Building a people-first culture is at the heart of our story. Concert Properties has identified Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) as a company priority to ensure that our workforce reflects and represents the communities in which we live and work. Supporting mothers on maternity leave is a key part of our DEI strategy.
We know that organizations inclusive of diversity are more creative and innovative, are better able to respond to local and global markets, have higher employee engagement and a stronger financial bottom line.
We also know that every year, over 375,000 Canadian women take maternity leave. As part of Concert’s commitment to DEI, Concert has partnered with Maturn to deliver Canada’s first comprehensive program to support our employees and soon-to-be mothers over a one-year term through their transition to and from maternity leave. This program also provides knowledge and capacity-building for people leaders on how to best support women through this period, and also offers a comprehensive online coaching program to support birthing and non-birthing mothers through their transition into motherhood and then back to work.
“At Concert Properties, we are committed to supporting mothers who are navigating through a big life change to and from maternity leave. It's one of the reasons we partnered with Maturn. Through their maternity leave program and 'Supporting Mothers, Advancing Equity' People Leaders Workshop, we aim to advance greater equity and inclusion for mothers and leaders. We believe investing in these two offerings will collectively benefit us as leaders in our communities and in our business,” says Aran Clarke, Senior Vice President, People Experience at Concert Properties.
This partnership stemmed from several DEI initiatives that Concert Properties has implemented over the last two years that revealed areas of focus for our DEI efforts. We began with unconscious bias training for over 200 Concert employees followed by an Employment Engagement Survey to measure the beliefs and experience of DEI culture at Concert, and a DEI review to help understand the opportunities and potential barriers that may impact inclusion throughout the organization. From this work, three barriers were identified that are now the focus of our DEI strategy:
- Attraction, Recruitment and Selection
- Career Progression
- Workplace Culture
The recent implementation of the Maturn program should help address these barriers and increase gender equity and inclusion across the company.