diversity, public advocacy, and consumer engagement

  • The baseline-to-strategic gap suggests systematic underinvestment. While 52% of companies maintain basic workplace programmes, the sharp drop to 4% at strategic levels indicates that most organisations haven't recognised inclusion's potential as a business driver