Making a place at the table for everyone: 'Canada's Best Diversity Employers' for 2023 are announced

TORONTO, March 7, 2023 /CNW/ - Employers across Canada are doing more to make a place at the table for everyone, regardless of their background, and are stepping up efforts to create diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces. That's the message from this year's Canada's Best Diversity Employers, which was announced today by Mediacorp Canada Inc., organizers of the annual Canada's Top 100 Employers project.

"As a society, we talk a lot about why these things are important, but the more honestly we can speak about issues like equity, reconciliation and anti-racism, the more we'll be able to address them," says Kristina Leung, managing editor at Mediacorp. "At the end of the day, the objective of all these programs is to find room at the table for all Canadians. Employers benefit and the country moves forward when we are honest with each other so we can make changes that achieve meaningful outcomes."

Many of this year's winners have improved their programs and initiatives after reaching out to community organizations that have first-hand knowledge of the needs and challenges of diverse populations. These efforts often deliver tangible organizational improvements, such as reducing bias in recruiting and promoting candidates from diverse backgrounds. 

Competition organizers also saw an increase in the number of employers taking part in this year's competition, reflecting both the country's tight labour market and increased recognition by employers of the need to make their workplaces diverse and inclusive.

"This year's winners have made significant efforts to take stock of where they are and set baselines from which to set goals and measure progress towards achieving these goals," adds Stephanie Leung, editor at Mediacorp. "Employers are increasingly pushing accountability by formally embedding diversity and inclusion goals into performance management."

Notable initiatives singled out by the editors this year include:

• BASF Canada, based in Mississauga, actively solicits feedback from employees through a variety of methods (including pulse checks and bi-annual anonymous surveys) to learn about their experience with inclusion at the company. This feedback provides a framework for ensuring that managers maintain standards for inclusive behaviour, create psychologically safe workspaces, and hold team members accountable for non-inclusive behaviour.
  
  
• Montréal-based CN recently launched a voluntary self-identification questionnaire ('Count Yourself In') with expanded sections outside of the four designated groups. The railway company also maintains diversity dashboards to track progress (on a quarterly basis) on a range of metrics, including hiring, labour market availability rates, internal representation, as well as exit and promotion rates.
  
  
• St. Catharines, Ontario-based Niagara Health has adopted formal diversity and inclusion accountability measures that are reflected in the performance and development goals for its leadership, including the president as well as the executive in charge of human resources.
  
  
• Manitoba Hydro created two skilled trades programs for Indigenous candidates who fall outside the academic stream typically required for the utility's trades development programs. These pre-placement programs are seven to 10 months in length and provide candidates with the academic prerequisites needed for apprenticeship, on-the-job training and pay.
  
  
• Scotiabank has set ambitious commitments for 2025, including doubling the current representation of Indigenous employees across all levels of the organization, and increasing representation of persons with disability by 20 per cent (also across all levels of the organization).
  
  
• EY offers a three-year leadership program to help high-potential candidates from diverse backgrounds advance into leadership roles, in addition to facilitating a reserve mentorship program that helps Black professionals build relationships with firm leadership to develop understanding of the successes, challenges and barriers faced by Black professionals.

Now in its 16^th edition, Canada's Best Diversity Employers is an annual editorial competition that recognizes employers across Canada with exceptional workplace diversity and inclusiveness programs. This competition recognizes successful diversity initiatives in a variety of areas, including programs for employees from five groups: (a) Women; (b) Members of visible minorities; (c) Persons with disabilities; (d) Indigenous peoples; and (e) Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender/Transsexual (LGBT) peoples.

Founded in 1992, Mediacorp Canada Inc. is the nation's largest publisher of employment periodicals. Since 1999, the Toronto-based publisher has managed the Canada's Top 100 Employers project, which includes 18 regional and special-interest editorial competitions that reach over 15 million Canadians annually through a variety of magazine and newspaper partners, including The Globe and Mail. Mediacorp also operates Eluta.ca, one of Canada's largest job search engines, which reaches millions of job-seekers annually and features editorial reviews from the Canada's Top 100 Employers project.

The full list of Canada's Best Diversity Employers (2023) was announced today in a special magazine co-published with The Globe and Mail. Detailed reasons for selection for each of this year's winners, as well as additional stories and photos, were also released today by the editors and are accessible via the competition homepage.

SOURCE Mediacorp Canada Inc.

Stephanie Leung, Editor, [email protected]