Awards and Certifications From October 22-24
Whirlpool Gets Perfect Equality Score: Benton Harbor-based Whirlpool Corp. (NYSE: WHR) Friday announced that it has received a score of 100 from the Human Rights Campaign on the 2011 Corporate Equality Index. This is the seventh consecutive year that Whirlpool has attained a perfect score on the index. The Corporate Equality Index rates American workplaces on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Equality. It is an in-depth analysis and rating of large U.S. employers and their policies and practices regarding LGBT employees and has been compiled annually for the past nine years. Tom Reynolds, vice president of talent and organizaitonal effectiveness, said the high score "reflects our shared vision of striving to be a top company for LGBT employee rights, resources and recruitment." Criteria for the index explores the company's equal opportunity policy statements, spousal/partner benefits, diversity awareness training, and external marketing and advertising to the LGBT community, including talent acquisition and recruiting efforts. Whirlpool has seven employee resource groups, one of which is the Pride Network. It was established in 1999 for the company's LGBT employees and their supporters. Whirlpool continues its outreach to potential LGBT employees through its presence at this month's Reaching out MBA in Los Angeles, the nation's largest LGBT MBA recruiting fair. More at www.whirlpoolcorp.com.
Fry Named Strong Performer in B2C By Independent Research Firm: Ann Arbor-based Fry Inc., a subsidiary of Micros Systems Inc. has been cited as a "strong performer" by Forrester Research Inc. in its Forrester Wave B2C eCommerce Platforms Q4 2010 report. The report states, "Fry offers strong merchandising tools, differentiated testing, and effective site and content management tools." In the report, Forrester evaluated the overall offerings of leading enterprise-class e-commerce platform vendors across 111 criteria. The principal focus of the report is on products that enable direct-to-consumer e-commerce shopping and customer experiences; site management, content management and business optimization; and common integration needs of online retailers. Fry earned its highest scores in the "revenue", "reporting and analytics," "eCommerce features," and "catalog, product content, and site content management" evaluation categories. The report also states, "Fry is also now licensing its applications, bringing on systems integration partners and enabling clients to run and manage their applications in-house if desired. These steps look to strengthen the Fry solution moving forward and may make it significantly more competitive in multichannel commerce client scenarios." Fry's Open Commerce Platform enables retailers to develop online stores and create or expand their e-commerce businesses. Fry provides a full range of services for retailers and consumer goods manufacturers to enhance all direct-to-consumer channels across the entire retail value chain, including strategic planning, creative design, technical development, managed hosting services, and ongoing operational support. More at www.fry.com.
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