TORONTO, June 1, 2022
/CNW/ - Scotiabank is proud to announce new diversity, equity
and inclusion initiatives in celebration of Pride month, to foster
greater opportunities and advance inclusion and belonging of LGBT+
communities globally.
As part of the Bank's renewed Diversity and Inclusion Goals,
developed to increase the diversity of its employee population over
the next five years, Scotiabank is introducing a new goal to
increase representation in Canada
of employees who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or another
diverse sexual orientation to 7% or greater by 2025. We also foster
the inclusion for trans and non-binary employees, and current
representation of employees in Canada who identified their gender as a
diverse gender identity surpasses the Canadian Census data on the
representation of trans and non-binary people.
To further support the communities in which it operates,
Scotiabank is launching a new community engagement platform, Spark
by Benevity, designed to empower employees to demonstrate allyship
and giving by connecting them directly with opportunities to give
back in their local communities and around the globe. Through
Spark, employees can search and engage with more than two million
charities worldwide for all their personal giving, volunteering,
and corporate matching programs including organizations supporting
LGBT+ people like The 519, Rainbow Railroad and Outright Action
International. Over the past year, Scotiabank employees dedicated
129,000 volunteer hours globally across various causes and
not-for-profit organizations in their local communities.
"We believe that diverse backgrounds, identities, and
perspectives makes us stronger, as a team within Scotiabank and for
the diverse communities we serve every day," said Barb Mason,
Group Head and Chief Human Resources Officer, Scotiabank. "By
increasing representation and empowering employees with new ways to
be active allies to LGBT+ people in their local communities, we're
striving to create a culture of inclusion and belonging where
everyone can show up as their whole selves and thrive at work and
in their communities."
During Pride month, and every month of the year, Scotiabank's
commitment to building inclusive workplaces, fostering
opportunities for LGBT+ communities, and building a culture of
belonging for LGBT+ employees, customers and communities across the
diverse communities it serves include:
- Scotiabank set a new global standard for parental leave, which
includes 8 fully paid weeks for all parents with a new child and 8
additional fully paid weeks for parents who have given birth, going
into effect into 2023. This new standard will be introduced in 24
countries across the Bank's footprint including Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru
and more. In addition, new family planning coverage in Canada went into effect on April 1 of this year for fertility treatment,
adoption, and surrogacy with a lifetime value of $10,000 each.
- Scotiabank enhanced coverage for gender affirming procedures
and benefits for all employees in Canada and the
United States, as well as their dependents. In addition,
Scotiabank has expanded its health care benefits to include the
same-sex partners of employees in Trinidad and Tobago, joining Canada, United
States, Brazil,
Chile, Colombia, Costa
Rica, Mexico, Panama, Peru
and Uruguay.
- Through ScotiaRISE, Scotiabank's 10-year, $500
million initiative to promote economic resilience among
underrepresented groups and our ongoing community partnerships,
Scotiabank works with several organizations focused on supporting
the LGBT+ community. These include: The 519 Church Street Community
Centre, Outright Action International, Rainbow Railroad, and
Friends of Ruby.
- Following a successful pilot in 2021, Scotiabank launched an
LGBT+ employee Sponsorship program for employees this year. The
program focuses on high-potential LGBT+ talent and provides clear
targets and KPIs to measure success. Participants in the program
are provided with coaching, education, career mapping and more in a
structured curriculum over the year.
- Over the past year, the Bank continues to be recognized
globally for gender equity efforts, including ranking on the
Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) for the fifth year in a row.
Scotiabank U.S., Scotiabank Mexico and Scotiabank Chile achieved a
perfect 100 percent score on the HRC's most recent Corporate
Equality Index (CEI), a benchmarking report on corporate policies
and practices in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and
queer (LGBTQ+) workplace equality. Scotiabank was also recognized
by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation as Triple Winner and
one of the "Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality". In addition,
Scotiabank's appeared on the 2021 Aequales PAR Rankings, which
measures corporations in Latin
America progress towards gender equality and named one of
Canada's Best Diversity
Employers.
For more information on Scotiabank's commitment to diversity,
equity, and inclusion, visit:
https://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/about/our-company/diversity-and-inclusion.html
About Scotiabank
Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our
purpose: "for every future", we help our customers, their families
and their communities achieve success through a broad range of
advice, products and services, including personal and commercial
banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and
investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of over 90,000
employees and assets of approximately $1.3
trillion (as at April 30,
2022), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:
BNS) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BNS). For more information,
please visit http://www.scotiabank.com and follow us on
Twitter @ScotiabankViews.
SOURCE Scotiabank