 What do you do once you’ve won just about every possible workplace award there is? According to Annika Lofstrand, manager of workplace planning and diversity for Vancity, their wins have presented them with an opportunity “to acknowledge where we want to do better.”
Lofstrand has been seconded to the job she’s in. She wanted it. And surprisingly, the organization agreed.
“They said, you know what, we’re short on resources but here, put your head into this because we believe in it, even though we’re receiving these awards and we know we probably could go ‘status quo’ but we’re not going to,” she says. “Put a mirror up and tell us what you see. And let’s see what we can do.”
As Canada’s largest credit union, Vancity could have easily sat back on its laurels, on the awards it’s won. Awards it claims it never set out to win. Top 100 Employers in Canada by Maclean’s, The Financial Post, the Vancouver Sun and the Victoria Times Colonist. One of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers. One of Canada’s Top 50 Corporate Citizens by Corporate Knights Magazine. Awards that ensure its place as a workplace leader. Nevertheless Lofstrand took up the challenge, held up the mirror.
“I said what if we took all this and…acknowledged or looked at where we might have barriers to employment and took it to that next level,” she says. “I thought it was worth asking: Why are we an employer of choice for some, and not for others?”
To Lofstrand’s way of thinking, it was clear. If you were going to talk about being an employer of choice and if you had barriers to certain people, then it wasn’t acceptable to be asking for their business. In Vancity’s case, those people happen to be aboriginals and persons with disabilities.
“If you’re going to partner with someone, it didn’t make sense to Vancity just to partner with them around their business and bringing their bank account here,” she explains.
More than anything, Vancity’s been successful at the recruitment, retention and advancement of women within the organization. Not only is it the only major financial institution in Canada with both a female CEO and board chair, it can proudly boast that out of the 11 directors on its board, nine are women.
Such successes only give Lofstrand the opportunity to look inside the box.
“You’ve got to be…looking at much less demographic—are we representative?—perspective, but more now that we’ve got diverse people in the organization, how is that contributing to our innovation and engagement and workplace planning?” she says. “I think Vancity really wants to acknowledge where we want to do better as well.”
So even though it may be at the top of its game, Vancity is in for some interesting times ahead now that Lofstrand’s undertaken the workforce planning and diversity portfolio.
“I’ve been given a chance to look at it in a more intentional way,” she says. “And I just think, Wow! What we’ve been able to accomplish without it all being tied together under a diversity title really impresses me.”
And that has less to do with awards and more to do with Vancity’s sincere desire to create and maintain a welcoming, inclusive workplace that reflects the community it serves. |
