TORONTO, Nov. 16, 2020 /CNW/ - Scotiabank today announced its renewed Diversity and Inclusion Goals, developed to increase the diversity of its employee population over the next five years, with a focus on people who identify as Black, Indigenous Peoples, Visible Minorities, People with Disabilities and Women.

The new goals include doubling the enterprise-wide representation of Indigenous employees; significantly increasing the number of employees who identify as People with Disabilities; ongoing advancement of the BlackNorth CEO pledge and bolstering the global number of women in executive roles.

"We are committed to becoming the Bank of choice for the diverse communities we serve and remain confident that our commitments will help remove barriers and build a stronger and more inclusive society," said Brian Porter, President and CEO, Scotiabank. "While our work to build a truly inclusive organization is never complete, we are pleased with the progress we have made."

Scotiabank's renewed diversity strategy focuses on underrepresented employees, with annual milestones set to reach its diversity and inclusion goals in Canada, which include:

• Doubling the current representation of Indigenous employees;
• Increasing the representation of People with Disabilities (PWD) by 20 per cent;
• Increasing visible minorities in senior leadership roles to 30 per cent or greater;
• Increasing the representation of Black employees in senior leadership to 3.5 per cent, and the Black student workforce to 5 per cent or more, as stated in the BlackNorth CEO Pledge; and
• Increasing the representation of women in senior leadership roles (VP+) to 40 per cent globally.

These benchmarks were developed with a combination of inputs including data-driven trends, labour market availability, and internal and external environmental factors. The Bank has invested significantly in its diversity and inclusion efforts: today, 39 per cent of its workforce in Canada identifies as being a visible minority; 56 per cent identify as women; 5.7 per cent identify as being LGBTQ+; and over 50 per cent of student hires are Black, Indigenous Peoples, or People of Colour.

Scotiabank reaffirmed its commitment to inclusion earlier this year, when Brian Porter signed the BlackNorth CEO pledge and was named to the BlackNorth Board of Directors.

Scotiabank's Inclusion Commitments

As part of its renewed commitment to diversity and inclusion, Scotiabank developed a set of inclusion commitments focused on promoting best practices when interacting with employees, customers, communities and business partners.

The inclusion commitments were developed by a specialized task force that was struck after several incidents of racially motivated violence in the United States caused a global outcry, and were also inspired by sentiment derived from the Bank's annual Diversity Survey, as well as subsequent listening tours performed by senior executives with employees across the Bank.

"The commitments solidify our approach to welcoming diverse communities and addressing issues of racism among employees, customers and business partners, as well as in the communities where we operate," said Barb Mason, Group Head and Chief Human Resources Officer. "The recommendations will form a key part of the Bank's overall Diversity and Inclusion strategy to ensure we continue to deliver for our colleagues, customers, and communities."

Scotiabank's inclusion commitments promise to:

• Make Scotiabank the employer of choice for the diverse communities we serve by providing employees with an environment that is safe, inclusive and reflective of all communities by promoting fair and equitable treatment; and prioritizing unconscious bias and anti-racism training.
• Offer customers and partners processes that are free of bias, ensuring that our product and service offerings, marketing and procurement practices support and reflect the diverse communities and cultures we serve.
• Leverage impactful community investments, partnerships and programs that advance efforts to eliminate racism, and foster economic resilience of Indigenous and BIPOC communities. 

Diversity and Inclusion Leadership

As part of its effort to build a winning team, Scotiabank is focused on being the employer of choice for the diverse communities it serves. In 2020 the Bank and its leadership received several industry-leading recognitions, which included being named: National Corporation of the Year by the CGLCC; one of the World's Best Workplaces by the Great Place to Work® Institute; #10 on Refinitiv's Top 100 Most Diverse and Inclusive Organizations, and to the Bloomberg Financial Services Gender-Equality Index. In addition, Gillian Riley, President & CEO of Tangerine Bank and EVP, Scotiabank was named a Catalyst Honours Champion; and Nicole Frew, Chief Compliance Officer and EVP, Global Compliance, Scotiabank was one of only 50 individuals in Canada to receive a Report on Business Best Executive Award.

Through a variety of partnerships and programs Scotiabank continues to reinforce its commitment to real and positive change.  Many of these partnerships are described in Scotiabank's 2019 Employment Equity report. For more information on Scotiabank's commitment to diversity and inclusion, visit: https://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/about/our-company/diversity-and-inclusion.html

About Scotiabank

Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our purpose: "for every future", we help our customers, their families and their communities achieve success through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of over 90,000 employees and assets of approximately $1.2 trillion (as at July 31, 2020), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: BNS) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BNS). For more information, please visit our website and follow us on Twitter @ScotiabankViews.

SOURCE Scotiabank