CANADA’S BEST DIVERSITY EMPLOYERS 2018
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Diversity at Manulife starts ‘at the top of the house’
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t all started with a lunch in February, 2017 to coincide with Black History Month. Malaika Gonzalez, an Administrative Coordinator in the downtown Toronto office of Manulife, arranged the outing with a group of like-minded colleagues. By June, they were up and running as VIBE – Valuing the Inclusion of Black Employees – one of seven Manulife employee resource groups that boast over 7,000 members across North America as well as in Asia. “The employee resource groups support Manulife’s culture of diversity and inclusion,” says Gonzalez. “They boost morale. Employees take pride in participating in ERG events.” Manulife has built a culture where diversity is encouraged and embraced.
Stephani Kingsmill
Senior Advisor to the President
The ERGs are just one component of Manulife’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. That commitment starts “at the top of the house,” as Stephani Kingsmill, who served many years as Manulife’s Executive Vice-President Human Resources, puts it. “Our board of directors expects to get regular updates from senior management on progress against various diversity initiatives,” says Kingsmill, now Senior Advisor to the President. “Last year, our President and Chief Executive Officer Roy Gori asked his direct reports to come up with plans to further improve diversity within their respective organizations.” Gori chairs Manulife’s Diversity Council,
ROY GORI, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, AT MANULIFE, SPEAKING AT A GALA FOR PAN-ASIAN LEADERS
which includes executives at various levels of the organization and from various areas of the company. The council works directly with the human resources team to develop the diversity strategy, execute specific initiatives and ensure that the various business groups remain committed to a diverse and inclusive corporate culture. “Manulife has built a culture where diversity is encouraged and embraced,” says Kingsmill. “We are committed to setting tone at the top, providing people with the opportunity to learn from and about one another, and importantly, creating an environment where all people can be themselves.” Manulife has developed several initiatives to put principles into practice. Manulife’s Work Smart program, for example, which recognizes that employees often deal with challenges ranging from childcare to elder
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care, allows employees to work from home or adopt flexible hours of work. “We’ve put in place technology to support flexible work arrangements,” Kingsmill adds. “Twenty-eight per cent of our North American workforce is on a flexible plan. It’s a core part of our value proposition to employees.” Manulife is also attempting to break down the stigma surrounding mental health issues by introducing one of the most generous benefits plans in the financial services industry. Employees, as well as family members, are entitled to up to $10,000 per year per person to cover counselling or other forms of treatment. Kingsmill notes that Manulife supports people with disabilities through a mentoring program. In April and October last year, individuals with disabilities came in for a day of job shadowing at company
offices in the Greater Boston area and the Greater Toronto Area. Employees were encouraged to speak about living with disabilities and a number of them shared educational pieces and personal perspectives and stories on internal social channels. Employee resource groups may begin as grassroots initiatives, but they, too, receive plenty of support from “the top of the house.” In addition to VIBE, the groups include Professionals Reaching Out for Unity and Diversity (PROUD) for LGBTQ employees, the Global Women’s Alliance (GWA), and the PanAsian Community for Employee Success (PACES). Each group has an executive sponsor and the company makes available a pool of funds that are distributed to the groups each year based on the size of the employee base in the region and the activities planned. VIBE, one of the newest groups, grew quickly to 175 members from a variety of cultural backgrounds, including Caribbean, West Indian and African. And they’ve kept themselves busy. They had a booth at last year’s Employee Experience Fair, held lunch time meet-and-greets, and organized holiday pot lucks. The run-up to Black History Month is perhaps the busiest time of the year for the group. “We have so many ideas,” Gonzalez says. “It’s a big project for us.” n
60%
OF EMPLOYEES ARE WOMEN
46%
OF MANAGERS ARE WOMEN