Workplace Opportunities: Removing Barriers to Equity
Federation of Black Canadians in partnership with the Royal Bank of Canada, Wealth Simple and the University of Toronto.
Funded by the Government of Canada.
In 2021, FBC submitted a project proposal to conduct research that would aid in the reduction of barriers to employment in federally regulated work places as part of the Workplace Opportunities: Removing Barriers to Equity (WORBE) program launched in 2014 by the Government of Canada.
FBC’s project focused on federally regulated employers in the financial sector.
The project had 3 main objectives:
Create an online toolkit that shares best practice polices, testimonials, and statistics about workplace diversity with employers in the finance sector.
Develop an ongoing digital campaign that highlights the various issues and opportunities surrounding employment barriers to create awareness.
Hold three national forums to engage members of the Black community and leaders in federally regulated financial institutions.
The Federation of Black Canadians (FBC), funded by the Government of Canada partnered with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and the University of Toronto (UofT) to increase the representation of members of the Black community in all levels of employment in the banking and financial sectors by showcasing the barriers present within federally regulated financial institutions. This project worked with employers to showcase current and future employment opportunities for Black based audiences to support community awareness.
Overview
The project increased understanding among finance industry stakeholders through online and group discussions, focus groups, surveys, and infographic tools. Over 400 Canadians and 25 financial employers were engaged in this project.
Three national events were held with over were 150 people directly attending across events.
The online digital campaign successfully reached over 30,000 across our social media channels, including, Instagram and Facebook. The campaign generated over 5,000 views on TikTok, over 51,000 impressions on Twitter and over 3,000 unique impressions on LinkedIn.
A digital tool kit has been created for to support educating the public.
We engaged over 400 Canadians companies to engage them in our conversations, listen and hear about the barriers from people with lived experience and listen to their recommendations, tips, stories, and feedback on ways to brake down barriers.
FBC used quantitative methods, qualitative methods and literature reviews to gather data for this project. By the end of the project, FBC was able to construct a list of recommendations for employers in the finance industry and create an online toolkit showing research results to continue the dialogue started.