Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

You Be You. We insist!

Our EDI Statement:

At About Staffing Authenticity is in our DNA.

Equity is to be upheld, and we are all accountable.

We are inclusive. We listen and treat others with respect and sincerity – always with the intent to learn and grow.

And it is diversity that drives our outrageous creativity, tenacity, and joyful approach to persevering and succeeding in a highly competitive industry.

Female Founded

About Staffing is female-founded and run by CEO Sharlene Massie

Cultural Experience

One-quarter of our staff members have lived full time in countries other than Canada and have experienced living as a minority

Language

One-third of our staff members are bilingual or multilingual

Gender

More than two-thirds of our staff are women

Diverse Leadership

Four out of five members of our executive leadership team are women

Voice for Others

Our Director of EDI is a Métis woman who advocates for women in business and entrepreneurs

We Have Staff Members Who:

Worked with Newcomers

Worked and volunteered with newcomers to Canada including helping resettle the first wave of Syrian refugees to Canada in 2016. They also helped to establish programming for immigrant women at risk of poverty

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Who:

Helped at Risk Women

Provided guidance and support for at-risk women around the world to secure micro-financing for small businesses and develop banking cooperatives

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Staff Members Who:

Lived and/or worked in First Nations communities

Led programs to help women both nationally and internationally who were exiting sex work and required access to reskilling programs

Volunteered to assist newcomers with disabilities including the war-injured and people living with amputations

Volunteered to assist people with brain-injuries and those who are chronically ill

Assisted formerly incarcerated individuals needing employment guidance

Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 22/23 About Staffing

This strategy will not only address our goals as a female-led, small business in Canada committed to advancing equitable diversity and inclusion in our industry, but also as purposeful leaders in the field of EDI recruitment and retention promoting best practices for our clients, as well as support and knowledge for our candidates.

Our Priorities are:

Becoming leaders in promoting EDI best practices to our clients (employers).

Furthering diversity and inclusion in Canadian workplaces by equipping candidates through our sister company JOBSHIFT.

Advocating for EDI initiatives within and outside of our four walls, including nurturing current partnerships with organizations and businesses that serve underrepresented groups in the workforce, as well as reaching out to new partners.

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Objectives and Actions

Status Quo

We are recruiting experts and will continue to position ourselves as EDI recruitment experts, thanks in large part to our partnerships with community agencies and organizations that serve newcomers, Indigenous youth, LGBT2SI+ community members and others who are at risk for underrepresentation in the workplace.

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HR-Hiring, Recruitment, Retention

Diverse candidates are and will continue to be sourced through our partnerships and strategies.

We commit to monitoring the inclusivity of our job postings through the use of job descriptions that provide opportunities for a wider pool of qualified candidates. We currently use tools such as http://gender-decoder.katmatfield.com/ to evaluate our inclusivity. Based on the findings, we will often review and re-examine job descriptions, with the goal of reducing or eliminating implied biases.

We encourage staff to understand their own unconscious biases by participating in Harvard University’s Project implicit https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

We leverage our sister company Jobshift to help equip diverse candidates with the tools and confidence to advocate for themselves in both the job search process and the workplace.

As the Masters at Matching Culture®, our recruiters aim to understand the employers’ culture to align with the ideal candidates. We also encourage enhancing corporate culture through diversity and inclusion. This is proven to support retention in existing and new staff members.

Staff Training and Development

Currently, our Director of Growth Strategies and EDI has completed an EDI certification program through the ESSEC Business School in France and is currently enrolled in a University of North Texas course on EDI access. Three more staff members are enrolled in the ESSEC Business School program to receive a Diversity and Inclusion in the Workforce certificate, and those not enrolled in the certification, have been given time to audit the course. Our Director of EDI also participates in monthly EDI webinars through the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion.

We will continue to discuss EDI skills training and leadership opportunities with staff and encourage them to bring ideas for continuing education forward.

Indicators

Although we monitor diversity indicators internally, we are currently developing standardized criteria to measure diversity and inclusivity progress among our external client and candidate base.

We will review internal performance indicators for each department within our organization including industrial and corporate divisions.

We will share data and tracking of progress with staff on a quarterly basis.

The Business Case for EDI

Research shows:

“In a survey, 57% of employees wished their company was more diverse.” Learn more here

“Racially diverse teams report a 35% increase in performance compared to their competitors.” Learn more here

“Cognitive diversity drives innovation by up to 20%.” Learn more here

“According to a 2020 Glassdoor survey, 76 percent of job seekers and employees polled said a diverse workforce was an important factor for them when evaluating job opportunities and companies.” Learn more here

“According to a Deloitte survey, 80 percent of over 1,300 respondents said inclusion efforts were an important factor when choosing a company.” Learn more here

Diverse companies: