Diversity 2020: 12 Upcoming Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Trends and Issues Issues of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) continue to challenge leaders in the nonprofit and public sectors. As we approach the half-way mark of this decade, these issues are expected to grow in intensity and challenge organizations to develop a comprehensive plan to address these issues. As such, it is a good time for organizations to consider the EDI landscape and consider their path forward. Today, we are finding that organizations have a renewed interest in workplace EDI as they face two major trends: Much more diverse employee and client populations, driven by immigration: With an aging population and declining birth rates, Canada continues to rely on immigration for population and labour market growth. As a result, the population has and will continue to become more racially, ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse. Social changes: The Canadian population has also been affected by societal changes, including the increased labour market participation of women, increased integration of persons with disabilities in society, and increased social acceptance of, and openness from, people who belong to the LGBTQ communities. We have also seen an increased understanding of and discussions about issues of social inequality, changes to the family structure, and intergenerational differences with five generations of Canadians now in the workforce.

While an increasingly diverse population is not news to most, many employers continue to face challenges related to understanding, responding to, and leveraging this diversity for organizational success. In this article we discuss twelve of the trends created by a more diverse population and identify the implications for organizations as an employer. You may be aware of some of these trends and are effectively handling them. But each of these trends will create challenges that workplaces across Canada will be forced to meet head-on as we approach 2020. What further complicates matters is that these trends are not happening in a vacuum. These trends and issues must be considered and addressed in relation to other labour market and sector trends.

Grounding the workplace EDI program in a business case While many organizations are undertaking workplace EDI initiatives, they don’t always clearly link these efforts to the business of the organization. Whether the organization provides community development, childcare, policing, healthcare, educational or municipal services, employees, managers and leaders in the organization don't always understand or connect a diverse workforce with the organization's business objectives. Some people may believe that the organization is undertaking workplace diversity efforts out of a misguided moral imperative or simply because of legal requirements. They don't always consider that a workforce that reflects the diversity of the client population enables the organization to better understand client needs and deliver services. They may also not appreciate the value that diversity (when properly managed) brings to the organization by making it more innovative and productive.

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Without a clearly articulated business case for EDI, employees, managers and leaders may be resistant to the organization's efforts. In addition, in times of downsizing and budget cuts, EDI efforts that are not linked to business outcomes, firmly grounded in a business case and integrated into the work of the organization, are more likely to be cut.

Questions to consider:

Is the organization's workplace EDI program grounded in a business case?

Is this business case communicated to employees and managers at all levels?

Increased openness from LGBTQ employees Most legal marriage benefits were extended to same-sex couples in 1999. In 2005, same-sex marriage was legalized. Some provinces and the federal government have added gender identity as a protected ground in human rights legislation. These changes to law have both reflected and resulted in greater societal acceptance of people from the LGBTQ communities. LGBTQ employees now expect workplaces to be inclusive. They, like the rest of us, want to be able to bring their full-selves to work and not have to pretend to be something they're not. Despite these societal changes, we continue to see workplaces that are hostile to LGBTQ employees. In some organizations, employees report that they cannot be "out" and, in some cases, need to tolerate the homophobic and transphobic attitudes of their mangers and co-workers. In addition, some organizations have not updated their benefits policies to reflect changes to law.

Questions to consider:

Do your maternity and parental leave policies allow for benefits to same-sex couples?

Have you posted Positive Space Posters in all workplaces to demonstrate an organizational commitment to creating inclusive and respectful workplaces for LGBTQ employees and their allies?

Do you provide training for employees, managers and leaders about how to create inclusive workplaces for LGBTQ employees and their allies?

A rise in competing rights Competing rights involve situations where the legal rights of one individual interfere with the rights and freedoms of another person. In the past few years, we have seen some high profile cases of competing rights play out in the news media. Most of these cases have been with respect to the delivery of services, such as the case of a woman refused a haircut by a Muslim barber. However, with the increased diversity in the workplace, we can expect that competing rights claims among employees will increase. For example, the right of one employee to bring their guide dog to work may compete with the right of another employee, who is allergic to dogs, to an allergen-free workplace.

Questions to consider:

Are staff responsible for human rights in the organization familiar with the guidelines on competing rights from the provincial or federal Human Rights Commission?

Have you trained managers about human rights and their duty to accommodate based on any human rights protected ground? Do they know what to do when a situation of competing rights does occur?

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Managing intergenerational difference In 2010, the first wave of baby boomers turned 65. By 2020, all baby boomers - 38% of the workforce - will be aged 55 and over. While more and more workers will reach retirement age during this period, many will continue to work past retirement age for the financial and social benefits work offers. Today, there are five generations of workers in the workplace. Each of these five generations expect different things from work and have different approaches to how they work. This means that organizations need to be flexible to meet the needs of all workers - one approach no longer fits all. It also means that managers will need to be prepared to handle the conflicts that intergenerational differences may create. It is also important to note that the majority of older people who will be reaching retirement age are White, while there is much more racial diversity among those entering the workforce. This creates a divide that is both racial and generational.

Questions to consider:

Does the organization have policies that support flexibility in how and when work is done?

Are policies in place to support employees in balancing work and family commitments, particularly the care of elderly parents?

Do managers have the support needed to manage multi-generational work teams?

Does the organization create opportunities for employees to bridge the gap by getting to know each other in a social way?

Accommodating persons with disabilities The implementation of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) supports the integration of persons with disabilities in Ontario society as well as the labour market. While organizations are currently challenged with meeting the requirements of the Act, they will continue to be challenged to ensure inclusion and accommodation of persons with disabilities for a number of reasons. The AODA and other efforts across Canada will create greater access to education for persons with disabilities. The aging of the baby boom population and increased life expectancy, coupled with the fact that for most of us there is no longer a mandatory retirement age, means that we will see more employees with age-related disabilities in the workforce. In addition, more and more employers are beginning to see the value in hiring persons with disabilities to meet labour shortages. The result is that more of us will be managing and working alongside persons with disabilities. Organizations will need to ensure that persons with disabilities are fully included in the workplace and are appropriately accommodated. Unfortunately, we continue to see managers and employees who view accommodation as "special treatment" and don't understand the duty to accommodate persons with disabilities. We also see managers who are uncomfortable with persons with disabilities and don't appropriately manage and support them to contribute their best to the organization.

Questions to consider:

Does your organization comply with the Human Rights Code and provide accessible workplaces?

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Have managers been trained to understand their duty to accommodate persons with disabilities?

Do all employees understand the legal requirement to accommodate, so that it is not seen as "special treatment"?

Mental health Mental health is the number one cause of short and long-term disability in Canada. Each day, more than 500,000 Canadians miss work each day because of a mental health issues or illness. These statistics show that mental health issues take a staggering economic toll on organizations across Canada. However, these statistics and the impact of the work environment on the mental health of employees are largely ignored by employers. In our work, we don't see that organizations are paying serious attention to the health and wellness of their employees. When they do, the focus is on employees' physical health, with little attention paid to mental health. We also find that both managers and employees are more accepting of colleagues who take time off for issues pertaining to their physical health. When it comes to issues of mental health, employees are often seen as faking the illness because they want rather than need time off. Other employees face the stigma that is associated with a mental health issue. In addition, the workload and work environment in some organizations have served to exacerbate the mental health issues and illnesses of some employees. The constant downsizing has left organizations doing more work with fewer staff, resulting in employees facing increased levels of chronic stress. Public education campaigns, such as Bell's Let's Talk have helped reduce the stigma associated

with mental health issues and illnesses. However, organizations need to pay more attention to mental health, which is not only an issue of workplace equity, diversity, and inclusion, but has become a significant business issue as well.

Questions to consider:

Have you created a psychologically safe and healthy workplace for all employees?

Have you surveyed employees to find out what they need and what can be done better?

Do your employees have reasonable workloads, work in welcoming and supportive work environments, and have access to time off for issues of physical as well as mental health?

Do your managers understand their duty to accommodate based on disability, which includes both physical and mental disability?

Have all managers and employees received training in mental health?

Do you have a health and wellness program that addresses and increases awareness and understanding of issues of physical and mental health?

Integrating immigrants into the workplace With an aging population and declining birth rates, Canada is increasingly relying on immigration for population and labour market growth. By 2030, deaths are expected to start outnumbering births. At that point, Canada will be completely reliant on immigration for population growth. To meet this need for immigrants, Canada has kept its target at about 250,000 new immigrants

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each year since the 1990s. However, while immigrants are recruited for their qualifications, high levels of education, and work experience, they continue to experience difficulties getting jobs that reflect their education and experience and difficulty integrating into the Canadian workplace. There are many factors that contribute to the difficulties they experience. These include lack of recognition of foreign credentials, lack of understanding of the language of the Canadian workplace, lack of "Canadian experience," and discrimination. The result is that, as a whole, even though immigrants are better educated than the Canadian-born population, they are trapped in low skilled occupations, such as truck drivers, clerks, and taxi drivers. This also means that organizations and the Canadian economy are losing out on the skills and abilities that new Canadians bring with them to this country.

Questions to consider:

When screening resumes and job applications, do applicants with "foreign-sounding names" get screened out regardless of their qualifications, skills, and abilities?

When interviewing, are you able to listen past the candidate's accent?

Does your hiring process allow you to assess skills and abilities, regardless of where the applicant gained them?

Do you support newcomers to develop the social and language skills of the workplace so that they can fully integrate into your organization?

Ensuring religious accommodation The introduction of Quebec's Charter on Secularism has put the national spotlight on

religious accommodation. Across the country, federal and provincial human rights legislation require that employers accommodate employees based on any human rights protected ground, including religion. Typically, this requires accommodation with respect to dress code, time off for religious observances, scheduling of breaks and shifts, provision of prayer space, and scheduling of interviews. However, while the duty to accommodate based on religion has existed for decades, we continue to see that employees, managers, and organizations do not always fully understand this obligation and its limits. In recent years we have seen news reports dealing with:

A Muslim high school co-op student who was told at an interview that the organization's policy is that every man must be clean shaven

Muslim women who lost their jobs because they refused to hike their skirts above the knee over their long pants

Sikh employees who refuse to wear a hard-hat because it meant they can't wear their turbans which are required by their religion

A Jewish employee who requested scheduling changes so that he wasn't required to work on the Sabbath.

With the rising number of non-Christians throughout Canada, the duty to provide religious accommodation will continue to challenge organizations.

Questions to consider:

Does your organization have a Religious Accommodation Policy? Have you specified the duty to accommodate in other related policies, such as dress code, guidelines for scheduling interviews and shifts?

Have you provided training or information sessions for managers about their duty to accommodate based on religion?

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Have you educated all employees about religious accommodation so that they don't see accommodation as "special treatment"?

Have you provided prayer or quiet rooms for employees?

Hiring and integrating Aboriginal peoples in the workplace With Canada's reliance on immigrants for population and labour market growth, the issues Aboriginal peoples face in the workplace are overlooked by many organizations. In reality, Aboriginal youth represent Canada’s youngest and fastest-growing population. Currently, 652,000 Aboriginal people in Canada are of working age. By 2020, 400,000 more young Aboriginal people will enter the workforce - in both large urban centres and smaller communities. However, while Aboriginal peoples provide an enormous pool of talent that employers can draw upon, the Aboriginal population continues to experience unemployment rates more than twice as high as non-Aboriginal people. They also experience higher rates of unemployment and under-employment regardless of their levels of education. In our consulting work, we often hear from Aboriginal employees that their colleagues hold negative attitudes toward Aboriginal peoples, creating a hostile work environment for them. Negative attitudes about Aboriginal peoples can also create a barrier to the hiring and advancement of Aboriginal peoples.

Questions to consider:

Does your recruitment strategy include outreach to Aboriginal communities and agencies?

Do your interview questions require candidates to sell themselves, which creates a cultural barrier for Aboriginal peoples in the hiring process?

Do you offer a welcoming and inclusive work environment for employees of all backgrounds? Have all employees received training on their responsibilities to create an inclusive work environment?

Does your organization encourage greater understanding and respect for Aboriginal history and better relationships with Aboriginal communities?

Supporting the advancement of women into leadership positions A recent study of Fortune 500 companies found that those with the highest representation of female managers had higher market shares and profits1. Other studies continue to show that despite the contributions that women can make to organizations and the gains they have made in the labour market, they continue to face barriers to advancement into middle and senior management positions. Organizations will continue to be challenged to recognize the different leadership style of women and their leadership ability in order to support the advancement of women and men equally.

Questions to consider:

Have you examined your human resource data by gender to identify if barriers to advancement exist for women?

1 Adler, Roy D. (2001). Women in the Executive Suite

Correlate to High Profits. Glass Ceiling Research Center.

http://glass-

ceiling.com/InTheNewsFolder/HBRArticlePage1.html

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When recruiting for senior level positions, do you ensure that female candidates are included on your short list?

Do you have mentoring and coaching programs in place to support the advancement of women into management positions?

Identifying and addressing racism in the workplace Even with current human rights protections and a more racially diverse society, issues of race, racial discrimination, and racism continue to challenge Canadians and Canadian employers. Currently, a quarter of all complaints to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal are based on race. In addition, the data continues to show that racialized people / racial minorities continue to experience higher rates of unemployment and under-employment than their White counterparts, even when they have the same level of education and work experience. As we work with organizations to review their employment policies and practices, we often hear from employees about how much more subtle racism is in the workplace today. They share their experiences of micro-aggression in the workplace, exclusion from social networks and informal mentoring, and being set up for failure as they progress up the management ranks. From our experience, organizations continue to be challenged with systemic, conscious and unconscious racism / racial discrimination. Some organizations take a "willfully blind" approach to racism in the workplace. They don't examine the issue, view those who raise the issue as having a "chip on their shoulder," and can therefore comfortably ignore the issue. But

this approach only perpetuates racism and racial inequality in the workplace.

Questions to consider:

Have you developed a comprehensive anti-racism vision statement and policy?

Does the organization collect race-based data to identify issues and monitor change? For example, do you know the composition of those who apply to the organization, who gets hired, and who advances within the organization? Do you analyze human rights complaints to identify and understand race-based issues? Do you collect data on informal complaints as racially-based complaints are oftentimes informal? Do you survey employees to identify issues of racism in the workplace?

Have leaders in the organization received anti-racism training?

When required, do you hire investigators that have a firm understanding of how to investigate race-based human rights complaints?

Unmasking unconscious bias In the 1990s, the focus of workplace equity programs was on identifying and addressing systemic and individual discrimination. However, even as organizations were implementing EDI programs, many still struggle to close the gaps in representation that certain groups experience. When researchers tried to explain these persistent inequalities they turned their attention to what was happening on an unconscious level. What they found is a powerful unconscious that is influenced by our natural instincts, filters, culture, upbringing, as well as our background and identity. These unconscious biases shape

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the conscious decisions that we make by affecting how we interpret information and how we evaluate and interact with people. For some of us, this means that our behaviours can be out of sync with our intentions. Given the mounting research, organizations are beginning to understand the need to gain a better understanding of how unconscious bias works and the impact it has on hiring decisions and how people are treated in the workplace. As we approach 2020, it will be important for all organizations to incorporate training and education about unconscious bias into their EDI programs.

Questions to consider:

Have all those involved in the hiring process received training to help them understand and minimize the impact of their unconscious biases on hiring decisions?

Are managers encouraged and supported to reflect on their own biases?

Have all staff received training and education about unconscious bias and the impact it has on how people are treated in the workplace?

On their own, each of these 12 trends and issues can prove to be daunting for an organization. Taken together, they can seem insurmountable. But as we approach the year 2020, organizations will no longer be able to ignore the challenges that an increasingly diverse labour market creates for them. If they don't proactively assess and address these issues, the demographics will force a response.

This article was originally published in two parts on March 24 and 26, 2014, on charityvillage.com. Tana Turner is Principal of Turner Consulting Group Inc., an equity, diversity and inclusion consultancy firm in Toronto. The full report - Diversity 2020 - will be released in April. Learn more at www.turnerconsultinggroup.ca.