New no-cost tool provides assessment and resources on how to advance equity, diversity and inclusion within organizations

On Jan. 18, more than 70 professionals gathered for an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) workshop co-hosted by the Women’s Executive Network (WXN) and the Diversity Institute (DI). Wendy Cukier, the academic director and founder of DI and research lead for the Future Skills Centre, spoke at the online workshop about the importance of embedding EDI into an organization's business strategy and ways to improve and track progress in implementing EDI best practices. The event was part of a series of workshops focused on helping women professionals advance EDI in their organizations.

Cukier opened the presentation by highlighting that work to advance EDI within an organization is a journey, not a destination. She pointed to data (external link)  that shows more than 1 in 5 (21.8%) people of working age are 55 to 64 years old, which will result in a labour force facing record retirements. In the  (PDF file) City of Toronto (external link) , one-half the population is racialized and one-half the population is women. Therefore, Cukier said, you’re missing out on 75% of the talent pool if you aren’t thinking about them, emphasizing how strong EDI strategies are aligned with good business sense. “We need to broaden the talent pool. We need immigrants, persons with disabilities, women and so on employed to their full potential to address what is a very real, economic problem,” she said.

Research shows that  (PDF file) diversity within the workplace (external link)  improves corporate social responsibility, innovation, employee satisfaction, governance practices and risk management. Recently, DI published the Diversity in Leadership at S&P/ TSX Companies report, which found that while the representation of women on boards and executive teams has almost doubled; the organizations have not yet reached their goal of 30% representation. “Women make up almost half of the total workforce, and despite progress being made, they’re still really underrepresented as CEOs every year,” she said.

Turning to helpful resources, Cukier highlighted the Diversity Assessment Tool (DAT) (external link) , a free application that’s publicly available for any organization to use. Created by DI, the DAT is organized around six pillars: outreach and expanding the pool; governance and leadership; measuring and tracking; HR practices; culture; and the value chain. To use the application, first a questionnaire is required. Then, the tool provides an assessment of where an organization is in its EDI journey, along with recommendations and examples of where improvements can be made.

“The tool tries to dig in, not just to the issues, but the kinds of policies you have. It looks at whether or not you've addressed EDI in your mission, and whether you think about it as part of your as part of your strategy,” Cukier said.

She emphasized that the context of the organization is important when it comes to setting goals and targets. In Canada, almost 90% of private sector jobs are with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (external link) . Within an SME, workers often wear multiple hats and may have limited resources to develop an EDI strategy, she said. “The DAT offers practical steps that people can take because advancing an organization's EDI strategy doesn't require spending lots of money every year,” she said.

Cukier then focused on one of the DAT pillars, organizational culture—an organization's values, beliefs and rules that influence employee behaviour. She said while it can be difficult to address, employee engagement surveys are a really powerful way of assessing culture. Within an employee engagement survey it’s important to include demographic data, Cukier emphasized, adding that the proportion of people who self-identify provides helpful information. “If it's low, it shows employees do not feel safe,” Cukier said.

Another way to address organizational culture is through an organization's policies and practices because those shape and reflect the culture. For example, Cukier said, “Policies around family leave, mental health leave and so on signal what an organization really values.”

While every organization is at a different stage of their EDI strategy there is always room for improvement, she added. The work is important not just for equity-deserving groups, but also to head off reputational risk. “It helps mitigate risk because you can spend decades building a brand that can be destroyed very quickly,” she said.

Cukier concluded the session by highlighting the DAT and the 50 - 30 Challenge as free tools that can help organizations advance their EDI strategies. The 50 – 30 Challenge (external link) , in which DI is an ecosystem partner, is a voluntary code that promotes the creation of diverse leadership teams. The challenge encourages organizations to achieve gender parity (50% women and/or non-binary people) and significant representation (30%) of members from other equity-deserving groups on Canadian boards and/or in senior management.

Join WXN and DI on February 22, 2024 for another workshop (external link)  on EDI that will focus on employee engagement data, and see other upcoming events (external link)  with DI and its partners.