DE&I at its best

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Find out what CIBC and Aon are doing to build DE&I workplace initiatives that mirror the needs and expectations of the LGBTQ+ community

THE CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE (CIBC) was the first bank in Canada to form an employee network for their LGBTQ+ team members. Today, over 1,700 employees are part of the organization’s Pride network. As a pioneer in modern and welcoming workplace cultures, CIBC continues to set the standard for meaningful diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DE&I) initiatives. “Three per cent of our workforce and three per cent of our board-approved executives identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community,” says Jackie Goldman, senior vice president, rewards, recognition & performance at CIBC. “We are a founding partner of Pride at Work, Canada, and are committed to creating and maintaining a sense of belonging for employees so everyone feels empowered to achieve their professional goals and ambitions.” Goldman says the development and implementation of initiatives built around the LGBTQ+ community’s individual and family needs evolved naturally over the span of about 10 years and have since reached workplace entrenchment. And while it’s become an expectation among today’s labour force that companies will go beyond the cookie-cutter employee value proposition (EVP), a culture of inclusion has always been at the forefront of benefits planning at CIBC. “We have a dedicated member of our team, Brent Chamberlain, who partners with us to ensure we’re always looking at our benefits planning through an inclusive lens and does a fantastic job leading our inclusion and diversity portfolio,” says Goldman. These DE&I initiatives include gender affirmation, family-forming considerations, fertility benefits, and the reimbursement of certain expenses associated with surrogacy and adoption.

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“We are a founding partner of Pride at Work, Canada, and are committed to creating and maintaining a sense of belonging for employees so everyone feels empowered to achieve their professional goals and ambitions”

Jackie Goldman, CIBC

Empowering human possibility Over the years, Aon has won some of the industry’s most prestigious awards. In 2022, Aon was the winner of the 10 Years of Excellence in Employee Benefits award, the winner of the Health and Wellbeing Consultant of the Year award, and the winner of the Best Pension Strategy of the Year award presented by WSB (Workplace Savings and Benefits) at their annual ceremony. In 2021, Aon was awarded Corporate Adviser Firm of the Year, and winner of Best Health and Wellbeing Solution at the Corporate Adviser Awards. As industry leaders, the research, planning, data gathering, and internal benchmarking processes at Aon are all part of the company’s commitment to helping its clients create respectful and rewarding organizational cultures that attract and retain top talent and cultivate company-wide resilience. In partnership with Aon, CIBC remains a well-respected model of purpose-driven LGBTQ+ initiatives that define a culture where every employee feels empowered and supported. Equity, diversity, and intentional inclusion are what drive this forward-thinking institution, because, as Jackie Goldman explains, “everyone deserves to live their purpose.”

A forward-thinking paradigm Banks are people-based institutions and are therefore in a unique position to harness inclusion and model a shift from austere, one-size-fits-all standards toward a diverse, equity-based future. “It might sound clichéd,” says Goldman, “but if we enable our employees to be their best selves, it helps them succeed – and helps our clients succeed as well.” Fundamental to every cliché is the quality of being frequent and familiar. CIBC’s success in implementing meaningful DE&I initiatives comes from the relentless pursuit of equity through internal and external collaborations. “CIBC’s Bradley Bruce is always looking into uncovering benefits gaps that require action – for example, supporting gender affirmation and family forming,” Goldman explains. “We also rely on our external advisors to keep us at the forefront of what can be done to improve the workplace culture, and that’s where Aon comes in.”

Kindred company partnerships CIBC’s partnership with Aon has played an integral role in supporting its commitment to both DE&I and evolving opportunities within the LGBTQ+ employee population. “One of the tenets of CIBC’s purpose-driven culture is to be a genuinely caring organization, and we take that commitment very seriously,” says Goldman. “Together with Aon, we are able to bring innovation to DE&I and to the LGBTQ+ community to deliver on what members of today’s workforce need to feel engaged, appreciated, respected, and rewarded for their work.” Aon consultants offer targeted and unique solutions to deliver insightful company benefits plans that often include entirely new products designed to address a specific need and optimize employee health and well-being. Regular discovery and planning sessions based on where clients are – what programs and action plans are in place – and what their longer-term objectives involve with respect to DE&I and other initiatives are part of what sets Aon apart in their approach to facilitating their clients’ success.

Labour force insights “There’s a big war for talent right now, and a lot of organizations are being challenged by the current environment,” says Steven Foye, senior vice president – client relationship health solutions, Aon. “Companies need to expand their talent base, and that means effective attraction and retention strategies that understand, motivate, and engage a diverse range of individuals instead of building around an antediluvian workplace model.” Gone are the days when employees were expected to take whatever benefits packages they were handed and be grateful for it. Today’s employees are putting more pressure on employers to meet a diverse set of needs. They’re looking for employers who align with their values and expectations and who demonstrate a commitment to supporting them both professionally and personally. “Supporting your employees is not just about gaining loyalty, it’s about doing the right thing,” says Foye. “We see organizations such as CIBC prioritizing a culture of engagement and opportunity and tying that together with ESG initiatives to create an outstanding culture of integrity and trust.”

“We see organizations such as CIBC prioritizing a culture of engagement and opportunity and tying that together with ESG initiatives to create an outstanding culture of integrity and trust”

Steven Foye, Aon

Data-driven fundamentals Aon helps forward-thinking companies understand current market trends and employee expectations through industry monitoring and research innovations. They provide proprietary intellectual capital along with benchmarking insights rooted in what they’re seeing from within an organization and what competitive activities are being reflected within the sector. “A big piece of successful benefits planning and discovery is data,” say Foye. “Data and research are how we keep our clients updated on what’s happening in specific markets. We look at what the competition is doing and how markets are evolving, and we provide these insights to our clients to form the baseline for goal-oriented planning.”

Foye says that for some clients, enhanced benefits planning is simply a matter of stepping back to ensure company communications and documentation employ inclusive language. Others, he says, need full-scale changes that emulate the types of gender-affirmation and family-forming supports CIBC implemented. Through a meticulous, multi-pronged discovery process, Aon helps their clients build compelling benefits plans that align with their workplace culture and work within their budgets. They also advise clients on the best ways to educate their employees about the many benefits available to them. “Where we’ve really seen success,” says Foye, “is in creating targeted communications that go well beyond the traditional workplace booklet to include web- and app-based information, emails, and employee profiles their colleagues will identify with and want to engage with further.” Foye says it’s important a company’s workforce members know how to access information about all the benefits available to them. “Insightful, employee-based benefits planning is important, but it’s equally important companies know how to get the word out.”

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“Three per cent of our workforce and three per cent of our board-approved executives identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community” - Jackie Goldman, CIBC

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Source: Statistics Canada