Service Leadership Winner (2021)
SHARE & Atkinson Foundation
Project: Valuing Decent Work (Collaborative Submission)
In 2020, during the pandemic, the importance of an investor focus on workplace rights and worker protections became crystal clear. While the idea of human capital management as a responsibility for companies is not new, the crisis is making it obvious that corporate boards – and investors – can no longer ignore the rights of frontline workers and the interconnected imperatives of racial justice and gender equity. The risks and opportunities related to decent work emerged across a range of sectors, including for retail and migrant workers in our food supply chains, cleaners in commercial real estate, and nurses and other staff working in privately owned long-term care homes.
The Valuing Decent Work initiative mobilizes investors to advocate for robust decent work policies and practices and to increase the visibility of decent work as a material investment consideration in capital markets. The initiative has: developed original research; held workshops for investors to identify and address worker rights and human capital risks and developed best practices for investor stewardship; helped create and spread the use of the Workforce Disclosure Initiative globally; led successful shareholder proposals and engagement at firms with documented worker rights risks, and successfully advocated for legislative and regulatory change. Most importantly, we created a cross-Canada network of workers' organizations to lead capital stewardship efforts putting workers' own voices at the fore.
Finalist: MSCI
Project: Advancing Climate Investing in Canada: Equipping Institutional Investors with Critical Climate Tools
The winner and finalist scorecards can be found here.
Learn more about the 2021 RIA Leadership Awards.