BMO Financial Group Recognized as a 2017 Great Place to Work®

Bank lauded by Great Place to Work Institute Canada for the following best practices: 

• Diverse Recruiting
• Reaching Millennials
• Learning From Differences

TORONTO, April 27, 2017 /CNW/ - BMO Financial Group has been recognized by Great Place to Work^® Institute Canada as one of the Best Workplaces in Canada. BMO was selected from a field of more than 400 nominations on the basis of five trust-building dimensions of a great place to work: credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie.

The Institute reviewed BMO employee surveys and commentary, and also completed an in-depth review of BMO's workplace culture, including an evaluation of the bank's HR policies and procedures.  

In making their selection, jurors highlighted the following best practices by the bank:

Diverse Recruiting
All recruiters at BMO are trained in their diversity objectives, the importance of inclusion in the recruitment process, and information about each diverse segment. Recruiters help managers find exceptional people by creating diverse slates of candidates to be interviewed for each role. BMO has also established service-level agreements and diversity objectives with their external recruiting partner and key search firms. For example, on each hiring slate, BMO insists that a minimum of one in every three candidates be diverse. BMO also holds sessions focused on helping recruiters eliminate bias in the recruiting process.

Reaching Millennials
BMO is focused on being an employer of choice for a growing cohort of millennials entering the workforce. BMO treats campuses as a strategic channel to build its leadership pipeline.  By increasing its efforts to reach and engage millennial talent through campus recruiting the bank can attract talented Millennials and Gen Z students with critical skills and fresh and diverse perspectives.

Learning From Differences
Through an innovative, multi-year "Learn from Difference" program, BMO engages its people managers and employees in a deeper conversation about what inclusion means – from understanding that we all have bias to speaking up and taking action to counter bias. The program has galvanized 6,000 employees to act more inclusively and has helped to increase inclusion across the bank.

"At BMO, we believe that to create a great customer experience, we must first create a great employee experience," said Sonya Kunkel, Chief Inclusion Officer and Vice President People Strategies and Insight. "We strive to foster an environment where everyone is engaged and can be their true selves. Our diverse workforce is our greatest strength, a source of powerful ideas and energy. BMO is a place where your voice has the power to make a difference and where the quality of opportunity is the same for everyone."

To be bold in the marketplace a company has to be distinctive. It is people, not companies, who innovate and create breakthroughs to deliver on what our employees and customers want, and differentiate us. 

About BMO Financial Group
Established in 1817, and currently marking its 200th year of operations, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified financial services provider based in North America. With total assets of $692 billion as of January 31, 2017, and more than 45,000 employees, BMO provides a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers and conducts business through three operating groups: Personal and Commercial Banking, Wealth Management and BMO Capital Markets. 

About Great Place to Work^® 
Great Place to Work^® is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. We are a research and consulting firm whose mission is to build a better society by helping companies transform their workplaces. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and employer branding programs, including workplace certification and Best Workplaces lists, Great Place to Work^® provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. In Canada, Great Place to Work^® produces the annual 100 Best Workplaces list, released in a national feature in the Globe and Mail. This is part of the world's largest annual workplace study, which culminates in a series of national lists in over 50 countries, including the study's flagship list of 100 Best companies published annually in Fortune magazine. Globally, this survey represents the voices of 11 million employees, including approximately 300,000 from Canada alone. It's what makes this study so credible: the primary determinant used in selecting winners is an employee survey. There's only one way to get on this list – and that's if your employees put you there.

Great Place to Work^® online at www.greatplacetowork.ca and on Twitter at @GPTW_Canada.

SOURCE BMO Financial Group

For further information: For News Media Enquiries: Paul Gammal, Toronto, [email protected], [phone]; Frédéric Tremblay, Montreal, [email protected], [phone]; For Investor Relations Enquiries: Jill Homenuk, Toronto, [email protected], [phone]; Christine Viau, Toronto, [email protected], (416) 867- 6956; Internet: www.bmo.com, Twitter: @BMOmedia