According to the report, enhancing diversity — which is defined to encompass race, gender, age, culture, personality, skill, training, educational background and life experience — is an effective business strategy that has the potential to encourage innovation and directly impact a company’s results.

“When managed properly, diversity can provide an important competitive advantage for business,” said the report’s co-author, Fiona Macfarlane, Managing Partner, People, Ernst & Young. “The influence of a variety of perspectives and viewpoints can contribute to flexibility and creativity within organizations, which can help them thrive in a complex and competitive global economy.”

While our nation is known for its rich tapestry of ethnicities and cultures, Canadian companies rarely reflect this diversity in their corporate leadership. According to the report, visible minorities comprise only 5.2% of senior management in large companies and 1.6% of executive management in the public sector.

So how do businesses get better at diversifying the executive suite? Macfarlane says the tone must be set from the top.

“As part of their responsibility to oversee strategic direction, financial performance and risk management, boards of directors should understand how diversity affects key areas of their mandate,” Macfarlane says. “Directors should also be cognizant of the importance of diversity is on the board itself. Board diversity still presents a challenge for many organizations.”

A recent Ernst & Young survey entitled The new global mindset: Driving innovation through diverse perspectives found that boards of directors seldom reflect the global reach of their businesses. Almost half of the companies operating in 25 or more countries admitted that they had at most only a few foreign nationals around the boardroom table.

The Board of Trade and its members are committed to leveraging the diversity of Toronto’s business community. The Board is proud to count amongst its members some of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers and winners of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) Immigrant Success Awards.

As part of the VoteToronto2010.com campaign, the Board released Lifting All Boats: Promoting Social Cohesion and Economic Inclusion in the Toronto Region. This discussion paper examines the hard costs of inequitable access to affordable housing, community services, public transit and employment and explores the economic advantages of creating cohesive, inclusive communities and effectively leveraging the talents of new Canadians.

Like the VoteToronto2010.com campaign, the CICA’s Diversity Briefing is intended to spark meaningful dialogue on an important issue to that matters to business and all members of the community.

Download Diversity Briefing: Questions for Directors to Ask.