Canadian HR Reporter Weekly

3 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 May 30, 2018 And if a federally incorporated public company failed to provide the proper disclosure, it would be subject to the general remedies under the federal legislation, which could include fines or the director under the CBCA making an order. It's critical that the legislation affects both boards and senior management, according to Tanya Van Biesen, Toronto-based executive director for Canada at Catalyst. "e board thing (lack of diversity) is never going to go away unless we address the pipeline around the representation of women in senior roles, so this is bang- on the kind of strategy we need to have," she said. "We're starting to see it in Canada, we're starting to see it in other jurisdictions, where investors are voting down boards of directors or certain directors because of lack of effort shown around diversity, so that does change behaviour." Overall, this is a positive step forward — but more could be done, said Van Biesen. "We do believe that companies that are operating under best practice should implement non-zero targets as part of the work that they're doing… it's been shown to be effective across the companies in Canada that have been subject to employment equity since 1995, so we do believe that's a missing piece. And we're hopeful that the companies that are most serious about talent will do that themselves." Preparing for the changes To be prepared, the ideal thing and the important thing for employers to do is to adopt these policies, said Robertson. "For federal companies that are public, you'll probably see a lot of these policies actually being adopted to the extent they're not already adopted." Affected companies should also be considering the designated groups as part of their hiring regime, including board positions, he said. "It's (about) really expanding your network, and speaking to other people in your own industry and other industries to see if they have contacts that might be appropriate… so not just trying to stay within the small subgroup of people you look at usually for expanding your board, but trying to expand your own horizons and your own windows to see if there's other people out there." at could mean some star players in the designated groups are in high demand, said Robertson. "ey could see a lot of competition to attain them by various compensation packages. Usually, that's not as much a system at the board level because often they are paid relatively equally amongst each other, but at the executive level, I could see the compensation — while it does get publicly disclosed for the highest paid people, it's still something that is a little more flexible — and I could see the packages, especially in the beginning, being more lucrative just to try to achieve these targets." In looking at the small and mid-size sector in Canada, a lot of companies are going to be caught flat-footed or not yet ready to take all of this on, said Van Biesen. But anybody who's serious about talent hopefully had this on their radar screen to begin with. "e biggest and most important thing they can do is to get to know these talent bases quickly, so there are great associations out there that can provide great linkages to people with disabilities, Indigenous peoples. I also think it's going to require companies to dig more deeply in terms of investing in these communities." And it's going to create greater competition for talent, without a doubt, she said. "I suspect what you're going to get is a little bit similar to what we've had with women... You're going to have a small number of people targeted for a large number of opportunities. So, in Canada, we've seen the same names appear on boards of directors over a period of time, and it's taken a while for boards even to get their heads around appointing first-time board directors to their board because they would rather go to the tried-and-true." HR should also ensure the HRIS systems are set up to be able to set a baseline, said Van Biesen. "A lot of HRIS systems right now are not even set up so we can even count who we have, so we need to count who we have to figure out where we are," she said. "We need to create a culture whereby, for instance, our Indigenous, our people with disabilities feel comfortable self-disclosing. Because not every disability is a visible disability, not every Indigenous person feels comfortable self-disclosing they are of an Indigenous background. So in order to do that, you have to create a culture where people feel comfortable and safe doing that, and there will not be repercussions as a result of having disclosed that information." It's about really expanding your network... not just staying within the small subgroup of people you usually look at." Credit: sirtravelalot / Shutterstock The need for boards to be responsive to shareholders is more important than ever with the new regulations, says John Kuzyk, a partner at Blakes in Toronto.

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