ATB Financial

Hannah DiNardo,

Hannah DiNardo is the Director of Diversity, Inclusion, and Reconciliation for ATB Financial’s retail and small business banking division. She is a seasoned expert at pinpointing opportunities that enhance corporate culture, boost employee engagement and improve an organization’s bottom line, using inclusion as an enabler to business performance. In an interview with Manage HR Canada, DiNardo shares her insights into the futuristic opportunities for fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in an ever evolving business landscape.

Can you share your journey in the industry and your current roles and responsibilities at ATB Financial?

My background is in communication and I always gravitated towards opportunities to connect with people. I transitioned from communications to sales and relationship management earlier in my career, eventually leading a national sales strategy for a large global organization. During this time, I noticed the homogeneity in senior leadership and strategic accounts—there was a lack of diversity in gender, race and other dimensions. This led to inequitable access to career-enhancing opportunities and diverse leadership pipelines. When I sat around the table, I knew I needed to use the influence I had to add more chairs.

Becoming a mother amplified my desire to create a world where my children wouldn't question why I didn't work for change. This transition ignited my passion for diversity and inclusion. I started initiatives within my global organization resulting in a focus on sponsorship, mentorship and stronger leadership pipelines. Success in this space led me into a role advising other organizations beginning or continuing on their own diversity and equity initiatives. Eventually, I led the Western diversity practice for my previous organization before joining ATB Financial.

What are the main challenges in embedding equitable practices in a client facing, retail environment?

There are two main challenges that come to mind, namely, understanding and addressing the needs and barriers for the communities you look to serve, and having internal workforce representation of those communities. Externally, we need to ensure our services reach traditionally under-banked communities. To do this, we must increase our own understanding of historical and systemic barriers, which can differ greatly between communities, and adapt our services to disrupt those barriers.

“Diversity and inclusion are business enablers. When we understand the unique needs of our workforce and clients, we can provide elevated employee experiences while capturing new markets and providing differentiated products.”

Internally, when our workforce reflects the communities we serve, we gain invaluable insights into how to better support our clients, including the barriers to banking and to employment they may experience. Diverse representation is crucial to building trust and safety, and it helps to challenge and inform what systems, processes and products organizations need to adapt in order to better serve clients, and attract and retain top talent. When clients interact with employees who understand their unique needs, a sense of security, trust and belonging is established. It comes back to seeing inclusion as an enabler: when we leverage insights from our diverse workforce, we strengthen client relationships and open up significant market opportunities.

What strategies have you adopted to promote DEI in your workplace, and how do you measure their success?

Much of this work involves culture and behavior change and quantifying the impact can be challenging. By integrating inclusion into individual performance goals, where leaders and employees align their efforts with areas that resonate with personal values and business objectives, mindset and behavioural shifts begin to occur at a grassroot level. It indicates that inclusion work is a shared responsibility.

To measure success, we use a mix of leading and lagging indicators including engagement metrics like an inclusive leadership index and participation in inclusion-related activities. We pair this with insights on how we attract, retain and develop diverse talent. Once you have the data its about what you do with it for meaningful change; using it to focus on supporting workforce growth and looking at where barriers to progression are perpetuated. This involves continuous listening, learning, and adapting our strategies based on feedback from our community, partners and workforce.

What are some of the leading trends you see as critical to fostering an inclusive corporate culture in the future?

Psychological safety is a concept many organizations are grabbing onto, making it a great starting point for those new to diversity and inclusion. Because it's based in science, its a concept more people can grasp onto and trust. When employees feel safe, it positively impacts their career lifecycle—from onboarding to growth and it builds stronger teams and products. Psychological safety can feel nebulous but its one of those things that when it doesn't exist, everyone knows it.

Another significant emerging impact on our workforce is AI. While AI enhances efficiency, it cannot replace human connection and relationships. AI is becoming more prevalent and the need for genuine human interactions will not go away. The opportunity in front of organizations is to elevate the power of diversity and connection while enabling insights, productivity and efficiency with technology.  As technology evolves, maintaining human-centric interactions will be crucial and our people need to be part of the journey, upskilling them and using increased capacity for value-added activities.

What advice would you give to peers navigating the evolving diversity and inclusion landscape?

My advice is to build strong connections across the organization between leaders and employees. Inclusive leaders are a catalyst for this work to stick. I often see fear of making mistakes holding people back, but approaching this work with humility and curiosity can overcome these barriers. Progress in diversity and inclusion requires continuous engagement and willingness to adapt based on feedback from all levels of the organization.