Within Myself
Increase my awareness of diversity and inclusion
Performance Criteria
- I can manage my own development.
- I proactively seek feedback.
- I’m open to constructive feedback.
- I reflect on my performance with the goal of self-development.
- I recognize my biases and how they impact on my behaviour.
- I can change or adapt my behaviour to develop myself.
Definitions – what the terms used in this competency mean
- Feedback: in an ongoing, informal, or formal context e.g. during assessments. You can use this competency inside and outside the workplace g. in feedback from colleagues (360 degrees), clients, or from your personal network and influencers.
- Behaviours: including performance on diversity and inclusion
Required knowledge
- Self-Awareness of values, beliefs, cultural conventions and language use, barriers, enablers
- Reflective practice: the ability to reflect on your actions to continuously learn
- Feedback: effective ways of obtaining feedback, feedback styles, barriers, enablers.
- Emotional intelligence, understanding of behaviour change
- Stereotypes, prejudice, bias: techniques to challenge assumptions about others, ways to minimize stereotyping, how become aware of your biases, evidence-based decision-making
- Organizational culture.
Example(s) – what might this look like in practice?
- Becoming aware that your team is less diverse than others in the organization.
- Recognizing that your post-secondary credentials affect your appreciation of some colleagues with college diplomas and work experience.
- You take the last 10 minutes in a day to reflect on one interaction that could have been more positive and come up with other ways of responding.
- After working through an issue with a difficult client for the first time, you ask your supervisor for feedback on your performance.
- Becoming aware of your unconscious assumptions and preferences.
Advocate for diverse perspectives
Performance Criteria
- I can be curious and open.
- I seek to understand and respect there will be differences between my perspective and the perspective of others.
- I can identify when others share my perspective.
- I use active listening methods.
- I use language that does not exclude.
- I engage with the diverse people in my environment.
Definitions – what the terms used in this competency mean
- Perspectives: opinions, cultures, experiences, beliefs, ability, age, gender, roles, friends, affinity groups
- Advocacy: behaviour within the workplace should align with organizational values and be in accordance with local legislation (e.g. safety, protected grounds)
- Language: verbal, non-verbal (cues, free from words, phrases) and that reflect stereotypical or discriminatory views of people or groups, whether deliberately or inadvertently
Underpinning knowledge – what do people need to know to be able to demonstrate this competency?
- Communication:
- The role of context in communications.
- Language that can avoid people feeling excluded.
- Examples of language that commonly excludes people and why it does this.
- Techniques and strategies that help supressed differences to become clear.
- Barriers and enablers to openness.
- Active listening techniques.
- Methods of inquiry, appreciative inquiry techniques.
- Emotional intelligence.
- Stereotypes, prejudice, bias.
- Organizational culture.
- Applicable legislation.
Example(s) – what might this look like in practice?
- You overcome your impatience during long drawn out debates in the team, and you learn to recognize their value.
- You read recent research findings on the achievements of diverse teams.
- You ask HR for help to adapt your interviewing style to attract more diverse applicants for your team.
Adjust and adapt communication styles to be effective in a diverse workplace
Performance Criteria
- I recognize the impact of communication on different people.
- I consider how different perspectives, situations and contexts affect meaning and messaging.
- I can anticipate, plan for and deal with ambiguous and confusing situations.
- I demonstrate respect for diversity in communication with all people.
- I select the appropriate communication method for the person/people I’m communicating with.
Definitions – what the terms used in this competency mean
- Communication: formal (e.g. meetings), informal (e.g. social event, breaks, kitchen), spoken (e.g. face to face, phone, virtual), written (e.g. email, chat), body language, space and how we use it, facial expressions, appearance, voice, touch, speed, tone, volume
- Perspectives: opinions, cultures, language, ability, age, gender, roles, experiences, beliefs, friends, affinity groups
Required knowledge
- Basic differences in communication styles
- Barriers to effective communications (e.g. impact of culture, age, gender, stereotypes etc on communication)
- Strategies to overcome communication barriers
- Impact of cultural values on communication (e.g. low context / high context, direct/indirect, collectivist/individualist, hierarchy/equality)
- How to identify unwritten rules, ways of doing things, norms, organizational culture (specific to organization)
- Ways of adapting to different communication styles
- Mindfulness: definition and impact
Example(s) – what might this look like in practice?
- You observe that a member of your team has misunderstood the intent and meaning of a colleague’s comment. You use active listening and paraphrasing to further explore the comment with both parties, acknowledging that cultural differences might be a factor.
- Recognizing that you manage a diverse team with diverse perspectives, you understand that you need to play a stronger facilitative role during meetings, encouraging team members to have patience for others’ perspectives.
- Knowing that the participants in an upcoming meeting will have diverse perspectives based on their backgrounds, you plan an agenda that allows more time for exploration and mutual understanding of views.
- You recognize that your direct communication style is offensive and sometimes misunderstood by your colleagues. In which case, you seek out the colleague and attempt to clarify when the situation allows.
Model inclusive behaviour
Performance Criteria
- I value diversity.
- I acknowledge my biases.
- I identify opportunities to demonstrate inclusive behavior.
- I demonstrate inclusive behaviour consistently.
- I anticipate, plan for and deal with ambiguous and confusing situations.
Required knowledge
- Techniques to dispel common myths, perceptions and stereotypes about people, diversity and inclusion
- Group work
Example(s) – what might this look like in practice?
- An employee who has just joined an organization finds that it is not as inclusive as her previous workplace. She decides and expresses her intent to create a diverse network of new colleagues.
- A project manager intentionally creates a heterogeneous team to solve a longstanding operational challenge.
- In an executive leadership meeting, you challenge a comment that is intended to be humorous but which reflects a common stereotype.
Within My Team
Contribute to inclusive workplace relationships
Performance Criteria – in my team, I…
- Can identify shared perspectives.
- Challenge assumptions about myself or others.
- Engage with people and respond flexibly and positively in diverse groups.
- Apply knowledge and self-awareness to deal effectively with the diversity-related dimensions of ambiguous situations.
- Try to understand alternative perspectives.
- Address micro-inequities that I observe
- Take action within the team to mitigate the impact of systemic inequities.
- Use a variety of strategies to develop trust amongst the team.
- Provide support to colleagues and team members on how to work effectively in a diverse team.
Definitions – what the terms used in this competency mean
- Perspectives: opinions, cultures, experiences, beliefs, ability, age, gender, roles, networks
- Assumptions: stereotypes, prejudice, biases, conscious or unconscious attitudes
- Support: coaching, mentoring, training, feedback, recognition, commitment, information, resources, tools
Required knowledge
- Techniques for helping others to adapt their behaviour.
- Effective practices for interacting with others within a diverse group.
- The elements of Describe-Analyze-Evaluate.
- For each of these issues:
- Stereotypes, assumptions, prejudice, and biases
- Micro-inequities
- Systemic inequities
You need to know
- What they are
- Common examples
- Causes and contributing factors (societal dynamics, power, neuroscience, etc.)
- How they impact within the workplace
- How to recognize them (signs and indicators)
- How to address them
Example(s) – what might this look like in practice?
- You seek out a colleague with whom you have recently had an argument discussing how to fix a product issue, in order to better understand why you are so at odds and make sure your relationship has not been damaged.
- You suggest arranging the quarterly team retreat so the team member from out of town can also participate.
Collaborate in diverse teams to foster productive outcomes
Performance Criteria – in my team, I…
- Communicate in ways that can be understood by all members of the team.
- Manage time to enable engagement and inclusion by all members of the team.
- Continuously seek input from team members, recognizing and respecting their different perspectives and motivations.
- Leverage the strengths and innovative ideas of the diverse team members.
- Acknowledge contributions of others in an appropriate way.
- Explicitly acknowledge and manage the dynamics of a diverse team.
- Encourage productive and collaborative team behaviours and processes.
- Assume shared responsibility for the effectiveness of the team and contribute our own perspectives and ideas to our work.
Definitions – what the terms used in this competency mean
- Diverse: (protected grounds under applicable human rights legislation) race, colour, ancestry, creed (religion), place of origin, ethnic origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, breastfeeding), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status, disability, record of offences.
- Diverse: (other dimensions of diversity) education, work experience, work style, personal habits, management status, work location, job title.
Required knowledge
- The potential performance advantages of diverse teams
- Different communication styles
- Dimensions of diversity that can affect teamwork, including cultural differences, gender differences, personality styles, generational differences
- Group facilitation techniques
- Team management / leadership principles
- Working knowledge of colleagues’ and team members’ preferences, styles, etc.
Example(s) – what might this look like in practice?
- A supervisor supports her diverse team discussing their preferences and then agreeing on the best approach to team knowledge sharing.
- A manager encourages her team members to contribute in discussions and meetings
- A junior team member challenges their superior because they are concerned a decision or instruction is wrong and potentially dangerous.
Manage issues within diverse groups
Performance Criteria – in my team, I…
- Identify any diversity-related issues in advance and take action to mitigate their impact.
- Collaborate with colleagues and team members to establish group norms that will prevent or minimize issues.
- Analyze any issues that occur, considering the impact of dimensions of diversity and our personal assumptions.
- Am alert to verbal and non-verbal communication that might signal diversity-related issues.
- Where issues occur, I take appropriate action to de-escalate and resolve them, seeking assistance if needed.
Definitions – what the terms used in this competency mean
- Issues: tension, difficulties, misunderstanding, failures of communication, assumptions, inequities, micro-inequities, micro-aggression, conflict.
- Dimensions of diversity:
- Diverse: (protected grounds under applicable human rights legislation) race, colour, ancestry, creed (religion), place of origin, ethnic origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, breastfeeding), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status, disability, record of offences.
- Diverse: (other dimensions of diversity) personality, education, work experience, work style, personal habits, management status, work location, job title.
- Assumptions: stereotypes, prejudice, biases, conscious or unconscious attitudes.
Required knowledge
- Sources of potential conflict; differences that may cause misunderstandings or other difficulties
- Specific sources of conflict between specific groups
- The elements of Describe-Analyze-Evaluate
- Conflict resolution styles
- Conflict resolution techniques
Example(s) – what might this look like in practice?
- A manager helps their direct report to respond without recrimination to any challenges to their authority.
- When developing a project plan, a team member suggests the group considers the events and holy days of different religions in the work schedule.
- You watch for micro-inequities and coach affected individuals on how to address them.
Assess performance and capabilities in an inclusive way
Performance Criteria – in my team, I…
- Use a strength-based approach to capability assessment.
- Am explicit about the assessment criteria.
- Question assumptions about job and task requirements, qualifications, need to conform to norms, and “potential”.
- Collect evidence for assessment in appropriate ways.
- Avoid bias in assessing the performance and capabilities of others.
- Provide feedback on performance and capability in an appropriate way.
- Recognize that individuals can gain and demonstrate knowledge and skills in a variety of ways.
- Demonstrate open and positive curiosity about people’s skills and capabilities.
- Invite others to share their knowledge and experience with the team.
Definitions – what the terms used in this competency mean
- Assessment: formal, informal, diagnostic, formative, summative
- Feedback: formal, informal, verbal, written
- Appropriate ways: appropriate to the assessment criteria, and to the individual’s culture, personality, understanding, ability to express, objectives, career history, expertise
- Others: direct reports, peers, supervisors, managers, clients, suppliers
- Individual: team member, colleague and peer, candidate, applicant
- Evidence: work samples, witness testimony (from colleagues, supervisors, customers, suppliers), video of you performing
Required knowledge
- Assessment criteria
- Giving feedback
- Biases:
- Common biases related to dimensions of diversity
- Common cognitive biases that affect decision-making (e.g. confirmation bias)
- How to identify one’s own biases
- Assessment tools and methods
- Foreign credential recognition resources and tools
- Objective knowledge of the role / task (e.g. required qualifications vs. nice to have)
Example(s) – what might this look like in practice?
- In an upward feedback process, you provide specific behavioral examples of situations when your manager’s actions did not feel inclusive.
- In a meeting to review employee potential and performance, the HR advisor challenges underlying assumptions about “appropriate style” of people with leadership potential.
- To uncover your own personal biases, you review the candidates for promotion with your HR Advisor, specifically asking him to challenge your choices.
- A supervisor asks a colleague to provide an additional perspective on a recent incident to avoid a misunderstanding due to cultural differences.
Support learning and development
Performance Criteria – in my team, I…
- Provide ongoing feedback in appropriate ways.
- Identify potential gaps in each others’ knowledge or performance.
- Encourage others to learn and develop and seek appropriate support.
- Facilitate equal access to opportunities, information, resources and other supports.
- Provide learning opportunities and other formal or informal support in a form and style that suit the person’s and the workplace requirements.
- Conduct candid and constructive discussions about potentially sensitive differences between a person’s behaviour and workplace culture and norms.
- Provide opportunities for people to learn and practise new knowledge and skills, and to help other people to learn.
- Encourage people to both seek and provide challenges and opportunities for learning and development.
- Provide a safe learning environment by minimizing the probability, stigma and effects of possible failure.
- Seek opportunities to leverage people’s strengths to support others’ learning and development.
Definitions – what the terms used in this competency mean
- Person/people: team members, colleagues and peers, supervisors, managers, clients, suppliers.
- Feedback: formal, informal, verbal, written.
- Appropriate ways: appropriate to the learning required, and to the individual’s culture, personality, understanding, ability to express, objectives, career history, expertise
- Support: feedback, learning opportunities, information, resources, time, encouragement, recognition.
- Learning opportunities: training, coaching, mentoring, access to learning materials, safe environment in which to practise new behaviours, new challenges, tasks, experiences and responsibilities, stretch assignment.
Required knowledge
- Methods for giving and receiving constructive feedback.
- Information and resources that are available to support learning.
- The organization’s culture.
- Diversity dimensions that affect the process of learning and development.
- The strengths of colleagues and team members.
- Development methods.
- Effect of possible failure on a member of an under-represented group.
Example(s) – what might this look like in practice?
- As an older employee, you ask a younger employee to support you to better understand social media opportunities. At the same time you provide them with insights based on your years of experience with customers.
- You respectfully help a supervisor who is a newcomer to Canada to understand that his culture’s focus on empathy and sharing personal information about team members medical issues is in conflict with privacy laws and how those are practiced in the organization.
- To ensure equal access to opportunities, you reach out to employees who are uncomfortable with the expectation or need to be self-promoting.
Within My Organization, Workplace and Community
Foster, promote, support and drive inclusion in my organization
Performance Criteria – in my organization, I…
- Recognize the shared interests and values of those in the workplace and community.
- Promote practices that leverage diversity in the workplace and community.
- Attract, recruit, on-board and promote diverse talent using bias-aware and inclusive practices.
- Provide opportunities for full participation, development and advancement to all employees and stakeholders.
- Develop and use D&I KPIs to track the organization’s progress with D&I.
- Build teams that reflect and leverage the diversity and inclusion in the organization.
- Encourage organization members to develop empathy and respect for everyone.
- Use a variety of D&I strategies to support diverse team and community members.
- Help the organization to understand the business case for D&I.
- Advocate for diverse perspectives that reflect the diversity of the organization.
- Consistently demonstrate integrity and credibility, and build trust through inclusive behaviour.
Definitions – what the terms used in this competency mean
- Stakeholders: relevant community members, shareholders, owners, subcontractors, customers/clients, suppliers
Required knowledge
- The business Case for diversity and inclusion.
- D&I strategies to support diverse team and community members.
- Bias-aware and inclusive practices.
- Inclusive behavioural expectations
Example – what might this look like in practice?
- Recognizing the lack of women represented in senior executive levels, the HR leader brings together the executive team in a workshop to redefine the criteria for ‘high potential’ to reflect how people might get results differently.
- You review the employee engagement survey questions and identify questions that can measure characteristics of an inclusive environment, align these metrics with the D&I objectives of the organization and start tracking these metrics over time to demonstrate improvements.
- You review the recruitment process in your organization, identifying those process steps that allow biases to unintentionally contribute to lack of diversity in your workforce.
- You contribute an article to the department blog that shares your personal perspective of the importance of reaching out to include a group of new refugees who have recently been hired by the organization.
Achieve results through diversity and inclusion best practices
Performance Criteria – within my organization, I…
- Leverage diversity to innovate.
- Provide guidance and support that recognizes and accommodates diverse team member styles and aligns with organizational and community requirements.
- Collect evidence and report on progress towards achieving agreed upon D&I expectations and goals.
- Recognize and negotiate necessary changes to drive inclusive behaviour, expectations and outcomes.
- Use a wide range of employee engagement, feedback and recommendation mechanisms.
- Consider diverse client needs and identify new markets, products and services.
- Recognize and act on opportunities for diversifying external relationships.
- Support goal setting to promote and implement D&I.
Definitions – what the terms used in this competency mean
- Feedback: informal, formal, diagnostic, formative, summative.
- Diversifying external relationships: suppliers, customers, community partners.
Required knowledge
- How the organization’s D&I strategy or activities, policies and KPIs support the organizational strategy.
- The business case for diversity and inclusion.
- D&I best practices.
Example(s) – what might this look like in practice?
- You collaborate with your company’s Asian employee network to pilot a new product that is designed for the local community that is predominantly of South-East Asian background.
- As a senior manager, you ask your direct reports to capture and submit examples of inclusive behaviours and the positive impact on clients.
- A senior manager recognizes that the group of team leaders in the department is very homogeneous, so she sets a goal of having more diverse short lists for promotion and requests this for future lists provided by her HR advisor.
- The Director of Patient Care realizes that the current make-up of the care staff is no longer representative of the local population demographics. He creates a plan to ensure that the health care services can be provided in a culturally responsive manner.
Respond to inappropriate and non-inclusive behaviour
Performance Criteria – within my organization, I…
- Recognize incidents of inappropriate or non-inclusive behaviour.
- Act in accordance with my role or organization’s policy:
- Act proactively to defuse or prevent potential Issues.
- Address unspoken tensions or negative feelings.
- Hold people accountable for their behaviour and its potential consequences.
- Address issues in a sustainable way.
- Encourage, support, include and protect people.
- Report incidents in accordance with organization policy, rules, regulations and laws.
Definitions – what the terms used in this competency mean
- Inappropriate behaviour: discrimination, bias, harassment, unfairness.
- Non-inclusive behaviour: use of words, humour, gestures, other acts or omissions that cause offence.
- People: colleagues, employees, superiors, subcontractors, customers/clients, suppliers.
Applies to behaviour relating to:
- Protected grounds under applicable human rights legislation e.g. race, colour, ancestry, creed (religion), place of origin, ethnic origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, breastfeeding), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status, disability, record of offences
- Other dimensions of diversity: education, work experience, work style, personal habits, management status, work location, job title
Required knowledge
- Relevant requirements under Protected Grounds under Human Rights and other legislation for your jurisdiction.
- Concepts of discrimination, bias, harassment, equity/equality.
- Concept of overlapping or intersection social identities.
- The impact of subtle bias in the workplace and community.
- Dimensions of diversity.
- Your organization’s policies, rules and regulations and your responsibilities.
- Common instances of inappropriate and non-inclusive actions and typical responses to them.
- Strategies for addressing discrimination, (subtle) bias, harassment, micro-aggressions.
- Sources of information and support.
- Systemic barriers and micro-inequities and how to address them.
- Inclusive behavioural expectations
Example(s) – what might this look like in practice?
- You make it clear to a colleague that it is not acceptable to use racist or sexist language or jokes.
- You collaborate with others on an awareness campaign about racist or sexist language and jokes.
- You create a network of colleagues who agree to “stand up” and challenge racist or sexist language or jokes.
- You formally reflect your concerns about your employee’s racist comments in their performance appraisal.
- You express your concerns about a colleague’s sexist behaviour when discussing advancement opportunities.
Influence others to promote, embrace, and progress diversity and inclusion
Performance Criteria – within my organization, I…
- Act as a role model for inclusive behaviour.
- Consistently demonstrate integrity and credibility and build trust through inclusive behaviour.
- Share ideas and goals on diversity and inclusion practices and approaches.
- Give active and visible support to organizational, stakeholder and community diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Required knowledge
- Expectations of inclusive behaviour.
- Diversity and inclusion characteristics of organization, community and stakeholders.
- Purposeful diversity and inclusion practices.
Example(s) – what might this look like in practice?
- As a busy senior leader, you make time to attend and actively participate meetings of your organization’s Employee Resource Groups.
- You make “support for diversity and inclusion” a significant criterion for promotion decisions within your organization.
- As a leader, you intentionally use storytelling as a technique to foster culture change and demonstrate commitment to creating a more inclusive workplace.
- An employee volunteers their own time to contribute to a task force and D&I events.
Collaborate on and contribute to organizational and community diversity and inclusion efforts
Performance Criteria – within my organization, I…
- Am willing to share my own diversity and inclusion perspectives, interests and needs.
- Participate in open and constructive discussions of differences, such as others’ perspectives, interests and needs.
- Actively contribute constructive ideas and suggestions to build an inclusive workplace.
- Demonstrate support for inclusive practices and decisions; challenge cynicism or myths expressed by others.
- Encourage others to be active participants to effectively shape and progress organizational, community and stakeholders’ diversity and inclusion efforts.
- Monitor and effectively act on indicators of the current level of inclusion in the organization and community.
Definitions – what the terms used in this competency mean
- Indicators of inclusion: informal (colleague comments), observational (behaviours representation, etc.), formal (conduct surveys, interviews, focus groups, benchmarks).
- Stakeholders: relevant community members, shareholders, owners, subcontractors, customers/clients, suppliers.
Required knowledge
- Inclusive behavioural expectations
- Inclusive best practices
- Relevant initiatives
Example(s) – what might this look like in practice?
- You take part in surveys, town hall sessions, dialogues conducted by the organization.
- Informal conversations about specific decisions (such as accommodations, promotion decisions) take place on a regular basis within the organization.
- You actively take part in a task force or designated group with a mandate to address inclusion issues.
- You lead a work group or organizational D&I efforts, as appropriate for role of managers, senior leaders, champions, HR and/or D&I practitioners.
Carry out “The Duty to Accommodate” diverse needs
Performance Criteria – within my organization, I…
- Am aware and keep up-to-date with relevant accommodation knowledge, legislation and policies.
- Identify potential systemic barriers present in the work environment.
- Request accommodation for own needs (if relevant).
- Contribute ideas for work practices and spaces, and design them considering everyone’s needs.
- Consult with those who require accommodation to determine their needs.
- Explore whether people encounter barriers and encourage appropriate requests for accommodation.
- Respond positively to accommodations that are implemented in the workplace (without stigma or complaint).
- Respond supportively to others’ requests for accommodation (without reprisal).
- Protect privacy and confidentiality according to privacy legislation.
- Identify potential steps to eliminate systemic barriers.
- Provide knowledge and support to colleagues and stakeholders as appropriate, so they can support accommodation.
- Follow up to assess the effectiveness and impact of the accommodation on individual and workplace, and adapt as needed.
Definitions – what the terms used in this competency mean
- Barriers: policies, rules, procedures, practices that have a negative impact on people’s needs that are based on Protected Grounds (e.g. creed (religion), sex (including pregnancy, breastfeeding), age, disability, etc.)
- People: colleagues, employees, subcontractors, customers/clients, suppliers.
- Impact: effectiveness, physical, socio-cultural, financial, convenience, efficiency.
Required knowledge
- Relevant requirements under Protected Grounds under Human Rights and other legislation for your jurisdiction (for example AODA or equivalent local legislation).
- Your organization’s policies and HR procedures.
- Relevant common requests for accommodation.
- Good practice in developing win-win solutions when accommodating diverse needs.
- Sources of advice, support and training.
- Inclusive behavioural expectations.
Example(s) – what might this look like in practice?
- You point out to the Facilities group that the plans for new furnishings will create difficulties for people who have mobility challenges.
- When your team is joined by a team member with limited English skills, you explore options for translation support while he or she learns the relevant work terms.