WHAT’S NEXT
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Diversity & Inclusion: Striding Forward at RBC As 2014 approaches, becoming aware of, understanding, and managing unconscious bias will be a key part of RBC’s diversity and inclusion work. In partnership with Ernst and Young in Canada, the Royal Bank of Canada has championed research on hidden bias, which reveals that unconscious preferences are common and that they create barriers by limiting our exposure to people different from us. By learning to recognize and manage unconscious bias, employees can work toward mitigating its impact, maximizing individual potential, and enhancing organizational performance. Understanding Unconscious Bias We all have unconscious biases that may cause us to react to obvious physical characteristics like race, gender, ethnicity, or age, as well as more subtle ones like personality and life experience. Bias can also exist in a positive sense. We may favor our family, community, and people
with whom we share characteristics or experiences. While there is no obvious intent to exclude or include particular individuals or groups, we all have hidden preferences that can impact the workplace. Understanding and managing these preferences will increase diversity of thought among RBC employees, which will open the way to greater inclusion. Eliminating Bias and Barriers As a global employer, RBC has an opportunity to create a deeper awareness of unconscious bias. While many companies have made great strides in advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace, progress has lagged in some areas, including the advancement of women and minorities in boardrooms and in leadership positions. Unconscious bias should be considered as a possible underlying reason for this. Throughout 2013, RBC will continue working with its managers to develop inclusive leadership skills,
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Reed Smith’s Five-Year Diversity Plan Reed Smith is focused on enhancing its already robust efforts to ensure inclusion and diversity across an expansive global platform, including the creation of a new strategic plan that will guide its work for the next five years. The objectives of this plan include maximizing and extending the significant diversity we have already achieved on three continents, as well as ensuring that the firm’s diverse talent is uniformly afforded every opportunity for professional and business development. Improving and expanding Reed Smith’s diversity and inclusion initiatives—such as the Women’s Initiative Network (WINRS) and Diverse Scholars Program, as well as the firm’s strong support of minority and other specially focused bar associations and programs critical to the development of minorities, women, LGBT, and disabled lawyers—will continue to be a top priority. Diversity on a Worldwide Platform The coming year offers an exciting opportunity to leverage Reed Smith’s existing diversity initiatives to achieve a
which will result in behavioral changes and accountabilities related to hiring and retaining more diverse employees. The company will leverage its diversity network of Employee Resource Groups, councils, and champions in more innovative ways so that they serve as formidable platforms for creativity and engagement. Because of the varied geographic locations of its employees, RBC will make greater use of online tools to help educate, reinforce, and communicate best practices related to diversity and inclusion, including information regarding unconscious bias. The company’s goal will be to have an enterprise-wide understanding of unconscious bias to help ensure that organizational structures fully and measurably reflect diversity and inclusion. PDJ
firm-wide, culturally competent work environment across a legal practice platform that spans the rich and divergent cultures of the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm’s next challenge is to continue developing current personnel and recruiting new talent that will provide excellent client service while enhancing workplace diversity. Reed Smith is committed to translating its goals of adding value, achieving excellence, and promoting the professional development of the firm’s people into existing diversity and inclusion programs, as well as developing new programs and initiatives around the world to meet the needs of its diverse clients. Addressing the Need to Advance Diverse Talent In an extremely competitive talent market, Reed Smith actively seeks out diverse talent and provides business development and mentoring supports to ensure that valuable talent remains with the firm. Simultaneously, the firm is committed to addressing the industry-wide need to advance more diverse individuals to equity partnership, an outcome that is particularly challenging in today’s very competitive legal-talent market. Despite those challenges, Reed Smith is focused on ensuring a clear pathway to leadership for everyone by developing, nurturing, sustaining, and advancing diverse talent in every office worldwide. PDJ
November/December 2013
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