So where does that leave us?

With mentor-ships and diversity task-forces which have been proven to have much better success rates. This is not to say that we won’t see companies providing diversity training as a legal maneuver to prove ‘due diligence’ in case of harassment issues or other legal problems, but we need to see training followed up with regular action and involvement from management, staff and diversity champions.

Check out this article from Time Magazine circa 2007:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1615183,00.html

Christine

Canada’s top 100 Employers for 2009 have been announced. Some of these have been selected because of their active commitment to LGBT diversity training including: Recruitment, Orientation and Inclusion ( ROI) and their ongoing commitments to providing resources and training, and some stand out for their commitment to other groups.

So take a look and let me know if you have another company that you would like to see recognized. I am interested in the winners and the losers ( or at least those that need improvement) So for better or for worse send them in and don’t be shy…we can change Canada’s working world one company at a time!

Canada’s Top 100 for Diversity

http://www.canadastop100.com/diversity/

Here’s to a fabulous, diverse and prosperous 2010.

Christine

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

A follow-up conversation with David Grisim
By: Christine Wach

CW: What does being ‘out’ at work mean to you?

DG: Being ‘out’ at work means to me that I can be comfortable bringing my “whole” self to work everyday, that I can operate in the style that I am most comfortable with, and that I will be judged solely based on my performance.  I’ve found it to be incredibly liberating.  Being “out” means I can freely talk about my partner and our lives together as important elements of what makes me the unique person I am.  This also helps me to develop stronger relationships with my colleagues and direct reports, never having to edit stories about my life outside of P&G.  As with most people, coming out to me wasn’t a one-time thing, nor did it involve a grand proclamation, but is an ongoing process of having the confidence to just be myself and not worry whether someone might be judging me.  My experience tells me the vast majority of the time (especially with people who matter the most), people respect me even more after I’ve come out.  They feel privileged to be let into my life a bit more and they also feel more comfortable opening up with me about themselves.

CW: How comfortable can people who work in your sector feel being ‘out’ at work?

DG: I’m told by my LGBT colleagues at P&G that they feel extremely comfortable being ‘out’ at work, especially by the younger employees who grew up in a much more open and tolerant society than those of us who came to terms with our sexuality in the 1980’s or before.  I’ve found the greatest barrier is usually one’s own comfort with being oneself, versus attitudes of others in the company.  I was not open when I joined P&G over 13 years ago, but I learned that it was really my own issues that were keeping me from being out at work, not anything others said or did.  Once I realized this, and had strong role models and mentors who supported me for who I was, I found coming out to be a surprisingly easy process.  It really helps that P&G invests in Diversity Training and that employees fully embrace our Purpose, Values and Principles.

CW: Do you think there are enough corporate training programs in place in private sector educating people on how to create LGBT positive work spaces?

DG: I think P&G’s mandatory 2-day Diversity Training program is outstanding.  There is a module on LGBT issues with role play exercises to ensure that employees internalize how to create an LGBT positive work environment.  Managers are also measured against their ability to fully leverage the diversity of their teams.  We have the resources and cultural ‘will’ to create and maintain this training.  However, many of my friends and business colleagues, especially those who work in small and medium sized companies, tell me nothing like this exists at their place of work.  Some of these people don’t feel comfortable being out work, expressing concerns that it could affect their ability to get promoted.  Even in this current era of greater acceptance, not everyone works in companies with enlightened employees.  As a result, I believe more training is required in the private sector.

CW: Procter and Gamble seems to have a very thorough Diversity training program. Could you tell us a bit about how this was created and implemented?

DG: P&G’s Diversity training has been in place for many years.  It was created because diversity is embedded within P&G’s purpose, values and principles, and is necessary to take our company to the next level in a competitive business environment.  We connect and develop diverse knowledge, skills and experiences into new insights that drive more creative solutions, more innovation and better choices for consumers and employees.  P&G’s Diversity training program was created and implemented by P&Gers as an in-house training program.  This was important, because it was developed to reflect the unique diversity within P&G, and then role modeled through its facilitation by P&G’s own leaders.

CW: Where does Procter and Gamble need to go next in terms of its diversity initiative?

DG: I believe we’re on a great path!  At P&G we have an active LGBT organization, leaders rewarded based on their ability to value and leverage diversity, and an organization that has been fully trained on LGBT issues.  Despite the great efforts internally, Lesbians and Gays are under-represented in our company.  We’ve made great progress in our outreach efforts, with a dedicated LGBT recruiting team, LGBT recruiting events and sponsorship of Toronto’s Family Pride and Out on Bay Street.  But I believe we need to do more to let people know that P&G is a company that really values diversity and that we’re an LGBT positive place to work.  I hope we continue to refine and build on our diversity training, as well as make a bigger impact in the broader community.

David Grisim | About:
David Grisim is a P&G Marketing Manager, with responsibility for the Canadian Oral Care business.  David joined P&G 13 years ago after completing his MBA at Rotman School of Business.  His roles have included managing various beauty care categories, as well as an assignment as Global Design Marketing Manager based in NYC.  David leads P&G coaching development for Canada.  He was a founding member and served as president of the Fraternity gay men’s business group for 2 years, and has been an active member of P&G GABLE for 10 years. David and his partner have been together 19 fantastic years.

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

More conversations to come… next week Christine talks with Amy Hanen.

A follow-up conversation with Daniel Oliveira
By: Christine Wach

CW: What does being ‘out’ at work mean to you?

DO: Being ‘out’ at work is about bringing your whole self to work. It is about focusing your energy on your job and not draining energy while you are coming up with excuses about your personal life. It means interacting with strait people the way they interact with each other. It is about being yourself, and being able to act and be like anybody else without having to make up stories about what you did on the weekend or pretending that your partner or husband or wife is just your friend. When you have to lie about your personal life it has a domino effect where the stories get difficult to trace and keep strait. It also means not having to constantly be aware of gender neutral language such as ‘friend’ instead of spouse for example. This type of self censorship is a waste of time and energy. This is particularly true in a high pressure environment where many workers would be better using their time for creativity and complex problem solving.

CW: How comfortable can people who work in the financial sector feel being ‘out’ at work?

DO: It really depends on what part of the financial sector that you are talking about. Right now a lot of major banks seem to be leading the way in terms of creating positive spaces for the LGBT communities. It also seems that once you get into Senior Management and you are respected for your accomplishments and position you are likely in a more comfortable position to be ‘out’. An example of this is Amy Hanen with TD Bank Financial Group who spoke on our panel at Out on Bay Street. As a junior level employee however it depends. Younger workers are still unsure: unsure what their rights are, and unsure about what they can talk about in an interview for example. When they do get the job they may wonder how their opportunities for advancement will be affected if they are ‘out’.

It can also be a double edged sword in the financial sector. There may be certain assumptions taken. Maybe people always think that you should always be the employee who is sent on assignments out of town or overseas. People may wrongly assume you don’t have a partner or a family or other commitments. So many LGBT couples do have families now, Paul Skippen from Accenture who was also on our panel and his partner have a 1 year old son for example.

This is why we have Out on Bay Street, by looking at the companies who participated in the Career Fair we can have a good idea which companies are actively and openly recruiting LGBT workers.

CW: Do you feel there are enough corporate training programs educating people on how to create LGBT positive work spaces?

DO: There are a lot of them—are there enough? It isn’t clear; there are a lot of consultants as well as internal training teams and HR groups. It is still a bit early to say, even for the companies at Out on Bay Street who are trying to encourage positive spaces it is yet to be seen just how effective it will be. We will have to wait and see how effective these training programs are.

Some companies think that enough has been done and don’t incorporate formal training programs. The thinking is that the Human Rights code is already written, Same Sex marriage is legal and now all we need to do is maintain the status quo. This is, (of course) not true. There is a lot of diversity training in Toronto but the challenge for multi-national companies is to take this training across the country or the globe. If these companies expand their training programs in smaller Canadian cities for example this has a powerful effect on how people see the LGBT people everywhere.

CW: Do you think Bay St is leading the way for other industries in terms of diversity training?

DO: A lot of big companies are leading the way Accenture is a good example and other multinationals such as TD Bank and KPNG. They lead because they understand the importance of having the whole person come to work. A very talented employee who doesn’t feel comfortable is simply not as valuable. Consultants are very complex problem solvers and if they are in the closet it becomes very difficult to give all of their needed focus to the job at hand. Consultants need to focus on the client, not on hiding their personal life from clients. TD Bank is a good example of a company who is leading the way in terms of diversity and becoming a presence around the world.

There are still organizations on Bay Street that ‘talk the talk’ but don’t ‘walk the walk’ for example. There are certain companies that you would have expected to see at Out on Bay Street that chose not to be there. The attitude is that we don’t need to be at this conference as we don’t have any problems with this type of discrimination here.

With companies cost cutting they are also putting more focus on where they are putting their financial resources for a better ROI in the short term. This is at the expense of things like Diversity training. Share holders want to know where the ROI is now, not on some possible intangible long term benefits from this training in the distant future.

CW: Where do companies need to go next?

I think next the question is what the effectiveness of these training programs is. It is one thing to have a program in place but another thing to know what the outcome of the training is.

Proctor and Gamble started their internal program as a couple of hours of Diversity training and now it is a three day long workshop. They saw that this brief look at creating positive spaces was merely lip service and a bigger investment was needed. We need to ask if these principals are being implemented in the workplace culture. We need to see that we are not just ‘talking the talk’. We need to know what the impact of this ‘flag waving’ has been. Or course at the end of the day these companies are here to make a profit. They need to see the return on investment of this training. The idea behind this is that when we feel we can bring our whole selves to work we are more productive and creative. So in the end we will need to assess whether or not this is actually happening.

Daniel Oliveira | About:
Daniel Oliveira was one of the five volunteers that organized the first Out on Bay Street conference and Career Fair in 2007 while he was at the Rotman School of Management. Daniel worked in management roles on two continents before going back to school to pursue a MBA, specializing in Marketing and Strategy. Daniel was recognized for his contributions to student life by being awarded the Gordon Cressy Student leadership Award in 2008.

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

More conversations to come… next week Christine talks with David Grisim.