We are honoured to be recognized with an Employment Equity Achievement Award for Innovation from Employment and Social Development Canada. The Innovation award recognizes employers who have been innovative and creative in the implementation of employment equity programs.

This was the third year of the awards, which were held in Ottawa this past week, and the third year in a row for ATCO Structures & Logistics to be recognized. From “Improved Representation” in 2016 and “Outstanding Commitment” in 2017 to this year’s “Innovation” award, each has shown a progression in the way our organization thinks.

As a business, we asked ourselves “What can we do collectively to promote diversity?”  Diverse organizations perform better, see more innovation, creativity and promote higher quality decisions that lead to economic growth.

This question led to the creation of our Employment Equity Advisory Committee (EEAC), with a mandate of fostering a shared culture of respect for diversity by understanding our company’s needs for increased equity and inclusion for women, persons with disabilities, Indigenous and visible minorities.

We’ve taken an innovative approach to promote diversity and inclusion across our company, including fun and engaging events, and establishing actionable best practices around encouraging safe and open dialogue and educating on unconscious bias.

Our EEAC chair, Golden Bhatia, along with HR Business Partner, Jennifer Stinson, were in Ottawa to accept the award. Golden was also part of the panel discussion, sharing some of our employment equity initiatives.

It’s a proud moment for our company and all our employees who are committed to championing employee equity in our workplace.