Corus Entertainment has released an overview of the findings of a diversity review undertaken earlier this year following allegations of a workplace culture of racism and micro-aggressions.
The company-wide equity, diversity and inclusion survey involved both one-on-one interviews with employees, a review of Corus policies and practices, and an assessment of leaders’ “intercultural competency.”
Conducted by Toronto-based intercultural trainers and consultants, DiversiPro, among the review’s findings was that some managers did lack intercultural awareness with not enough accountability measures in place to ensure diversity and inclusion goals were being met. DiversiPro also concluded that a lack of diversity within company leadership has had a negative effect on the overall workforce.
In addition to evidence of what the overview cites as “negative experiences, including micro-aggressions,” employees who identified as BIPOC, LGBTQ or with a disability, had less of a sense of inclusion than other staff. A lack of trust in internal harassment complaint procedures was also noted.
“Having DiversiPro’s expert assessment has helped us focus on the highest impact areas for change, to ensure that we could tackle systemic barriers in the most meaningful way,” Doug Murphy, Corus President & CEO, said in a statement, published alongside the overview. “Within this review, we have heard people describing their experiences and distress arising from their experiences, which we regret. We respect and appreciate the willingness of our employees to share their experiences to help create change for the future.”
Among other steps, Corus says it’s implementing inclusion, anti-racism and bias awareness training for all employees, including managers. Management performance evaluations will now be linked to meeting diversity and inclusion goals, in addition to succession planning for leadership roles and proactive recruiting from under-represented groups. The company also says it’s enhanced its internal process for reporting harassment.
In September, the company hired a Head of Diversity and Inclusion, a newly-created role filled by Lenore MacAdam, who was previously National Inclusion Leader at Deloitte Canada. Reporting to Murphy, part of MacAdam’s directive is to ensure “focused action on key recommendations from the DiversiPro report.”
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