Zero Barriers to Inclusion 2025

“There can be no middle ground on issues of racial justice and inclusion. If we’re not a meaningful part of the change that must be made, then we’re part of the problem.”

Three years ago, building on BMO’s history of championing diversity, we set 2020 targets for our workforce to ensure BMO reflected the communities we serve. They included: hiring and promoting more Women, Minorities (Canada) and People of Color (U.S.) into senior roles and increasing representation of Indigenous Peoples and Persons with Disabilities at all levels. We achieved four of five of our goals in these priority areas.

Zero Barriers to Inclusion 2025 represents a new and ambitious expansion of this mission. 

This strategy is the outcome of vibrant conversations held across the bank, and critical input from our Enterprise Resource Groups.

Zero Barriers to Inclusion 2025  

We’re making significant, measurable commitments to each of our stakeholder groups: our colleagues, our customers and our communities. 

• For our colleagues: we will improve access to opportunities for Latino, Black, Indigenous and People of Colour colleagues and remove barriers to ensure an equitable employee experience that leads to development and career advancement.  
• For our customers: we are supporting the launch of a Black Opportunity Fund and other initiatives in support of Black-owned businesses by offering Black businesses and organizations long-term capital. In addition to our own contributions, we’ll be attracting investment from the business community, philanthropists and government. We’re also developing unique customer programs to improve access to financial products and services for Indigenous communities across Canada.
• For our communities: we will be leaders in creating inclusive local economic opportunities and building strong relationships that grow the good in business and life. Our $10 million investment in the Mayor of Chicago's Economic Development Plan and our $10 million partnership with United Way Greater Toronto are good examples of this work in action, as is our recently-announced $1 million donation to organizations focused on social and racial justice.  

Bold new diversity workforce targets

Every successful strategy requires clear goals and measurement against them. Zero Barriers to Inclusion 2025 raises our representation targets bank-wide and our leaders will be held accountable for demonstrating progress, including annual milestones. These targets are informed by a suite of data inputs, ranging from labour market analysis, external perspectives and competitive insights.

Here are our new 2025 targets:

• Increasing representation of Black employees in senior leadership roles to 3.5% and 7% in Canada and the U.S., respectively
• Increasing representation of People of Colour employees in senior leadership roles in Canada and the U.S., respectively to 30% or greater
• Increasing representation of Latino employees in senior leadership roles to 7% in the U.S.
• Sustaining our current gender equity position with a range of 40 to 60% representation in senior leadership roles across our organization
• Increasing representation of Black and Latino interns and entry-level employees to 30% in the U.S. and ensuring 40% of student opportunity in Canada is directed to BIPOC youth
• Increasing representation of Indigenous Peoples across our workforce in Canada to 1.6%
• Increasing representation of Persons with Disabilities within a range of 5 to 7% of our workforce
• Introducing an LGBTQ2+ representation goal of 3% of our workforce

This is what this means to me:

In addition to increasing the representation of People of Colour in senior roles at the bank, we are specifically increasing the representation of Black and Latino employees in our most senior roles where the gap is most acute, as well as throughout our talent pipeline. I’m particularly proud of the recent creation of the Black and Latino Advisory Council, co-chaired by Deland Kamanga, Darrel Hackett and Herb Mazariegos, to focus on employee experience, advancement and engagement. Their work is a critical enabler of Zero Barriers to Inclusion 2025.

Indigenous representation across the financial services industry has been declining – a disturbing trend. Despite a bank-wide recruitment and retention strategy and significant efforts over several years, we’ve witnessed the same effect at BMO. To address this and make change we recognized that we needed to do things differently. This past January we launched an industry-first Indigenous Advisory Council (IAC), and, coming soon to our internal BMO learning platform, we’ve developed an immersive e-learning experience for all Canadian employees focused on Indigenous Peoples’ history.

With the IAC and a dedicated Indigenous Talent Strategies team in place, we conducted an in-depth review of our systems, policies and practices, including a survey of Indigenous employees to identify barriers to Indigenous talent attraction, recruitment, development and retention. We’re already seeing the benefits of this work.

For the first time we’re establishing specific targets for employees who identify as LGBTQ2+ in recognition of the systemic barriers they face. And we’re continuing to focus on the representation of Women in senior roles across our organization, and on the representation of Persons with Disabilities.

Not letting the moment pass

Leading and engaging in conversations about race and inclusivity is not easy. It can make us feel exposed and vulnerable. But beyond simply being the right thing to do, if we fail to address the realities faced by so many in our communities it will impact our performance and signal to the world that we aren’t willing to examine ourselves in the same honest and direct way that we expect and demand of others. We wouldn’t be living up to our reputation as an ethical leader in banking, and we wouldn’t be Boldly Growing the Good in business and life. 

Our commitment to inclusion is clear, true and unwavering; and we know we have work to do. It extends beyond our hallways and branches to our customers and communities. 

As we roll out Zero Barriers to Inclusion 2025, we will continue to provide updates and – importantly – the improvement in the metrics that demonstrate our progress against our goals.

We all have a role to play in building an inclusive society with zero barriers, and it begins where we work.