Reflections One Year On: A Diversity & Inclusion Update

When I last came here to provide an update, it was nearly a year ago to this day. While facing the new realities that COVID brought to our lives, the world had also witnessed the horrendous murder of George Floyd and a powerful movement was underway. It was around this time that many people, organizations, politicians and influencers began waking up to the racial injustices and prejudices that are commonplace for the Black community and People of Colour. It was a time when I realized the need to pause and reflect, on a personal front, but more so as I thought about how I could ensure that our large, diverse workplace at Aviva Canada was one of inclusivity, equity and equality. I knew we weren’t perfect by any means, but I promised we would listen, we would learn and we would speak up. It’s been a year since then, and with Juneteenth this past weekend, it feels right to come back to share the progress on my, our, promises.

First, I have to give so much credit to our incredible Aviva Origins community and our Diversity and Inclusion Group, who have been truly instrumental in driving the work. They have facilitated numerous conversations with our people around racism, both personal and systemic – real, no holds barred conversations that shed light on experiences, biases, and where Aviva needed to be doing better. They’ve also created forums to keep the conversation going, places where we continue to learn about one another and celebrate our rich histories and cultures.

In listening, it became clear that education was and is essential to drive change. We worked with the incredible Dr. Morgan Roberts once again who helped us develop training modules, and ‘Unconscious Bias – Seeing Race’ was launched in December for all of our staff. It has now been completed by 86% of the organization. We’ve also trained facilitators to host follow up workshops, to make sure the conversations and education doesn’t stop and that our Aviva community have a voice.

Learning for us was also about understanding what our workforce looks like, as we knew we couldn’t commit to change if we didn’t understand the problem beyond assumptions. A ‘This Is Me’ campaign was launched to encourage our people to confidentially share diversity data so that we could address the gaps and we now have 83% completion within the organization. As we work to analyze the data and determine a course of action, we’re not waiting to improve our succession planning, with visible minorities in succession increasing fourfold and our Black Internship program underway.

In addition to all of this, Aviva Canada proudly joined the BlackNorth Initiative, pledging to combat racial inequality and systemic racism in Corporate Canada.

I think it’s a good start, but there’s a lot more to do. This past year has demonstrated human compassion and empathy while also exposing the cracks. Our discussions have widened, education has broadened and support has grown as we’ve seen blatant hate against Asian, Indigenous and Muslim communities. It’s a firm reminder of how far we still have to go.

What’s next? Our approach to Diversity and Inclusion remains centered on employee-led initiatives designed to be transparent, honest, and built from the ground up. Being an inclusive culture means being open to understanding the challenges, differences and struggles of all, respecting them, and then providing support to make a positive difference. I am 100% committed to this, as is the entire leadership team here at Aviva.

Jason