Inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility

Spotlight on our employees

In our Action Plan we have committed to enhancing inclusive and equitable hiring. This work includes reviewing and enhancing recruitment and selection processes to minimize the impact of bias and assess candidates based on skills and qualifications. We are also committed to establishing additional bias checks in the hiring process. To measure our success, we are utilizing a number of measures including the Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Benchmarks (GDEIB), internal self-ID, exit interviews and looking at implementing candidate self-ID.

The GDEIB is the global best practice for diversity, equity and inclusion and we aspire to be a best-practice organization, formally embedding this into our four-year strategic plan. Our target is to reach the “Progressive” level on this five-level benchmark (1) Inactive; 2) Reactive; 3) Proactive; 4) Progressive; and 5) Best Practice). Each year, we conduct an enterprise-wide audit to see how we measure against the benchmarks, tracking progress along the way. In 2023, we achieved a baseline score of 3.93 – an increase from 3.79 in 2023.

We launched Self-ID to understand gaps, barriers and opportunities

At the end of 2022, we launched our first internal voluntary self-ID program and asked employees to self-identify so we can better understand gaps in representation, barriers for under-represented groups, and opportunities to better represent the diversity of Canada. As a Canadian company, we understand that our communities are diverse, and we believe that having employees who reflect the diversity of our communities makes us better.

As we continue to gain insights on our gaps in representation, we can be more responsive and targeted in the programs and policies that we develop to promote greater employment equity for all diverse groups in Canada.

Learning as a pathway to IDEA

We have implemented a new IDEA Learning Pathway to advance our IDEA Strategy in an engaging, holistic manner, while providing strong support for healthy, diverse and inclusive workplace practices. The IDEA Learning Pathway is designed to educate all employees in a way that achieves the level of competence needed to create a diverse, equitable and inclusive organization. The IDEA Learning Pathway is a progressive series of certifications, as part of an ongoing, multi-year program of studies.