Here’s a very brief rundown: TD won the Catalyst Award for exemplary initiatives to promote the advancement of women to positions of leadership, the Microskills Corporate Spirit Award for “supporting innovative programs that help immigrants integrate, gain experience and ultimately contribute to the economy” and two awards from the Canadian Hearing Society for TD’s commitment to individuals who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing. TD was also instrumental in the formation of the First Nations Bank of Canada.

TD certainly practices what it preaches. Gerard Etienne, Vice President of Corporate Human Resources, stresses that any company that runs a diversity agenda needs a “huge commitment from the top down” and the ability to “leverage the collective intelligence from the community.” In other words, create partnerships. Which TD does tirelessly.

“When it comes to recruitment, we have managed to develop a number of relationships with community organizations,” Etienne says. “What we’re trying to do is diversify as much as possible our pool of candidates.”

In effort to achieve this goal, TD taps the resources of organizations such as Career Bridge, an intern program for skilled immigrants, Women in Capital Markets, the Interprovincial Association for Native Employment and the CNIB. The bank also holds career fairs across Canada to “invite groups that are under-represented to join in” and is now looking to “partner better with diversity offices on campus to make sure that they know that the commitment TD has toward recruiting people from diverse backgrounds,” Etienne says.

The proof of TD’s commitment to diversity is in the pudding. Statistically, Etienne feels, the bank is “doing a very good job bringing people from all ethnic backgrounds.”  Visible minorities account for 25 percent of its workforce. For the record, 70 percent are women and 4 percent are persons with disabilities—which is probably low because people tend not to self-identify. More reason for TD to partner with organizations such as the Alder (Adult Learning Disabilities Employment Resources) Centre “not only as a source of recruitment but also as a positive message for whomever we may have inside the organization who have non-visible disabilities,” Etienne says, adding that it also helps educate its managers and staff “as to the nature of a disability.”

The bank is also currently in the process of a complete review of all its premises, looking at assistive technologies and “a number of tools to make sure that as opposed to doing the one-on-one requests for accommodation that we modify substantially how we run out business to be accommodating.”
Etienne has been on the job since late 2005 and although he acknowledges that as good a job as TD has done in the area of diversity, he feels that it still isn’t “good enough”. For example, targeting aboriginals. In an effort to increase its aboriginal workforce numbers, next year the bank will be taking a “stronger” approach to recruitment out west.

As strong a diversity statement as TD has to make, Etienne says, “the challenge now is to make sure that people progress throughout the organization to access senior level positions.”