The AGCO is committed to addressing head-on and with honesty the concerns and needs of its diverse workforce, increasing equity for all, including all racialized communities in Canada, Indigenous peoples, members of the LGBTQ2S+ community, persons with disabilities, and women. The AGCO is also committed to delivering inclusive, accessible, and responsive services to the public and our stakeholders that are aligned with our organizational values of integrity, respect, accountability, and public interest. It will continue to build an inclusive organizational culture to effectively serve the people of Ontario.
The AGCO has implemented many DI&A initiatives over the past several years, with the following being some of the most recent in 2020–2021:
- Anti-Black Racism seminars: A series of “Speak Your Truth” anti-Black racism interactive workshops were delivered to engage in meaningful, honest conversations among staff within the workplace, leading to robust discussions that continue the AGCO’s work towards transformational change.
- To further ensure that inclusion is at the core of the AGCO workplace culture, CEO Tom Mungham signed the BlackNorth Initiative Pledge.
- Through the OPS Recruitment Lens, AGCO launched a series of AGCO Inclusion Leader training sessions for all managers, emphasizing what diversity recruiting is, the challenges of diverse recruitment, and how to minimize biases throughout the hiring process.
- AGCO Human Resources is expanding its partnership with a number of external agencies and specialized job boards to reach out to more diverse candidate pools.
- The AccessArise Committee was created to focus on bringing awareness and educating staff on disabilities, mental health issues and accommodation.
In the final quarter of this year, the AGCO contracted with an objective third-party consultant to undertake a meaningful organizational assessment to better understand gaps and opportunities in its DI&A understanding. As part of the process, the AGCO will be engaging in extensive conversations with staff and management from across the agency to truly understand DI&A perceptions and assess the needs for its people. The intent is for the consultant to craft a Strategy and Implementation Plan to guide and inform all aspects of the AGCO’s work and help position it as a DI&A leader.