‘It’s really about progress’: BlackNorth Initiative releasing racial equity playbook for companies

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The BlackNorth Initiative is releasing a diversity “playbook” today aimed at helping propel corporate Canada along a path to more diversity, equity and inclusion, with specific measures to address different processes from hiring to procurement.

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Canadian companies were quick to sign on to commitments to increase diversity in their ranks in the fall of 2020, but Dahabo Ahmed-Omer, executive director of the BlackNorth initiative, said there was some concern the task would prove daunting for companies.

In response, BlackNorth worked with Boston Consulting Group to create the guide, which contains six pillars in all.

“This racial equity playbook is really about progress,” Ahmed-Omer said in a recent interview. “It needs to happen in such a way that allows us to see the growth over time. If we think that this work is going to happen overnight, I think we’re fooling ourselves.”

The first and second pillars in the playbook address staffing, and are aimed at helping companies boost diversity by creating an inclusive “pipeline” and hiring process, and incorporating this goal in retention and promotion processes.  

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The third pillar is a guide to closing racial pay gaps, while the fourth addresses establishing more diverse vendor networks and procurement.  

Finally, the playbook offers advice and resources on creating an equitable portfolio or brand, and how to support organizations advancing racial equity.  

At its foundation the playbook is a guide to behavioural change, Ahmed-Omer said.

“(When) we talk about how to do fair and equitable recruitment… there’s a ton of resources in this playbook that go above and beyond a number,” she said. “And the minute that our own behaviours start to change around this, automatically the systems that we’ve created will start to shift because systems weren’t created by automation — People’s behaviours have impacted those systems.”

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The playbook does emphasize a need for targets, measurement, and leadership accountability, which Ahmed-Omer said is necessary to ensure that progress is built into a company’s processes and culture.

“It’s a tool, but if you… don’t measure yourself against it, then its usefulness disappears,” she said. “The accountability around measurement is so, so key to the achievement of racial equity.”

Ahmed-Omer said she prefers the term goals to targets, as the latter can have negative associations. When Canadian securities regulators were creating frameworks for disclosure of gender representation on boards and in senior management in the mid-2010s, for example, there was significant pushback on targets, which were often conflated with the idea of quotas. Instead, regulators settled on a comply or explain regime with no mandatory targets.

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While the BlackNorth Initiative’s new playbook emphasizes measurement and accountability, it is flexible when it comes to the different starting points for companies in different industries and sectors, said Ahmed-Omer. It was put together with the recognition that not all companies, even within those subgroups, are at the same place.

“This racial equity playbook allows everyone to be able to see themselves in it and see tangible things that they can do,” she said. “How is this working? Is this working? And if it’s not, what else do we need to do?”

She said the “spirit” behind the tools is to make it as easy as possible to do the required work to increase equity and diversity within corporate Canada.

“We have to understand how deep and systemic these issues are,” she said “And if we’re really going to … create an environment that is truly equitable, allows people to prosper, and to grow and to see themselves in a sustainable and functional model, we need to do this step by step.”

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In September of 2020, more than 350 Canadian companies and organizations signed a CEO pledge that committed to taking actions and setting targets designed to end anti-black systemic racism. That number has since grown to nearly 500.

Alim Dhanji, president of Adidas Canada, one of the signatories of the pledge, told the BlackNorth Initiative that the new guide’s data, insights, and resources will be helpful as the sporting goods company reforms its global hiring and career development processes to ensure fair and equitable hiring by removing potential bias, increasing representation, and creating more accountability and oversight.

“The playbook provides valuable market statistics and insights which illuminate the experience of Black-Canadians in the hiring process, drawing a clear call to action to foster more equitable outcomes,” Dhanji said.

“The playbook can help organizations identify and focus on bias-free processes in hiring and promotions that improve the attraction, selection and advancement of Black-Canadians.”

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