Prioritizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace
Fostering a workplace of acceptance and inclusion that improves the employee experience is critical to the success of any organization. At Minto, we’re committed to offering a welcoming environment where every employee feels a sense of belonging, respect, and support.
As part of our ESG strategy, the following initiatives play an important role in moving our inclusive approach forward:
- Building a culture that encourages all employees to reach their full potential through year-round feedback opportunities at all levels to support career growth.
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Providing training for employees, managers, and senior leadership to explore ways to build a world-class inclusive workplace, including our:
- DEI – Journey to Belonging training
- Inclusive Hiring course (required for People Managers)
- Virtual workshops on bias screening and candidate selection for Hiring Managers
Creating a Welcoming Environment for Employees: Steps We’ve Taken
As part of our ongoing listening strategy, we partnered with Diversio in 2021 to deploy our first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) survey and launched a follow-up survey in early 2023 to gather further input, track our progress year-over-year, and understand how we can improve. With 59.6% of employees participating in our second DEI survey in spring 2023 (a meaningful increase of over 51% from 2021), our focus on inclusive hiring, an equitable culture of belonging, and career development continues as we build a more supportive, welcoming workplace. Our 2023 survey data shows that Minto is a highly diverse organization with a high inclusion score of 76.2 (an increase over our 2021 inclusion score of 74.3), placing us at 9.8% above the industry average. The “real estate industry” is comprised of approximately 60 real estate companies spanning various sizes and geographies. These organizations typically have a global employee footprint, though are heavily indexed to North America, particularly Canada.Diversio also analyzed our survey responses and verbatim comments, identifying three key areas to strengthen our culture:
1. Inclusive hiring
- Ensuring our hiring managers and recruiting team understand unconscious biases that can impact how we attract and recruit talent.
- Continuing to focus on education with ‘Inclusive Hiring for Managers’ while expanding the reach of our recruiting initiatives to new and diverse networking channels.
2. Culture of belonging
- Cultivating a culture of wellness where everyone feels heard and valued by their peers with the opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way. This includes ‘Journey to belonging’ training that highlights the importance of DEI and the role we all play in fostering an inclusive workplace.
- Adding an ‘Inclusion Advisor’ feature to our BRAVO! recognition platform to offer suggestions to help ensure that written communication is meaningful and inclusive.
3. Career development
- Building a community of networks and connections with senior resources who can help support, mentor, and invest in the growth and development of our employees with the launch of Mentorship@Minto in November 2023.
- Offering career development workshops to help employees create plans unique to their career paths. As well, ‘Career Conversations’ workshops to help managers and senior leaders support their employees’ career development plans.
- Investing in manager-focused training on wellness, resiliency, and empathy to ensure leaders are best equipped to provide constructive feedback, encourage growth, and create a work culture that is understanding and supportive.
Key Metrics
- 59.6% of employees participated in our second DEI survey in spring 2023 (a meaningful increase over 51% from 2021).
- Minto is a highly diverse organization with a high inclusion score of 76.2.
- This is an increase over our 2021 inclusion score of 74.3, placing us at 9.8% above the industry average.
Want to know what it's like to work for a company that values diversity and inclusion? Visit our Careers page to learn more and browse our current career opportunities.