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RBC ranked second in an examination of diversity within
the upper ranks of Canadian companies
October 31, 2007 — Corporate Knights Magazine's
first-annual Leadership Diversity Index has ranked RBC second
in the top ten Canadian companies that have achieved the greatest
visible minority and female representation in both the boardroom
and the CEO's suite.
The top performing companies in the index are as follows:
- Vancouver City Savings Credit Union
- Royal Bank of Canada
- Husky Energy Inc.
- Corus Entertainment Inc.
- Hydro One
- McKesson Canada
- Hewlett-Packard
- Bank Of Montreal
- Petro-Canada
- Shell Canada
The findings also identify a failure in corporations to reflect
Canada's demographics. Of the 140 surveyed, 75 per cent of
boards of directors had no visible minorities, and 23 per
cent had no women. There were no female CEOs.
But change is afoot, and RBC is one of the companies that
are leading the way.
Zabeen Hirji, Chief Human Resources Officer for RBC, states:
"If you want to serve the market, you have to hire the
market.
"Yes, we've made progress, but are we there yet? No.
We're not where we want to be-it's a journey, which is why
we're continually focusing on diversity.
"I don't know that you can really make significant progress
without having CEO commitment, as well as commitment from
senior leaders. We have a diversity leadership council which
is chaired by RBC's CEO, Gord Nixon. We review the goals and
the results every quarter, and members of the council are
senior leaders from across the company."
Background - How was the CK Leadership Diversity Index
determined?
Using the most recent financial and proxy statements available,
Corporate Knights examined companies in the S&P/TSX 60,
the top 50 on the FP500 and/or ROB1000, all the companies
in the Jantzi Social Index, the top 25 holdings of the Ethical
Canadian Index Fund, and additional companies with significant
operations in the communications, chemicals, utilities, retail,
mining, oil and gas, finance, and forestry sectors. In the
case of a subsidiary, the parent company's data was used.
Titled "Minority Report," the analysis of the findings
explains why diversity matters and looks at the best practices
of diverse firms, as well as the challenges faced by non-white
and/or female executives in today's workplace. As well, executives
were asked for their advice for the rest of Corporate Canada.
For more on the report…
Minority
Report: An examination of diversity within the upper ranks
of Canadian Companies (Reprinted with permission by Corporate
Knights)
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