On February 27, 2003, Franoise Roy had a good reason to celebrate: finally, the Canadian Human Rights Commission had approved her employment equity plan. She had only been HR Director at People's Bank of Quebec (PBQ) for a little over a year, but she wanted to change things. She knew that in order to improve workforce representativeness and make discrimination a thing of the past, a lot would have to change in the minds of the people and in the organizational culture of that homogeneous Franco-Quebecer organization. Nevertheless, workplace diversity was one of her priorities, and she was determined to make it happen. But she wondered where to begin. 

Legal and Socio-Demographic Context

In 2001 there were over 700,000 immigrants in Qubec, 500,000 of whom were members of visible minority groups. While at the turn of the 20th Century, most immigrants were from the United States or European countries, the percentage of immigrants from these countries gradually decreased, as immigration from Asia and other parts of the world increased. Slow at first, this change became more visible in the eighties. Today, the vast majority of immigrants are Asian (including South Asians) or Black. Legislation has been adapted in order to deal with this new reality. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is included in the 1982 Canadian Constitution Act, guarantees equality to every individual regardless of race, religion, national or ethnic origin, color, sex, age or disability.The law allows, however, programs which benefit members of certain groups (such as women, aboriginals, people with disabilities and visible minorities) which have historically been subject to discrimination. The Employment Equity Act is designed to improve job opportunities for these four specific groups; according to this Act, private and public sector employers operating in federally regulated industries that employ 100 or more employees must design, implement and monitor the results of equity plans in order to ensure representation of designated groups in their workforce. Since the 1 996 amendments to the Employment Equity Act, the Canadian Human Rights Commission is responsible for ensuring that employers comply with its requirements. In 1998, the Commission began conducting audits.

Workplace Diversity in the Banking Sector

In pursuance of the Canadian Constitution Act, banking is under the exclusive legislative jurisdiction of the federal government. Seven chartered banks, including the People's Bank of Quebec (PBQ), operate in Quebec. Each must comply with the Employment Equity Act's requirements. In addition, banks are required to deal with an increasingly diverse clientele. As a result, they have to manage diversity at two levels: in their own workforce, as they are legally bound to do, and in the market, by fulfilling their clients' needs. Globally, as a result of the efforts made during the past 15 years or so, visible minority representation in banks has reached a more than adequate level. In 2002, members of visible minority groups represented 18.6% of the workforce, while their rate of availability was only 12.6% in the general population of Canada. The state of affairs at the People's Bank of Quebec, however, was quite different.

People's Bank of Quebec

PBQ is a medium-sized bank which focuses on retail and small-business banking. In 2002, its workforce comprised about 7,000 employees, of which more than half were unionized. In 2001, its net financial revenues had increased about 10%, as had been the case for other small and medium banks. In 2002, PBQ's revenues had fallen by half- but that year had been a difficult one for most Canadian banks.

However, on the diversity front, Franoise knew that the PBQ was trailing behind. Indeed, in 2002, members of visible minority groups represented less than 6% of the workforce; the Bank's employees were almost entirely French-speaking Quebecois Women constituted a significant proportion of the workforce but were under-represented in management jobs. Indeed, while over 80% of administrative and office employees were women, they represented only 18% of senior managers. Since the introduction of the first Employment Equity Act, in 1986, several employment equity plans had been devised, but none had led to any concrete changes. Actually, no less than 9 people had held the position of Human Resource Director between 1986 and 2002, and it seemed that dealing with this sensitive issue had never been a top priority. Franoise, the tenth HR Director since 1986, was fully aware of the magnitude of the challenge.

Françoise Roy, HR Director

Franoise joined PBQ at the beginning of 2002, shortly after the Human Rights Commission had begun to verify the bank's compliance with the Employment Equity Act. Young, open minded and energetic, she fully intended to move this initiative forward. For her, it was not only about complying with legal standards. She knew that among minority groups, there were competent and talented people which the Bank would benefit from having in its ranks. She was also convinced that, with a more diversified workforce, the Bank would be better able to respond to the needs of its increasingly diverse clientele. According to Franoise, it was a matter of performing better, rather than simply complying with legal requirements. She had thus carefully devised her first equity plan, which she was eager to implement. However, in the course of the on-going verification process, the Human Rights Commission demanded to verify the content of the plan. Patiently, Franoise waited for the Commission to approve of her plan. She did not want to risk starting to implement it, only to have changes required after a couple of months. Finally, after several months, Franoise obtained the Commission's approval and was able to go ahead with the implementation.

The bank's CEO, Pierre Belanger, had ensured Franoise that he supported her in her efforts to hire a representative workforce. He had even written her a letter to that effect, and all managers had received a copy of it. Nevertheless, the young HR Director felt that other managers did not see diversity as a priority. Some of them may have even seen it as a hindrance, thinking "My team works fine as it is. Why would I want to change things and hire employees from minority groups who may not fit in with the others? I just don't see the point." This kind of thinking was very common among the Bank's employees and managers. Franoise had noticed members of minority groups were even reluctant to identify themselves as such, for fear of being accused of "wanting to take advantage of their minority status" to get ahead.

Questions

1. What HRM practices can facilitate the recruitment, selection and integration of diverse employees?

2. How can Franoise Roy implement her diversity action plan in this context?

3. What challenges would Franoise face in implementing her diversity action plan?