Workforce diversity in royal bank of canada

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CSGB 6101

Human Capital Management

Personal written assignment

Work Force Diversification in Royal Bank of Canada

Lecturer: Dr. Mohammad Nazri Bin Mohd. Nor

By: Payam Nasehi

CGA120079

Email address: [email protected] , [email protected]

Contact No: 014-9686030

May 2014

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Table of Content: page

Company Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………3

Work force diversification in RBC…………………………………………………………………………………4

Desired behavior at a glance………………………………………………………………………………………..9

Understand and values diversity…………………………………………………………………………………..9

Promotes implementing and integration diversity…………………………………………………….. 10

Demonstrates cultural diversity………………………………………………………………………………….11

Develops, Mentors and coaches others………………………………………………………………………12

RBC Reward on 2014..…………………………………………………………………………………………………15

Quick glimpse to banking industrial in Canada from diversity approach……………………..16

Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………16

Appendix ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………17

References………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….18

List of Tables

Table 1: Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………….3

Table 2: RBC’s news ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..4

Table 3: Integrated model for diversity and inclusion……………………………………………….5-6

Table 4: statistic and RBC plans for immigrants and US market………………………………...6-7

Table 5: RBC plans for diverse………………………………………………………………………………………7

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Company Introduction:

Royal bank of Canada founded on 1864 in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada. This bank

known as RBC in Canada and its shares registered on two stock markets: TSX (Toronto

Stock Exchange) and NYSE (New York Stock Exchange). RYC is the biggest bank in Canada

by revenue and market capitalization by The Globe and Mail and gained 53 on Forbs 2000

listing on 2008 and currently gain 50 in 2013 this company operate in Canada and 46

countries . This company has 1209 branches in Canada, they provide services to around

15 million people as individuals, business, public sectors and institutional clients.

Furthermore they have 439 retail banking subsidiary in 6 northern states of USA that

serves to more than one million customers further more they also have 127 branches in

the Caribbean which serve to 1.6 million customers. RBC Royal Bank has carved out a

name for itself as a leader in the Caribbean region, especially in the Anglophone

Caribbean.

Table 1: Introduction

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Refer to below table, RBC gained highest amount of awards and top diversify company

title in its life in workforce diversity, what is going on in this company? , Which

organizational culture push RBC to respect to diversity and classified diversity as a

valuable asset? This paper explain race diversity in Canada, RBC statistic about workforce

diversification and its plans and culture, Step by step guide line distributed by RBC

among employees to know, how to handle workforce diversity in working place.

Work force diversification in RBC:

Actually it is better to explain about race diversification in Canada at first to show that

how much this issue is important for RBC. Canada is a country that warmly welcome to

capable immigrants from all over the world to provide expert workforce for progress and

accumulate welfare for local and immigrants as well, obviously it is clear when we

measure a Canadian company in workforce ethnicity diversification we should expect

multi race organizational environment, moreover it is so important to motivate all of

them to follow the organizational culture and do their best to achieve the goals. On the

other hand each race and nationality has specific values and norms which this cause to

different behavior and different motivation factors. These diversifications can have

positive and negative effects on every organization, they are useful during people

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management, organizational performance and strategic management. Manager can use

ethnic diversity to achieve better employees talent, enhance team work quality and

attract and improve people with different races, moreover in organization performance

these approach will cause to less cost on turnover and absence, improve problem solving

ability of organization and provide higher flexibility. In strategic management ethnicity

diversification enhance organization flexibility for different races, increase the market

share and known as a competitive advantages. More info is available in appendix part

about different ethnics in Canada. It is necessary to mention Canadian rules completely

prohibited raciest treatments with different races and there are equal opportunities for

all the citizens in Canada.

As a matter of fact Diversity is one of RBC’s five corporate values — that is, “diversity for

growth and innovation.” RBC provide services in all the North America and 45 countries

so neglecting race diversity will provide serious dilemma for the company however in

other countries they have combinations of local and Canadian staffs. Moreover this

company has an schedule from 2012 to 2015 which increase the number of women and

minorities in leadership, provide services for different suppliers in North America and

support social development and economic through leadership in research, strategic

partnership and donation and sponsorship. RBC believes that the main role belongs to

senior manager and employees involve as well and company has to provide training and

tools to manipulate diversity in the company moreover RBC believes that it is essential

for company to deeply explain the importance of diversity for its stakeholders.

Table 3: Integrated model for diversity and inclusion

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Glimpse to RBC formal statistic shows their progress workforce diversify on 2013.

Table 4: statistic and RBC plans for immigrants and US market

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Table 5: RBC plans for diverse

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In this way all the employees of RBC groups have to demonstrate high level of

competence by doing well in general work skills and they must have enough level of

competencies and effectiveness in their positions. RBC provide a training course for all

the new employees and it’s called: ‘Diversity behaviors: What we can do’. They believe

that attending in this training course will improve the employee’s behavior in different

circumstances in communication with customers. RBC believes that changing business

environment is quickest than before and having diversity in workforce is right and smart

plan for the company. Meantime financial sectors face to many changes annually like

improvements in technologies, telecommunication and their effects to have a cheaper

and quicker contacts between every part of the world and this progress break the

boarders indeed. So refer to last sentences in these days organizations affected by

different values and demographics norms. Then organizations can survive by managing

the changes and be a leader in this changes. The exist diversity in current multinational

companies let them to find the market opportunities sooner than other rivals and

improve their assessing throw that opportunities and finally reduce the risk for them.

Workforce diversification encourage employees to improve their innovation and skills.

On the other hand it shows that employees are valued in the organizations and their

needs understood correct and quickly. Companies should not confine themselves in one

particular structure for all the scenarios, they should be flexible enough to measure

different circumstances with different approaches and provide suitable organizational

culture which all the staff learn to measure everything widely. Moreover Cinergy concept

will support this idea as well, which mentioned the effect of all the organization is more

than sum of every department solely.

“Diversity behaviors: What we can do” is a tool that provide guidance for RBC employees

step by step to translate RBC’s goal to specific actions It can incorporate with different

works, like market managements activities and Pooled Registered Pension Plan

schedules , staffing goals , leadership and business development plans.

The mentioned tool implementation will provide business advantages for the company

and explain social responsibility of RBC group for employees and customers.

RBC needs to penetrate to three overlapping areas during the implementation to

succeed; First: workforce, second: market and finally organizational structure. The

company believes that diversity is more than differences in age, gender, race and

physical and mental abilities, they believes that they should remove barriers of

propensity adoptions, communication and behaviors in the mentioned three levels.

Workforce diversity will cause to more flexible services for diverse customer needs and

better communication with them moreover it creates more efficiency among staffs. RBC

believes that these three levels are intertwined, so diverse workforce in workplace

prepare a workplace which all the employees know their potential and cooperate with

each other , diverse workforce in marketplace develop skills, attitudes and competencies

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so RBC can respond to different needs and wants of customers more efficient in Canada

and in other countries. Diverse workforce in organization structure will effect to micro

environments of the companies (departments) to work more synergistically and more

unification.

Desired behavior at a glance:

Understand and values diversity:

Know our prejudice, bias and know the impact of privilege.

It is necessary to feel and realize the value of diversity for all of employees because this

essential understanding will effect on behaviors with others in the work place and during

communication with clients. In this way everybody know its characteristic better and can

look at others diversity as their ability. All of us growth with different points of view and

different values and it is hard to view to the world with others approach , sometimes we

face to different norms that disturb us so many of us try to confine ourselves to our

points of view and neglect the other approaches so this treat called bias. Actually

employees do not aware to use prejudice and bias in their behaviors and it is quite

normal so these training try to keep out these two factors of employee’s daily behavior.

Moreover in working place we can describe the prejudice as unearned advantages. For

example: when someone is white he/she can find a job easier than a black person. It is

useful for employee to remove the bias and prejudice from their behavior in this way

they will interact with others easily and they can learn many things from different points

of view, different cultures and values. And provide lifelong learning process for them.

Know the differences among colleagues and customers as their value and

potential asset.

It is essential that organizations provide a specific organizations cultures that all the staff

respects to diversity as a valuable asset and know it as a potential asset. There are two

different points of view about diversity, in the organizations which neglect diversity most

of employee do not like to be different in compare with others because they believe that

diversity means: Isolated, alone, not accepted, second class and we can summarize it as

a negative points on the other hand diversity knows as a value and potential asset in the

organizations who encourage diversity in their organizational culture. But one of the

most important questions is how to change the first kind of organization to second type?

It is achievable with giving value to the employees who classified as diversified personnel

in the organization by manager and organizational culture. This change make the

organization more innovative and flexible in face of variety of problems because the staff

in all hierarchy levels learnt to measure the circumstances with different approaches

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Encourage to have debates on diversity and share the experience and previous

learning

It is essential for companies to prepare trustee environment which employees debates

about different issues with each other because most of the time same situation

measured differently regards to different ages, genders ,cultures and etc. This kinds of

meeting shows how much diversity is important for an organizations and in this way staff

who afraid of talking about these differences can share their learning and experiences

with others and provide more experience for others. As a matter of fact the staff can

enjoy these experiences during their carrier or in their personal life.

Listen to completely understand

Actually employees should neglect cultural differences and bias and listen to each other

to understand themselves completely. They can ask question to fully understand each

other.

Adapt to change to have better conditions in the organization, business and

demographic

The number of immigrant who immigrate to Canada increase every year, these people

have different cultures and back grounds , the numbers of disables who entered to

workplaces increased every year and clients profile change as well so they need different

services and RBC provide more and different services for disable clients refer to their

disabilities. So this organization should have enough infrastructure and flexibility to

adopt itself with business and demographic expectations.

Behave respectful and sensitive

This phrase emphasize more on the language or literature staff used in their working

place these language should be nonsexist, nonracist and non disparaging. They should

use phrases and words that could suffer the others. But how employees know the

offensive words or phrases? The only way is to know different cultures and staff learn if

they are not sure using special word or phrase is offensive or not they should not use

that specific words. It is prohibited for RBC employees to tell jokes about races, gender

and disabilities in individual or group and other colleagues have to stop this person.

Promotes implementing and integration diversity:

Understand and communicate with business as an obligation for leverage

diversification

It is essential for organizations who seek for diversity to have strong communication, in

formal and informal ways to achieve success. It is essential to hold this efficient

communication continuously and expand it to all the different organization levels and

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different departments. However all the levels and departments are responsible to

expand diversity culture.

Search for market opportunities in diversity

RBC needs to be aware of market opportunities to achieve improvements and make

employees succeed so company should always search new improvement opportunities

in the market and notice to new niches and their needs and wants. As an example: GLB,

students, retired, Asians and etc. Obviously if the company can provide better services

when its focus on that niche rather than providing general services for all.

Encourage other to support diversity in workplace

When we acknowledge others for their behavior to leverage diversity we help others to

receptive to their colleague’s action.

Search for opportunities in all levels of the company

Actually, all the organizations have rigid structure and every one appointed in a specific

level of hierarchy obviously there are some restrictions in resource availability for staff

who works in lower hierarchy levels in spite of those who works on higher levels.

However the skills and potential of those people in lower level of hierarchy will limited

too, because the organization will not permit them to act in any way they like. On the

other hand successful organizations needs faster access to different data sources and

faster decision making to hold the current market share and having quick response to

rivals movements. So RBC try to reduce the boarders in the organizational structure as

more as possible and prepare skillful problem solving team from different levels of

organization to use diversity view in face to different dilemmas.

Demonstrates cultural diversity:

Encourage different styles, ideas and show always there are more than one way

to do a work

Researches indicate that a group with different ability, back ground and experience of

members is more successful rather than a group with members who have similar

experience. So, companies who encourage diversity will be more innovative and efficient

in problem solving rather than the companies avoid diversity. In the first type of

companies, leader need to know employees skills, experience and abilities and motivate

them and guide them to organizational goals.

Having enough information about cultural and other differences

Employee’s behavior in their working place not only depends on their skills and

characteristic but also it’s derive from their knowledge about different cultures as well.

It is really hard to predict behaviors of employees but it is necessary to make them

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sensitive to know the other cultures and respect to those values to minimize conflicts in

the organization and expand opportunities of diversity for ourselves. It is important for

RBC to respect to customers believes and cultures and if some employees cannot behave

correctly during the communication and eye contact with customers they have to pass

training course to improve their ability to follow company’s standards, moreover all the

employees’ skills and abilities appreciated by the company.

Have an effective communications with other people and colleagues

There are three levels to communicate with peoples with different cultures. First, know

your bias and avoid them. Second: Look for solving methods tactically and attention to

companies benefit and meet business needs. Third: Interpret behavior from

multicultural rather than an ethnocentric perspective. Ethnocentric knows its values

higher than others and interpret other believes in lower levels.

Knock off bias

People will prefer specific thing in spite of others when they follow their bias and

prejudice however they do not know these preference come from their bias. It is general

most of the time for example: we prefer slim in front of fat, young in spite of old and etc.

Employees should know their bias and the effects of it on their daily life to restrict it.

Develops, Mentors and coaches others:

Make development decisions considering input, talent and desire , mentors

others

This is leader duty to find out unknown skills and availability of employees and expand

them for their personal usage and achieving organizational goals. Managers should not

overlook employees easily because they have not indicate an interest in a promotion.

Manager should know employees talent and needs. Some employees are not shy and

speak about their needs and wants in spite of others who explain their need and wants

easily. Managers should explain the career goals for employees and never put them

under the pressure to know their needs. They always should feel organizations supports

during their working hours and sometimes developing leadership make manager closer

to the employees and he will have better understanding about employee’s needs.

Sometimes mentor programs are effective and encouraging for employees on the other

hand usually it is hard to start a mentor and mentee relationship if these two do not

know each other but after a little time mentor provide good opportunities for mentee to

learn some skills.

Give feedback

RBC prefer to give feedback to all the employees in all levels, because the organization

believes that finally these feedbacks provide many benefit for individuals and the

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company. However sometimes some people are not eager to give feedbacks about the

other people or sometimes some managers just share their feedback about specific staff,

which is not acceptable for the company.

Cooperate and help diverse team to work together efficiently

As mentioned, many researches support: teams with diversity members are more

effective, more innovative rather than a team with same experience and same approach

members, Actually when these members joint to each other because of the differences

exist between them they have to spend a period of time with each other to know their

approaches and match to each other for better performance. In this way manager have

a big role to support this team and give them enough time and certainty to find

themselves. Furthermore manager has to discussed with them and act as a conflict

manager with them and give them enough feedback and encourage them to have open

dialog about some topics from organization.

Motivate others

People has different experience, skills and background, organizations should respect to

these diversity and try to encourage and motivate them. Manager should know that all

the people will not motivate in a same way, someone motivate with more money,

someone with higher positions and etc.

Works for changes:

Face to risk and challenge to norms without fears

It is important employees in organizations speak about current situations and

organization norms, they can focus on finding a new way to improve the organizational

norms and values and it is not possible without challenge with current norms.

Deal with conflicts

Conflicts happened when someone is not willing to face to diversities, so it is important

to bring this person out of the group and lets the group to do its duty. Sometimes people

shows cautious behavior on uncertainty so if this conflict comes from employees afraid

it is necessary they take a time and pass necessary course to learn how to deal with

diversity.

Is an ally

It means that stand for others right. For example: its expected if something happened

between men and women , ladies will stand for their right , RBC believes that this is

normal every party defend its rights but let say organization faced to a conflict between

Muslims and Non-Muslim , if a non-Muslim defend Muslims rights company can claim

that achieve the diversity concept among its employees. RBC believes that employees

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should show some alliance in process of leverage diversity. Leverage diversity will effects

on all employees and in this circumstance they feel brave enough to support correct

alternative among opponents.

Is a change agent

A change agent is a person who find out what is necessary to change to improve the

efficiency and use its innovative to improve the organization. Employees need to change

themselves as fast as changes in the environment. If these changes needs manager

confirmation they can demand for more authority (if it is possible) if not they should

consult with their managers to have a quick response.

Defeats the rumor mills

Managers should stop rumor in their organization as soon as possible.

Below organizational chart will show how much diversity is important for RBC:

So, in most of departments and in every country head branch, company has diversity

leadership council and they try to minimize conflicts from workforce diversity and guide

it as a valuable asset.

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To support how much diversity is important for RBC we can focused on Zabeen

Hirj case, she immigrated to Canada on 1974, and started her carrier on RBC on

1978 , she started as normal staff and she was in minority (in gender and race),

but she faced with one of executives support and she did her best to improve

herself and with RBC’s support she achieved her highest potential in her job and

in these days, she is head of HR in Royal Bank of Canada. She claimed RBC’s core

value and organizational culture changed very much and nowadays RBC looks at

diversity as a valuable asset more than ever. She believes: Diversity of thought is

really what you're driving for. On other hand Royal Bank of Canada for the fourth

year, RBC Wealth Management–U.S. achieved a 100 percent rating from the

Human Rights Campaign for its 2014 Corporate Equality Index as one of the “Best

Places to Work for LGBT Equality.” Of all the honors and awards the company has

received, this is one of which I am most proud, mentioned by John Taft – RBC

Wealth Management U.S.

RBC Reward on 2014: The below rewards taken by Royal Bank of Canada in 2014:

RBC recognized as one of Canada's Top Employers for Young People for

2014

Linda Mantia named one of PaymentSource’s Most Influential Women in

Payments for 2014

RBC is recognized as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers for 2014

RBC is recognized as a Great Place to Work® for 2014

Janice Fukakusa named Canada’s CFO of the Year for 2014

RBC celebrates wins in energy conservation and responsible waste

management

RBC is recognized as one of Canada's Best Diversity Employers for 2014

RBC once again receives series of top awards in global Euromoney

survey

RBC named Best Trade Finance Bank in Canada for second consecutive

year

RBC Global Asset Management Inc. receives five awards for 2013 Fund

Performance

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Quick glimpse to banking industrial in Canada from diversity approach:

Banking industry is a big industry in Canada. Actually twenty one banks act in Canada,

they compete with each other to improve their market share as more as possible.

However all of them faced to workforce diversity refer to Canada’s population structure.

But National bank of Canada is the leader in diversity among these twenty one banks and

this bank defend its position for the fourth year in 2014. Anyway Royal Bank of Canada

known as one of the best banks in diversity in Canada and this company do its best to

improve itself, more than ever because the find out the survival factor is diversification

diversity improve their efficiency and profitability.

Conclusion:

As conclusion, during these days all the organizations in the world understand the

importance of workforce diversity. This concept is more essential for multi-national

companies or globalized company. As a matter of fact Banks are in danger more than the

others industries because of technology improvements and economic fluctuations and

foreigner banks exist in their country and all over the world. So, they should improve

themselves more than before in diversity workforce to adopt themselves with new

dilemmas in competitive environment and improve their competitive advantages.

However in this case Royal Bank of Canada understood this concept from 1970s decade

and this company do its best to improve itself in this way.

.

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Appendix

Different races in Canada

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References:

1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_origins_of_people_in_Canada

2- http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/business-

education/workplace-diversity-to-win-in-your-market-you-need-to-hire-the-

market/article15039793/

3- http://www.diversityjournal.com/13135-john-taft-rbc-wealth-management-u-s/

4- http://business.financialpost.com/2014/01/30/moving-past-diversity-rbcs-

journey-to-rid-its-upper-ranks-of-unconscious-bias/

5- RBC Diversity blueprint 2012-2015

6- RBC Diversity Behavior: What we can do

7- RBC NEWS, RBC celebrates March 8 as international women’s day 2012

8- The Diversity Advantage: A Case for Canada’s 21st Century Economy

9- 2012 RBC employment equity report

10- Management , Robins and Coulter