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S
ymcor has covered all the bases when it comes to developing a diverse and
inclusive work environment.
"It is so embraced by our employees," says Dee Dee Milner, senior vice-
president of human resources and CHRO at Symcor. "What we found in our
success over the last several years... (is) changing our culture has been driven by our
employees and following their lead in grassroots initiatives."
The diversity inclusion initiatives are largely successful due to high employee
engagement. Over the past six years, Symcor's engagement index has continued to
increase, with 2014 marking the highest score at 82 per cent.
In the most recent 2015 survey results, when asked whether Symcor values diversity
in the workplace, 91 per cent of employees agreed for the second year in a row.
The diversity and inclusion program stems into a number of events, committees
and campaigns that are driven by employees.
"We're most proud of the fact that our employees play a large role in it, and it's
very grassroots and they engage it and they are the ones running with a lot of our
programs and promoting it," says Jeannie White, manager of employee engagement,
policies and programs at Symcor, which has almost 3,000 employees at 11 different
sites in major cities across Canada including Montreal, Toronto and Halifax.
The company continues to improve by creating new initiatives, partnerships and
making certain to measure results along the way.
"This year, for the fi rst time, when we conducted the survey, we added inclusion
demographics so that we can try to understand the workforce and what appeals to
the different groups better," says Milner.
A large reason as to why employees stay engaged is due to the hands-on-
approach by the company's CEO, Chameli Naraine, who visits all 11 sites three times
per year at a minimum, says Milner. After fulfi lling her fi duciary responsibilities with
the managers, she interacts with front-line employees.
"She walks around the fl oor, and our shifts, because of the work that we do, our
shifts are not typically day shifts. The majority of our employees are on an evening
and night shift and Chameli will still do that — walk around and talk to them, (ask)
specifi cally what it is they are working on and why that's important and how it
impacts our client," says Milner, adding the practice gets the employees involved in
what they are doing while sending a positive message about diversity and corporate
social responsibility.
In addition, a Corporate Executive Social Responsibility committee started last
year helps the C-suite look at inclusion and involvement from employees, with
various committee leaders including a Diversity Inclusion committee. They share
initiative results and in some cases problem-solve potential setbacks.
Hands-on approach has Symcor celebrating diversity
By Anastasiya Jogal
Symcor
Best Diversity Program
DIVERSITY > pg. 23
