Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Council and Team Member Resource groups

Our D&I Council is made up of approximately 20 to 30 team members across TELUS who develop and implement initiatives to promote D&I. We also have five Team Member Resource groups who support over 7,000 members, and together play an important role in advancing inclusion within our organization and communities. These groups offer mentoring, networking, peer support, volunteering and coaching opportunities to members.

The stories below highlight the 2019 achievements of our D&I Team:

D&I Council: developed and launched an equity, diversity and inclusiveness (EDI) framework and dashboard tool to evolve our analytics across equity groups and enable business ownership of EDI-related initiatives. We also continued to drive participation in the Neuro Leadership Institute brain-based unconscious bias training program called DECIDE. To celebrate global D&I Awareness month and other key awareness days, we published stories online to celebrate the diversity of our team members and highlighted important aspects of our inclusive culture.

Abilities network: engaged team members nationally to generate improvement ideas on the employee accommodation process as well as education and awareness opportunities on varying abilities in the workplace. We focused on accessibility benchmarking across all areas of the business to generate improvement ideas for our team members, customers and communities. We recognized the UN Day of Persons with Disabilities through a signature event that featured employee’s shared experiences and showcased projects supporting accessibility and inclusion.

Connections: engaged team members nationally to celebrate international women’s day with the pledge to #beboldforchange. We also held the Connections Honours Leaders of Excellence (CHLOE) Awards across the country, where team members came together to celebrate 322 remarkable finalists and honour the power of diversity and the value it brings to our customers, team and communities. Connections also grew globally by launching three new international chapters in Nevada, California, and Texas.

Eagles: honoured our Indigenous customers and team members by hosting and participating in celebrations of national Indigenous Peoples day events that showcased the stories of Indigenous communities and artists. We also focused on increasing Indigenous cultural awareness and education for our team members by partnering with the Canadian Museum of Human Rights to sponsor artist Carey Newman’s documentary, Picking Up the Pieces: The Making of the Witness Blanket about the history of residential schools in Canada.

MOSAIC: supported more than 60 mentor matches and hosted several open houses and speed mentoring events in collaboration with our immigrant employment council partners in the community. TELUS earned recognition for MOSAIC’s work by being named as a national mentorship partner with the immigration employment councils across Canada.

Spectrum: raised over $52,000 for non-profit organizations supporting LGBTQ+ communities across Canada, in addition to launching two new international chapters for Spectrum in California and Texas. We also launched a virtual education series to increase team members’ knowledge and awareness of Spectrum, as well as timely and relevant issues within the LGBTQ+ community. Topics included: gender neutral conversations in the workplace; parenting an LGBTQ+ child; how to be an ally; introduction to gender variations; and why Pride.