Catalyst research has found that more than half of frontline employees are considering leaving their jobs but there are three key ways to improve workplace culture. Job satisfaction and retention increase when employees experience positive team dynamics and a sense of inclusion, belonging, and psychological safety. In the Catalyst Honours conference session “Inclusive by Design: HR & DEI Leaders Pioneering Equitable Workplaces” in Toronto on 7 October 2024, three Canadian DEI leaders who have created impactful cultural change within their companies discussed their successful initiatives.
Foster inclusion
Vivian Yoanidis, Senior Manager of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Hydro One, highlighted a program on inclusion, respect, and psychological safety that more than 7,000 operations employees have experienced. “It’s all-day training and it really allows people to really have vulnerable conversations in brave spaces. …. And I’m very proud to say that we’re going to be working with our operations, our health and safety folks, and with HR to put a sustainable plan in place so that we can continue this work. So, it’s not just a one-and-done training session where we tick that box off, but we’re going to continue that journey and really integrate it into our day-to-day operations,” she explained.
Invest in psychological safety
Research demonstrates that DEI can lead to increased revenue, reduced costs, greater innovation, and increased employee engagement, productivity, and commitment. Debb Hurlock, Director, Inclusion, Culture & Leadership, Pembina Pipeline Corporation, discussed a powerful teambuilding event – a Women in the Field Summit – in the male-dominated power and gas industry.
“And you know what I love about this experience is that we weren’t looking at business outcomes — it wasn’t framed in that way. We had the support of our business to do this, and what we focused on is let’s just create a space for women to connect to feel seen, to feel that they’re developing a sense of community, and let’s invest in them. That was it. So, we brought speakers. We held learning sessions. But the primary reason was for women to come together and feel connected and to really invest in their sense of safety: emotional, psychological, and physical safety.”
Cultivate talent
Simone Alleyne, Senior Director of Change & Strategic Alignment at McDonald’s Canada, began her career at McDonald’s on the front line in a restaurant 38 years ago. She said that their company phrase “from the crew room to the board room” summarizes not only her own experience but that of many others. “Our current president was a frontline worker. We have many people on our corporate staff who were frontline workers.”
When pathways from the front line to other areas of the business are clear and encouraged through training and mentorship, workers are more likely to stay, according to the Catalyst research report 3 Ways Frontline Managers Can Improve Workplace Culture. “We have actually extended membership to our corporate WLN [Women’s Leadership Network] to our female restaurant managers. So, it now created this really tight bond between corporate women and restaurant women,” she said. In addition, “Our female owner-operators have also come together and created a women’s operator network. And this is their way of also creating a community mentoring new female operators as they’re coming into the system…Then the last thing I want to share is … 60% of our restaurants are actually run by women.”
The audience broke into a round of applause at that statistic. They continued to robustly show appreciation for the three outstanding DEI professionals and their work sparking change and setting new standards for creating environments where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to thrive.
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