The Power of Workplace Racial Equity and Diversity Audits
Introduction
Happy November and Movember! Movember is a global movement that began in 2003 to raise awareness of and funding for men's health issues, namely men’s mental health and suicide prevention, prostate and testicular cancer. Visit their website to learn more at https://ca.movember.com/.
Workplace Racial Equity Audits at all 5 of Canada’s Big Banks!
On Friday, the Royal Bank of Canada, RBC, and the Bank of Montreal, BMO, announced that they both will conduct racial equity audits. At their annual general meetings, shareholders put forward the motion for shareholders to vote on. At RBC, 42% of shareholders voted in favour of the proposal filed by SHARE (Shareholders Association for Research and Evaluation) and the British Columbia General Employees’ Union. At BMO, 37% of shareholders supported the proposal. These groups had brought forward the motion earlier this year but both banks wanted shareholders to vote on it at their AGMs.
As someone who leads workplace anti-racism work, including diversity and racial equity audits, I am super happy about this news and the role activist shareholders played in holding banking executives accountable. Workplace racial equity or diversity audits engage organizations in a comprehensive evaluation of their policies, procedures, and practices to identify barriers people from equity-deserving communities experience. Huge amounts of data are collected from all stakeholders through surveys, interviews, focus groups, document reviews, etc. We hear directly from persons about their experiences working at an organization. The audits make specific recommendations on the barriers workplaces must remove to create anti-racist and equitable workplaces. Audits also provide an action plan and accountability framework. Although the final report contains the roadmap for the best next steps on a company’s journey toward justice, there is huge added value regarding the energy and synergy the process creates by bringing together employees, managers, senior leaders, volunteers, board directors, shareholders, customers, suppliers, and community members.
BMO and RBC joined CIBC and National Bank of Canada which committed to completing audits earlier this year and TD Bank in 2022. It’s important to remember that these 5 banks, also referred to as Canada’s Five Big Banks, employ a large number of persons and hold large amounts of investments; so they wield tremendous influence in the private sector. They also often prevent Indigenous, Black, and racialized folks from accessing capital for business and personal use and so limit our ability to accumulate hard assets needed to create and grow wealth. This results in limited generational wealth and financial security.
How do you feel about this announcement? Hopeful, skeptical, or indifferent?! Email me at michelle@mvdconsulting.ca and let me know. And if your workplace or another organization you know of can benefit from a comprehensive workplace diversity and racial equity audit, let me know.
Michelle
CEO
Your DEI and Anti-Racist Workplace Consultant