Out on Bay Street | Follow-up with Amy Hanen
A follow-up conversation with Amy Hanen
By: Christine Wach
CW: What does being ‘out’ at work mean?
AH: Being out means never having to refer to your life partner as “a friend of mine”. Being out means never having to use the pronoun “they” to disguise the gender of your spouse. Being out generally means not having to censor your everyday conversation with colleagues so as not to disclose your sexual identity. Being out means being able to talk about the same things in the workplace as everybody else eg. weekend plans, your last vacation, your spouse and kids, organizations you volunteer for etc. Being out means being comfortable referring to the fact that you are LGBT whenever it makes sense to do so in your interactions at work.
CW: How comfortable can people who work in the financial sector feel being ‘out’ at work?
AH: Speaking with almost 30 years in the industry, I personally do not believe that there is any reason that people working in this sector should not be able to be out at work. The experience may be more or less comfortable depending on a number of factors: The more comfortable you are, the more comfortable your colleagues will be. The more exposure your colleagues have had already, the more comfortable it will be for you. Some organizations may be more comfortable than others. You can discreetly find out more about this by talking to people you know who already work at these companies, and by researching what kinds of things the company supports for their employees and in your community.
CW: Do you think there are enough corporate training programs in private sector educating people on how to create LGBT positive work spaces?
AH: I’m not sure what this question is asking. I know that there are diversity consultants who will help organizations think about how to build more inclusive work environments. There are also internal diversity training programs. Are there enough of these training programs? Do they deal explicitly with LGBT issues? I don’t really have any way of assessing this as each company’s program is proprietary information. But I can say that TD has a diversity training program, including LGBT case studies that everyone with people management responsibility is required to complete. It focuses on helping managers to create more inclusive, supportive work environment and a more comfortable employee experience within their workgroup or department.
CW: Do you see TD Bank Financial Group as a company leading the way for other banks or companies in terms of diversity training?
AH: I am not completely up to date on what each of the other companies is doing, but I think that TD has a very strong position on diversity training. We started with people managers because they set the tone. Every people manager attends a full day classroom training program on Diversity which includes case studies on LGBT issues. At this point almost all of our managers have gone through this training, and we continue to train our new managers as they come on board. Our next focus is a diversity training program that will reach out to all of our employees in non-management roles so that they also have the information and tools to contribute to creating an inclusive and positive work environment.
CW: Where does TD Bank Financial Group need to go next in terms of its diversity initiative?
AH: I think we’ve made a great start. Our plans moving forward in the LGBT areas of focus include: diversity training for all employees, expanding our Pride Networks, recognizing and supporting the diversity WITHIN LGBT, for example, by supporting specific initiatives of interest to Queer women and the trans community.
Amy Hanen | About:
Amy Hanen is the Senior Manager, Community Relations for TD Bank Financial Group. In that role, she is responsible for developing and executing and TDBFG’s community relations strategy, strengthening relationships with major community partners and overseeing TDBFG’s donations and community sponsorship budget. Amy also has extensive experience in Human Resources at the executive level. As Vice President Employee Relations, Policy and Governance at another Financial Institution, she led the charge to revitalize that company’s diversity strategy, which among other things resulted in the first Pride Network and the first CEO hosted Pride reception in the Financial Services Industry. Amy currently sits on the board of the Canadian Abilities Foundation and is a trustee of the HALO Foundation.
Out on Bay Street | About:
The name Out on Bay Street highlights Toronto’s Bay Street as the symbolic focal point of business in Canada and how the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community is working towards reshaping the way businesses operate in the marketplace by promoting change and openness.
It is organized by the students from various business schools in Toronto area. The Organizing Committee are supported by the founding members of the conference and several volunteer advisers from various backgrounds.
For more information, please visit: http://www.outonbayst.org
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
my gay blog Says:
December 20th, 2009 at 1:59 amVisit my gay blog
Substantially, the article is actually the freshest on this precious topic. I harmonize with your conclusions and will thirstily look forward to your coming updates. Saying thanks will not just be enough, for the tremendous lucidity in your writing. I will immediately grab your rss feed to stay abreast of any updates. De lightful work and much success in your business enterprise!