Diversity is an organizational imperative. A productive, high performing, diverse workforce provides a key advantage for organizations determined to succeed in a competitive marketplace. Increasingly, successful organizations have gone beyond compliance to incorporate diversity as part of a comprehensive business strategy.
Social Justice In The Workplace
Diversity programs, built on a strong anti-discrimination foundation, deliver the greatest results when there is a clear connection to measurable outcomes. Building an inclusive organization is a developmental process. It starts with the understanding that organizations at different stages of growth have different cultures and so require different approaches to implementing change. The goal of ASSOCIUM’s diversity practice is to develop customized solutions that support the creation of high performing and inclusive work cultures.
Our Diversity and Equity Practice
- Workplace Diversity Initiatives
- Diversity Audits
- Anti-Racism/Anti-discrimination Organization Change
- Federal Employment Equity Compliance
- Training and Needs Analysis
- Community Outreach
- Recruiting for a Diverse Workforce
- Workplace Harassment & Discrimination Policies
Objective
To assist clients in achieving diversity and managing anti-discrimination organization change. In so doing, create a workplace environment that is healthy and welcoming, values difference, encourages productivity, and inspires every employee to strive to reach their full potential.
Benefit
- Positive and productive work environment;
- Increased market share;
- Reduced turnover, disputes and costly litigation;
- Increased creativity and innovation;
- Managers and supervisors take full advantage of a diverse staff, drawing on the talents of every individual to strengthen
the organization as a whole.
Advantage
Our diversity programs take a fresh look at the wide range of human relations issues an organization faces:
- Using diversity to advantage;
- Communicating across cultures;
- Preparing/training leadership in a diverse context;
- Benefiting from equitable practices;
- Creating the diversity learning organization;
- Effectively managing organization change.
Our Practice – Unique with Extensive Knowledge
ASSOCIUM offers a full-service consulting practice dedicated to workplace diversity and employment equity and anti-racism/anti-discrimination change. The practice is focused on developing programs to ensure organizations embrace and leverage diversity in the workplace. In addition, it focuses on assisting organizations to fully comply with all of the statutory requirements of the Federal Employment Equity Act and the Federal Contractors Program, or to implement voluntary equity and diversity initiatives. We bring to the marketplace a unique blend of cross-cultural experience, senior management and consulting expertise.
We bring to our clients extensive knowledge and expertise, having worked with the federal government through the development phase of its Employment Equity legislation, program design and implementation. And, since the inception of workplace equity legislation ASSOCIUM has been developing employment equity programs and conducting Employment Systems Reviews (ESR) within a federal context and for forward thinking organizations. Individuals on our core team were also architects of the Government of Ontario’s employment equity legislation and the Ontario Public Service’s employment equity program prior to their discontinuation.
Our consultants have a wide and deep background working with organizations implementing diversity, equity and anti-racism/anti-discrimination organization change. In addition to their practical experience, our team members have a very high level of expertise rooted in academia and research. Our consultants have led employment equity and diversity change initiatives in large, complex organizations within the private and public sector.
By bringing a human resources perspective to all of our equity work, ASSOCIUM ensures that organizational priorities are an integral part of outcomes and recommendations. This perspective is founded on a strong understanding of, and focuses on, the issues of disparate treatment and impact experienced by people of colour, women and other diverse groups, that constrain organizational success.
Our Approach – Consultative and Collaborative
Our mission is to meet organizations where they are…and move them forward!
In conducting our diversity, anti-racism/anti-discrimination organization change and equity work, ASSOCIUM relies on a number of key principles and values. These principles and values can be characterized as:
- Flexibility: We recognize and are sensitive to the circumstances under which many organizations operate. Time constraints and heavy workloads require flexibility in the methods used to gather data. Our tools for information gathering include focus groups, teleconferences and individual interviews. We have a solid understanding of these tools and how to use them in the most cost effective and efficient way while maintaining our commitment to delivering the best results to and ensuring the highest quality for our clients.
- Sensitivity: We realize that change in the way things are done is often difficult for people. We have been working as consultants in organizations that have been downsized, re-engineered, restructured, privatized, etc. In our work, we adopt an unobtrusive, humanistic approach that puts people at ease. We are there to gather information, not find fault with how things were done in the past.
- Balance: We highlight the positive aspects of clients’ organizational systems, not simply the areas for improvement. Consequently, client organizations are able to build on what already works, as well as implement new initiatives.
- Realism: Once we have documented our findings, we develop recommendations based on our knowledge of the realities of the client organization’s environment. Our recommendations lead to actions that have a lasting, positive effect.
- User-friendliness: Our reports are written in user-friendly, plain language, not technical jargon. They are accessible to non-specialist managers and decision-makers in the organization, which increases the success rate for the implementation of corrective measures.
- Collaboration: We take a collaborative approach to all our work. We work with internal Project Managers to determine and refine the specific methodologies that will be used for projects, and ensure that key internal partners are aware and familiar with all activities undertaken during the course of a project.
- Confidentiality: We recognize that during the course of our work we may have access to employee information and sensitive corporate information. We therefore guarantee that the information collected will be used strictly for the purpose of this project.
Our Team
The ASSOCIUM team brings the following skills and experience, which contribute to the success of any project:
- Extensive experience in equity, diversity and anti-racism/anti-discrimination organization change, including analyzing the issues and inequalities faced by women, people of colour and other diverse groups, and developing policies and programs to address these issues.
- Experience designing and delivering innovative processes and tools to meet clients’ needs including novel learning and development opportunities for a variety of audiences.
- An understanding of the challenges that Canadian employers and governments are facing in reflecting the diversity of the population and addressing the issues and inequalities faced by disadvantaged or underrepresented groups.
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Through our collaborative approaches, innovative HR products and customized advisory solutions we impact four leadership priorities: managing risk, driving productivity, strengthening talent capabilities and supporting your bottom line.
Let’s connect to find out how ASSOCIUM Consultants can help your organization.