The Evolution of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at Sonepar

CEW-29-Sonepar-EvolutionInclusion-400.jpg

April 27, 2022

As Sonepar continues to make Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) initiatives a priority within the organization, last year Sonepar Canada President Francois Anquetil, and VP of Human Resources, Reina Ohol, conducted focus groups aimed at learning from the experiences of our associates.

“It’s difficult for anyone to try and navigate how best to address DE&I in the workplace,” Reina said. “We wanted to create initiatives and action plans that would be meaningful to our associates and not be based solely on metrics. Therefore, we took an “inclusive approach,” to DE&I. We listened to what our associates had to say and got ideas directly from them to help create a positive impact.”

Associates were invited to participated in focus groups which took place over a course of three different sessions and concentrated on gender diversity, visible minorities, and multigenerational diversity and inclusion.

“Overall, the sessions exceeded my expectations,” she said. “You have to be courageous to persevere through a confronting and uncomfortable situation, especially within the workplace. In addition, we were asking our participants to relive and share their personal experiences not only with us but also with their peers.”

“Our associates trusted us enough to be vulnerable and I really commend their level of bravery, along with our ability as a collective to make the sessions a positive and safe space. I felt honoured to sit amongst these individuals and have the privilege to listen to what they had to say.”

“Moving forward, we are concentrating on education and training. Whether it’s regarding bringing awareness and understanding to different ethnicities, genders, or generations, we want to ensure we are creating a culture that is highly aware of microaggressions, biases and prejudices within the workplace.

“We also want to make learning opportunities more readily available, especially for the younger generations,” said Reina. “By doing so, we can eliminate the impression that career development is only obtainable to those who have a certain level of seniority with the company.”

“Ultimately, we want to ensure all associates feel they have access to career opportunities regardless of their ethnicity, gender, or age and that Sonepar becomes the depiction of inclusivity in the workplace.”

Source

Related Articles


Changing Scene

  • Paul Bevilacqua Joins Maxlite as Chief Financial Officer

    Paul Bevilacqua Joins Maxlite as Chief Financial Officer

    MaxLite is excited to announce the recent addition of Paul Bevilacqua as Chief Financial Officer. Paul brings over 30 years of finance and management experience and a record of accomplishment building enterprise value and leading financial transformations in various industries. Most notably, he was the CFO at Topaz Lighting Corp., where he reengineered all aspects… Read More…

  • Leviton Achieves 29% Decrease in Overall GHG Emissions from 2021 to 2023

    Leviton Achieves 29% Decrease in Overall GHG Emissions from 2021 to 2023

    Leviton has recently announced that it achieved a 29% drop in overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the 2021 baseline year, a major step towards the goal of becoming carbon neutral company-wide by the year 2030 with their CN2030 program. Through on-site renewable energy generation, accelerated energy efficiency efforts, moving to renewable and clean energy… Read More…


Peers & Profiles