Addressing equity is a hot topic right now as the COVID pandemic has highlighted undeniable inequities in our society, from who is contracting COVID, to who is most affected by job losses or slow returns, to evidence of anti-racism and police brutality.
As Founder and CEO of the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion, having been the National Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at KPMG, Michael approaches solutions from an employer’s perspective.
He reports seeing a sustained spike in demand from organizations across all sectors to learn more and move towards action. The emotional moment is becoming an equity movement, with an objective of embedding diversity and inclusion into more organizational cultures.
Michael shares that CCDI works with organizations from where they are and encourages starting with a business case for diversity, to be clear on the problem diversity and inclusion are meant to solve.
This often involves looking at both an organization’s employees and clients and requires an understanding of the employee and client makeup – something that hasn’t always been popular to track. A hospital, for example, can better serve its clients if it reflects the community, be that in ethnicity, language or sexual orientation.
There’s a lot to take in here. We all have a journey to better understand and address systemic inequities. Let’s get going and keep going on this journey. Have a listen.
Resources
- Canadian Centre for Diversity and inclusion: https://ccdi.ca
- Michael Bach: https://www.linkedin.com/in/themichaelbach