Only 5 per cent of senior executives in Toronto’s corporate sector are visible minorities
While the Greater Toronto Area is one of the most diverse regions in the world, with visible minorities making up nearly one-half of the population, that diversity isn’t reflected in the region’s top leaders, according to a new report.
DiverseCity Counts: A Snapshot of Diversity in the Greater Toronto Area found just 13 per cent of top leaders in the GTA’s most diverse cities are visible minorities.
“When we started out, we had an intuitive sense the diversity leadership was out of whack and now we have proof,” said Ratna Omidvar, president of Maytree, a Toronto-based social justice organization and partner in DiverseCity: The Greater Toronto Leadership Project along with the Toronto City Summit Alliance, a coalition of civic leaders in the Toronto region.
The study was conducted by researchers at Ryerson University’s Diversity Institute in Toronto and it looked at leaders in five cities in the GTA: Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Markham and Richmond Hill. Nearly four million people live in these cities, 49.5 per cent of whom are visible minorities. These cities also represent 72.5 per cent of the GTA’s population.
The study examined 3,257 senior-most leaders, including elected officials, public sector executives, members of agencies, boards and commissions and executives in large voluntary and business organizations. (See charts on right.)
Overall, the education sector is the most diverse, with visible minorities making up 20 per cent of top leaders in schools, colleges and universities. However, there are no visible minorities among the 11 school district directors.
Government agencies are the next most diverse, with visible minorities making up 19 per cent of top leaders in Toronto and Ontario agencies, boards and commissions. Just 16 per cent of elected officials and 13 per cent of directors and senior executives in the voluntary sector are visible minorities.
But it’s the public and corporate sectors that are the least diverse, with visible minorities making up just eight per cent of public sector executives and four per cent of corporate directors and senior executives.
“These results are a wake-up call,” said Omidvar. “We’ve got work to do to give the GTA the edge it needs to compete on the world stage.”
Diversity in leadership showcases Canada’s values
Leaders have power and influence and they reflect how individuals see themselves in society, said Omidvar.
Having diverse leadership in government and public and private institutions shows people from different backgrounds they’re valued and belong in Canada, said Michael Chan, Ontario minister of citizenship and immigration.
“Diversity in leadership showcases our values as Canadians,” he said.
Diversity also makes good economic sense. In an increasingly globalized world, people from diverse backgrounds generate new ideas and connections to new markets, allowing organizations to take advantage of new opportunities, said Chan.
“In these tough economic times, we cannot afford to have anybody sitting on the sidelines,” he said.
A 2008 Conference Board of Canada report, The Value of Diverse Leadership, found several social and economic benefits to diverse leadership, said Julia Deans, CEO of the Toronto City Summit Alliance.
Diversity in the political arena signals all citizens have access to government, while diversity in the public sector provides a broader range of opinions to shape public policy. In the education sector, diverse principals and other leaders inspire the next generation of talent, said Deans.
Correlation to bottom line
In corporations, diverse leadership is directly correlated to the bottom line, found the report. This is because visible minorities are more likely to challenge the status quo and find new solutions and products, said Deans.
“Diverse corporate leadership can create tremendous value for shareholders,” she said.
If nothing is done, the face of leadership in the GTA will change on its own over time, acknowledged Omidvar. But that’s not good enough.
“We’re not prepared to wait,” she said. “We want to collapse the natural time frames and hurry things along.”
DiverseCity launched eight initiatives last November to address the under-representation of ethnic and racial groups in leadership positions by raising awareness of the value of diversity, creating networks and fellowships for visible minorities, helping boards of directors find qualified visible minority candidates, encouraging visible minorities to participate in elections and offering media training for visible minorities who are experts in their field.
Using the first DiverseCity Counts report as a benchmark, the project will perform annual checkups to track its progress.
“The numbers are important because the numbers tell us where we are. The numbers help us decide where we want to go and how to get there,” said Wendy Cukier, associate dean of Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management and co-founder of the Diversity Institute. “Once you start measuring, you start seeing things and setting goals. If you’re not measuring, how do you know if you’re moving forward?”
Not only did the report find a gap between the proportion of visible minorities in the GTA and their representation in leadership roles, it also highlighted several gaps between and among sectors, said Cukier.
In every sector, except the corporate sector, there is a higher representation of visible minorities on boards of directors than in senior executive roles, she said.
“We can’t tell you why, we can’t tell you what needs to happen,” said Cukier. “Going forward, it’s important to ask, ‘Why the gap?’”
Three years ago, the City of Toronto undertook a strategy to increase the representation of visible minorities in agencies and on boards and commissions. The representation has increased by 40 per cent to 31 per cent, compared to 11 per cent for provincial agencies, boards and commissions, said Cukier.
Provincial bodies, as well as other sectors, should look to that strategy to see what can be adopted to increase their proportion of visible minority leaders, she said.
“It’s important to recognize the problem is complex,” said Cukier. “The solutions also have to embrace the individual organizations.”
Some of the solutions include making diversity a strategic priority and developing a diverse leadership pipeline. Other HR practices, such as creating networks for visible minorities and reaching out to under-represented communities for recruitment, can also make a big difference, said Cukier.
