Diversity in the Canadian Workplace
Introduction
Diversity means each person is different and unique, and it also acknowledges the existence of multiple races, cultures, religions, and age and gender differences having contrasting socio-political beliefs. Canada is a highly diverse country. Canadian companies are playing a vital role in creating friendly and diverse workplace environment. Bell Canada is one of those, which is running a lot of programs for fostering a diverse workplace. Bell Canada indicated, “We recognize that diverse perspectives enhance our team’s innovation and creativity” (Bell Canada, 2019, para. 1). Bell Canada highlighted and resolved multiple issues such as Gender Identities, evolving job benefits etc.
Benefits of Diversity
Diversity issue
Canada’s demography is cultural and ethnically heterogeneous. As the job place creates environment with people having diverse ethnicities and culture more problems arises. Hiring managers and professionals need to be have the problem solving skills for the multiple disputes related with multicultural workplace so that it can be resolved and settled.
Policies for Diversity
Respect is the key factor among employer and workers. Bell Canada evolved policies to promote diversity. Kristina Leung and Richard Yerema said, “Program includes an overview of the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, information on employee networks and related resources” (Leung & Yerema, 2018, p.1).
Challenges with Diversity
Sometimes it’s very difficult to implement diversity into practice, because of factors like accepting and respecting the difference ethnicities, languages, cultures and religions. Kimberlee Leonard said, “While a business leader may try to develop a diversity program to build team spirit and morale, there may be instances where certain employees still have conflicts” (Leonard, 2019, p.1).
Figure 1.
Graph of statistics showing Bell Canada employees from 2011-2018. Adapted from Statista.com by Arne Holst (2019).
Company Improvement for diversity issue
Rupinder Dhillon indicates “Bell not only supports diversity as we traditionally define it, it also promotes diversity of thought” (Dhillon, 2018, p.1). Bell Canada is finding creative ways to resolve challenges regarding diversity. Employees are aware that by unique backgrounds, traits and strengths of each other, they will find the way to accomplish a common goal.
Gender Identities
Gender identities issues
Gender identity is a person’s own perception with their sex that may or may not be their birth sex. Each society has their own gender categories which defines their social identities. Trans genders face multiple issues regarding socio-economic rights, lack of protection, bullying and discrimination, unemployment, violence and much more.
Policies for gender identities
Most of the companies in Canada are fully aware that it is very important for a society to create equitable environments for people having different gender identities. Creating comfortable workplaces gives them courage and confidence. Kristina Leung and Richard Yerema said, “Bell Canada established an LGBT network in 2009 to support the inclusion and professional development of LGBT employees and developed formal guidelines and resources to support individuals, their leaders and their teams through the gender transition process” (Leung & Yerema, 2018, p.1).
Challenges for gender identities
People with different gender identities struggle to get a good job and a comfortable workplace. And failure leads them to anxiety and depression which causes society imbalance. As Lauren Easterling (2019) shares, “I decided to come out and start living my life as me. But I was not socially supported and emotionally ready to both conduct a job search and be out as trans to potential employers”. (para. 11)
Company improvement for gender identities
Bell Canada is hiring people from all genders, so that they can have equal socio-economic rights. The company policy is to keep their information private. These policies support community development and help hiring the best employees that may further contribute in success. As Maurice Schweitzer said, “Though we have been wrestling with diversity issues for decades, it is clear that our workplaces are becoming not only more diverse, but also diverse in ways that we could not have imagined a few decades ago.” (Schweitzer, 2019, para. 36).
Evolving Job benefits
Issues
Evolving job benefits are helping employees by providing them benefit packages.
Benefit packages help maintaining better standards of living. There are lots of plans including living, medical, travel, etc. Employees working in small businesses, contract and part-time jobs, and internships are not offered job benefits. Audrey Goodson Kingo states, “By not offering benefits that employees actually want—and by not encouraging employees to use the benefits they do offer—companies incur millions of dollars of hidden costs” ( Kingo, 2019, para.7).
Policies
Bell Canada has multiple benefits for employees according to their job position, which makes them competitive. Job benefits increase the workforce likelihood in order to stick to an employer. Bernard Le Duc (2018) indicates, “Our dynamic work environment offers many opportunities for growth, and we encourage our team members to embrace change throughout their careers. We understand the importance of providing an innovative and collaborative workplace” (Duc, 2018, para.14)
Challenges
Typically there are multiple challenges employers are facing, like reformation of healthcare, increased costs, third party insurance, brokers, etc. That is why a lot of employers are unable to provide job benefits as they should. On the other hand, employees are also facing financial and economic difficulties not because of a lack of benefits, but that most of the Canadian companies like AHS and Bell Canada are evolving their job benefits and perks to keep employees joyful.
Company improvement for evolving job benefits
Bell Canada continues to raise the bar on evolving workplace benefits. Each and every individual is valued in terms of opportunities, thus it’s making better differences in productivity. “Along with managing the widely recognized Bell, Let’s Talk campaign, the company maintains an internal mental health policy and offers enhanced benefit coverages for mental health care” (Leung & Yerema , 2018 , para. 40)
Conclusion
Workers will be relaxed and joyful in a workplace where they feel support and trust from Employer. “People from a wide range of backgrounds bring different skills and perspectives to the table and that enhances our innovation and creativity” (Dhillon, 2018, p.1).
References
- Diversity and Inclusion. (2019). Retrieved from https://jobs.bce.ca/
· Dhillon, R. (2018, November 8). Bell Canada. Retrieved from https://content.eluta.ca
· Duc, B. (2018, November 8). Bell Canada. Retrieved from https://content.eluta.ca
· Easterling, L. (2019, June 24). Navigating Gender Identity and Expression during a Job Search. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com
· Holst, A. (2019, March 15) Bell Canada employee’s figures 2011-2018. Retrieved from statista.com
· Kingo, A. (2019, January 17). Companies Have No Idea How Much Employees Struggle to Balance Caregiving and Work [blog post]. Retrieved from https://rr-magazine.com
- Leonard, K. (2019, February 12). Challenges of Diversity Management [blog post]. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com
· Leung, K., & Yerema, R. (2018, November 8). Bell Canada. Retrieved from https://content.eluta.ca
· Schweitzer, M. (2019, February 22). Redefining Gender at Work: How Companies Are Evolving [blog post]. Retrieved from https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu
