Destination Greater Victoria: Fostering Welcoming and Belonging Through Employee-Driven Initiatives

Social Impact Framework: Welcoming and Belonging; Diversification and Development of Workforce 

What was the issue you were trying to address?

While rebuilding our new team after the pandemic, we went through an exercise to determine our five employee values. One of the values was diversity, equity and inclusion. Employees asked for more awareness and understanding of equity, diversity and inclusion issues. They sought a common language and tools to address situations and processes that conflict with their DEI definition and policy. 

What were the stated objectives of this initiative?

Increase DEI awareness and confidence in our processes by training employees at all levels of the organization.  

• We identified a local organization, the Intercultural Association of Greater Victoria, to offer sessions on unconscious bias, anti-racism, and bystander practices.
• We worked with our HR company and a facilitator to create a specific training session for our organization entitled “DEI and YOU”. This program addressed topics specific to us and helped us establish metrics to evaluate our work in this area.

Expand opportunities for authentic employee feedback and engagement.

• We incorporate questions into exit interviews on our DEI efforts.  
• We survey employees after trainings to help guide future training needs.
• We encourage employees to participate in inclusion events.  

What were the specific metrics you used to measure the success of your efforts?

In addition to completing training programs, employees actively participate in DEI related initiatives in our community like the local Pride Parade. Participation numbers serve as an important metric.

As an organization, we look to improve our score on DI’s Social Impact Assessment Tool. This helps us understand our current state and align our priorities.  

What were the specific outcomes and results of your efforts?

By establishing DEI as an employee value, we have now conducted one year of training programs. Employees saw value and gave positive feedback on the training experience and initiative we took as an organization.

Training programs have led to a committed budget for us to host annual sessions based on staff feedback. They have also allowed us to form an internal EDIA Committee with 6 team members (about 20% of the entire team).

Finally, our organization became Rainbow Registered signifying safe and welcoming experiences for LGBTQ+ visitors. 

What other best practices or key lessons can you share?

DEI fatigue is a real concern to mindful of. It is important we offer relevant and useful training regularly to help keep DEI fresh in people's minds without oversaturating the topic.

Our work in this area has led to furthering partnerships with our City’s EDI Department. We are currently looking at developing more programs together based on welcoming and accessibility.