Diversity Champion - TD Canada Trust

This month we are pleased to recognize TD Canada Trust as our Diversity Champion, our monthly feature where we acknowledge forward-thinking businesses and leaders who embrace inclusion and diversity in our community.

In late October, Champions  Career Centre was pleased to host a ‘Meet and Greet’ session featuring TD Canada Trust. ‘Meet and Greets’ are informal and open forums where Champions clients and community partners are invited to meet and talk with HR and hiring managers from Calgary businesses at the Champions office downtown.

Attendees arrived promptly and were dressed to impress. All were armed with resumes and portfolios ready to meet Natasha, TD Canada Trust’s Recruitment Officer and the facilitator of this event.  The positive attitudes and confidence that exuded from the group was outstanding. Natasha began by presenting an overview of TD Canada Trust, the opportunities for employment and its hiring process. She also gave a personal view of her own career path.  She then gave attendees an opportunity to meet with her one-on-one in a 5 minute screening interview.

“I am really glad that I had the opportunity to participate at the Champions event.  It was a great experience as I had the opportunity to meet candidates from different walks of life.” Natasha commented.

Some attendees were invited for second interviews and were given career advice and constructive feedback. Attendees were also directed to complete the online application and assessment for future consideration.

Champions is striving to open doors for job seekers and welcomed attendees from other agencies and community partners. We look forward to strengthening our relationship with TD Canada Trust by putting the right candidates forward and working together to create opportunities and promote success for our clients. 

TD Canada Trust’s approach to diversity in the workplace sets an example to others, “We are working to create and sustain a diverse and inclusive workplace that reflects the people, cultures and languages of the communities we serve: a place where people can be their authentic selves and flourish without barriers. This is how we will ensure that the TD of tomorrow is even stronger than the TD of today.” Visit their website

Diversity Champion: ATCO Structures & Logistics

Reflecting the Diversity in Our Community

“Alberta is not the same place it was 25 years ago.”

Several economic booms, and corresponding busts, and an influx of people from all over Canada and the world have dramatically changed the shape of our province over the last couple decades. Nobody knows this reality better than Alitta Tait, Recruitment Supervisor for ATCO Structures and Logistics (ASL), who is tasked daily with meeting the recruitment challenges of operating in Alberta’s ever-changing work environment.

“Calgary is a boom and bust town,” Alitta explains, “And there is not a lot of available talent with the skills sets and team dynamic we are looking for. Hiring in Alberta is difficult – there are a lot of good companies and a ton of opportunities out there.”

The nature of the economy in Alberta can be both a blessing and curse for ASL. A booming economy creates more business for the company, but also makes it difficult to fill much needed positions to meet the demands of their industry. The oil and gas industry takes up a lot of the workforce and their ability to offer high salaries creates challenges for non-oil and gas companies to find and retain talent.

To meet this challenge, ASL looks to mirror the diversity inherent in their company and in our community.

“The ATCO Group of Companies is very diverse as an organization. We operate on six different continents and have nine different operating companies making the opportunities in our company incredibly diverse.  At the same time, Alberta is a diverse community and reaching out to different groups of people and adapting new sourcing strategies helps us remain competitive,” says Alitta.

At ASL, individual members of the recruiting team have taken on the task of reaching out to various groups who may represent under-utilized talent pools. These groups include persons with disabilities, Aboriginal peoples, immigrants, women and more. It allows each recruiter to focus on an area they are passionate about and to connect to possible gatekeepers and knowledge sources for each group.

Alitta explains this philosophy, “Being able to meet with organizations who are specialists, who can guide us and help us network in the right way with the right people is critical. For example, Champions understands our work environment quite well - our workplace culture – and they know how to send the right people who can succeed and enjoy it here.”

Andy Potton, one of our Employment and Retention Specialists at Champions, says it is refreshing to see the commitment from ASL. They have interviewed and hired numerous Champions clients, and are actively working with our team on building a diversity plan that can guide their workplace in the future.

“They really are a leader in the hiring and inclusions of persons with disabilities,” says Andy, “They look right past the disability. All they see are skills and talents and how a person might be the right fit.”

Even with a strong commitment, Alitta knows how difficult building a diverse workforce can be and that it isn’t done in a day. However, since putting a major focus on diversity the results have been more than encouraging.

“At first, it can be daunting,” says Alitta, “But getting involved with Champions, and other community agencies, helps us immensely. Giving us tips on best practices and showing us how to get involved really got the ball rolling and now it has taken on a life of its own.  We’ve always had a great workplace culture here but the amount of excitement, sharing and openness that has occurred since the organization really focused on diversity has been very encouraging.”

If mirroring and reflecting the many diverse communities in Alberta is the goal, then the dynamic and multi-faceted workplace they are building at ATCO Structures & Logistics is definitely moving in the right direction.

ATCO Structures & Logistics has more than 65 years experience providing complete infrastructure solutions to customers worldwide. They are your source for award-winning, innovative modular building solutions, remote workforce accommodations, lodging and site-wide services, noise abatement and air emissions control technologies. They have manufacturing facilities in North America, South America and Australia, operations on 6 continents and a global supply chain, allowing them to deliver a rapid, turn-key solution anywhere it’s needed.

Diversity Champion: The Westin Calgary

Embracing Diversity in all of its Facets

Didier Luneau, GM at The Westin Calgary,
 spends a day in a wheelchair
to better understand what it is like to
live with a disability. 

As an organization committed to helping employers build more inclusive workplaces we have a tendency to focus on persons with disabilities – this is our mandate after all. However, embracing diversity means embracing many different groups of people alongside persons with disabilities, including women, visible minorities and immigrants, aboriginals and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) peoples.  

Being an employer committed to diversity means embracing all of these groups, and our Diversity Champion for the month of July, The Westin Calgary, does just that.

Didier Luneau, General Manager at The Westin Calgary, believes the core of diversity is showing respect to individuals. “We have a lot of passion at The Westin Calgary for diversity and inclusion,” he says, “we know the more diversity we have in the hotel, the better we can accommodate our guests and our associates.”

The Westin Calgary partners with Champions and other community organizations in Calgary for several reasons. To find diverse talent that can help meet their recruiting needs, to improve awareness about diverse peoples in the workplace, and to give back to the community in Calgary.

Posting jobs on the Champions employment board and working closely with our Employment and Retention Specialists to find the right people for the right job is just one way The Westin Calgary tries to find diverse talent.

“Calgary really is a melting pot,” says Susan Reeves, Director of Human Resources at the hotel, “our guests and associates come from all over the world and bring many different values, culture and possibilities to the workplace. All of our new associates go through diversity training when they begin – including disability awareness training.”

Recently, Didier spent an entire day in a wheelchair as part of the Chair-Leaders Enabling Access event in Calgary.

“It was a real eye opener for me,” Didier says. “People were friendly to me but I could tell that they were looking at me more for my disability than as another person. It was interesting to be in that position as I did not feel as recognized as usual. I felt more empathy rather than respect for what I am bringing to the table.”

His time in the wheelchair also meant Didier was able to personally experience and identify many of the barriers which exist in the hotel, both for a guest and an employee. He hopes that they will be able to make the necessary changes in the future.

As mentioned earlier, building an inclusive workplace for persons with disabilities is only one part of how The Westin Calgary embraces diversity. Over 34 different languages are spoken among employees at the hotel, representing numerous cultures from around the world. The hotel hosts different cultural days throughout the year to honour all the different heritages their employees come from.

At The Westin Calgary, embracing different cultures is seen as a smart business decision as it makes the hotel a more welcoming place for their guests and associates.  Hotel associates receive training in cultural etiquette and go as far as to encourage their cooks from different areas of the world to create meals based on their own culture. It’s all a part of making people feel at home by giving them a sense and a memory of where they are coming from.

The Westin Calgary is also keen to include women in roles they aren't traditionally represented in. For example, women are often underrepresented in areas like the kitchen and engineering/maintenance in the hospitality industry. The hotel strives to find and present opportunities to women who are interested in fulfilling these roles. The Westin also continually reaches out to the LGBT community. In fact, Starwood Hotels (The Westin's parent company) was the first hospitality company to become a partner with the Pride at Work initiative – a Canadian organization dedicated to improving the climate of inclusiveness for LGBT employees in the workplace.

Most of all, The Westin wants to contribute to building a better Calgary.

“The community is giving us a lot, and we want to give back as much as we can,” Didier explains.

Which is why The Westin Calgary partners with many organizations like Champions, Inn from the Cold, the Drop In Centre, Rupertsland Institute, Immigrant Services Calgary, La Table Des Chefs (The Chef Table), Calgary Children’s Foundation and many others to find creative ways to give back to the community.  

For four years in a row The Westin Calgary has experienced the highest employee satisfaction and engagement for all of the hotels in Starwood Canada. With their commitment to diversity and inclusion, it is easy to see why. 

Illness, Disability, and Identity

A second amazing TED Talk in as many days! (Yesterdays was on ADHD and is also a must see) 

In our work at Champions we are often confronted with the different ways individuals identify with their disability. For our clients, even the term disability can be a lightning rod - some people look at the term negatively and don't want to identified as disabled, others embrace their disability and use it as major factor in developing their identity. Being born with a disability impacts people differently than those who acquire one later in life. Other disabilities may be fluid and change over time. For example, does a person with epilepsy who has not had a seizure in ten years still identify as having a disability?  

Which brings us to the TED Talk below. In this talk, Andrew Solomon discusses both his personal life and his research into families who have had to deal with a range of disabilities and illnesses - from deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, multiple severe disabilities, with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, and those who are transgender. While each of these conditions may be isolating at an individual level, Solomon finds that the experience at the family level is universal as families share both struggles and triumphs. 

It is an amazing journey with an even more incredible conclusion: that diversity unites us all. Give it a watch.

Alberta's Best Workplaces 2013

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. 

Champions is extremely honoured to be named a finalist for Alberta's Best Workplaces 2013 in the category of Diversity. Alberta's Best Workplaces are annual awards handed out by Alberta Venture magazine and recognizes those Alberta-based companies leading the way in corporate culture and human resource development. The Best Workplaces Conference and Awards Dinner were held yesterday and our Executive Director, Lisa Moon, and board members Bryan Arthur and David McLean were in attendance to represent Champions. 

As mentioned earlier, we were a finalist in the category of Diversity, which is an honour for us as diversity is at the heart of all we do here at Champions.  Every employee at Champions identifies as having some form of disability. We believe strongly in finding accommodations for all of the needs of our employees. The accommodations may be based on a visible or invisible disability, lifestyle requirements, or personal preference. Every employee at Champions actively works with their managers and team to find the best ways for them to succeed at work. This doesn't happen by accident, it is a result of employees being able to work in an environment committed to mutual respect and open communication. 

Our organizational philosophy is built upon the values of accountability, collaboration and inclusion. We pursue the achievement of these values by constantly striving for a healthy workplace where individuals feels respected, valued, listened to and appreciated. The result is an environment in which we can demonstrate our gifts, explore new areas of growth, and move forward as a team committed to the cause of the agency. Our client’s success is the cause of the agency, and their success is our success. 

We didn't win the award - the honour went to Syncrude - but we are thankful to Alberta Venture to be recognized as a finalist. As we look to the future, we know that a commitment to diversity never stops and that our success as an agency is dependent on practicing what we preach. Champions will continue to help persons with disabilities achieve their career goals and partner with employers who want to build inclusive workplaces, all the while doing so ourselves.