To avoid them, adds the director, Scotiabank opted for the use of blind resumes to ensure that the documents do not show any personal characteristics. At the same time, this allows focusing on the knowledge, skills and experiences of each applicant.
In the selection processes, neither Botero nor his team usually ask personal questionsso that sexual orientation, gender identity and expression are not factors that influence hiring.
“What we seek is to foster an inclusive environment. We give sessions on what is sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. We also have a pronoun usage guide and a group of employee resources called Scotiabank Pride Mexico to permeate the development of talent and adaptation to the business”, he mentions.
Expansion (E): What kind of benefits or benefits are you offering to workers who are part of the LGBTQ+ community?
Maria Isabel Botero (MIB): At Scotiabank, all benefits and benefits are equal; however, we focus communication to our community on one site at Scotia Academy, that is, training and education on issues of diversity and inclusion. We provide major medical expenses policy for same-sex couples, permits and leave for adoption, maternity and paternity, work permits for marriage or sick care, emotional, financial or legal guidance service, legal process of same-sex marriage, for adoption in homoparental families, the procedure for the homologation of data from official documents, for the recognition of gender identity, information on institutions and associations focused on sexual diversity and gender identity and bibliographic information regarding issues of the LGBTQ+ community.
E: Have you ever had cases of discrimination? How did they solve it?
MY B: Part of our Diversity and Inclusion strategy is “zero tolerance for discrimination”. For this reason, we disseminate the different complaint channels that exist. We also carry out prevention campaigns and the Staff Relations area manages detailed investigation mechanisms and processes in the event of situations of discrimination.
Action has been taken from awareness talks informing people preventively to Disassociation of people who generate discrimination.
I: Do you have clear policies or codes of conduct that are disclosed from the start-up process? boarding? How do they do that?
MY B: In the induction we present the Diversity and Inclusion strategy. We also invite them to participate in the Employee Resource Groups, additionally they have to pass several compliance courses, among them, the conduct guidelines, where the diversity strategy is mentioned and a specific course on safety and inclusion at work.
E: How do the company’s inclusion strategies impact the rate of engagement towards the organization, in productivity and in its turnover?
MY B: We strive to create an inclusive culture where every employee is supported to reach their full potential, all people are respected for who they are, and differences and similarities are accepted.
The commitment is constant. Our employees value the culture of an inclusive workplace, so much so that in our Scotia Pulse tool (employee satisfaction survey), we reached 96% engagement.
We monitor the people who belong to the employee resource group of Scotiabank Pride Mexico and their performance is on average between good and outstanding, that is, they feel safe to be able to show their talent and fully develop. The voluntary turnover rate of this group is barely 1%.