Manulife commits to enhancing diversity of its leadership, workforce
TORONTO Manulife Financial Corp. has committed to boost representation in leadership roles of Black, Indigenous and people of colour by 30 per cent over the next five years across its North American insurance and asset management operations.
“We recognize how important it is to improve the diversity of our organization at all levels,” Roy Gori, Manulife’s chief executive, said in a statement Friday. “Establishing goals not only demonstrates our commitment to this important work, it will help us build a more inclusive culture to drive innovation and enable us to better serve our customers.”
Manulife did not provide figures on the diversity of its current leadership roster in Friday’s statement.
Among its itemized leadership and recruitment goals, the Toronto-based company pledged to hire
“at least 25 per cent BIPOC talent” annually in its graduate program to further diversify its workforce, and said it has signed the Blacknorth Initiative’s CEO Pledge in Canada, as well as the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion pledge in the United States.
The firm’s operations include Boston-based asset manager John Hancock.
Manulife last month announced it would invest more than $3.5 million over the next two years “to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace” and the communities where it does business.
“The goal of these focused investments is three-fold: to increase the representation of diverse talent at all levels in the organization; to create greater inclusion across the company through enhanced training; and to support organizations helping BIPOC communities,” the company said on Friday.
A number of companies across
North America have pledged to increase employee representation by visible minorities, particularly in leadership roles, since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May led to widespread protests over systemic racism that have reached far beyond treatment by police.
Earlier this month, Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s biggest lender, committed $150 million to racial diversity initiatives, and set a 30-per-cent target for increased representation by minorities within its executive ranks.