Canada's Best Diversity Employers (2025) - Flipbook - Page 5
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A.ZABLIT/CAE
CANADA’S BEST DIVERSITY EMPLOYERS (2025)
Montréal-based CAE Inc. recently introduced its ‘CAEheartbeat’ initiative, which supports employees with a range of equity-based benefits, including global
standardized parental leave and access to traditional Indigenous medicine and healing heath benefits.
She’s the boss
Empowering women is good for business
W
e’ve come a long way, or
have we?
In 1977, The Canadian
Human Rights Act was
passed, forbidding discrimination on the
basis of sex and ensuring equal pay for
work of equal value for women. Today,
gender equality is still a work in progress,
so it’s good that Canada’s Best Diversity
Employers (2025) have made that battle a
long-standing priority.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is
an important part of driving that change
with a myriad of ways to empower women
— from maternity top-up pay to programs
designed to help women advance into
senior leadership. For instance,
Capgemini Canada is deeply committed
to addressing the gender gap in
technology, launching multiple initiatives
to address issues such as inclusive
retirement, equal promotion, equal pay for
equal work, gender-inclusive benefits and
career acceleration. As a global company,
its objective is achieving 30 per cent
female representation on its executive
leadership teams by the end of 2025.
When Kas Kathir joined Capgemini 12
years ago in an entry-level human
resources (HR) role, she found the support
needed to succeed in a male-dominated
industry, including Power Ahead and
Leaders of Tomorrow, two women-focused
programs for developing high-performing
habits, leadership and an executive
presence.
“The reason I’ve been with the company
so long is simple — if I put in the hard
work, they’ll look out for me,” says Kathir,
now Canada HR leader. “Considering that
I came to Capgemini as a result of an
acquisition, staying with the company is a
testament to how they invest in their
people and help you navigate a
meaningful career. They invested in me,
developing me and my leadership skills
and made it a place I wanted to be.”
Another winning company, CAE, a
provider of civil aviation training, created
the Women in Flight program to inspire
young women to become pilots. Currently,
just five per cent of the world’s pilots are
female. The program works with aviation
partners to offer a variety of scholarships
that pay for training programs, with
recipients becoming ambassadors
themselves to inspire other women to
choose the pilot career path. Literally, the
sky’s the limit.
– Diane Jermyn
