For nearly 50 years, our organizational purpose has been to provide exceptional security solutions. In doing so, as the largest private security employer in Ontario, we have focused on value creation, the enablement and empowering of Ontarians, hence our society and valued clients. Our most salient accomplishment is working alongside our people, clients, and partners, with the common goal of greater growth in diversity, equality, and inclusion (DE&I).
Since 2018, I have been committed to spending time better understanding my role, and collectively our roles, in taking a stance against racial inequality. Our goal was to determine how our organization could use our voices to move forward and impact true and meaningful change in support of visible minorities and anti-racism work. The corporate culture commitment to DE&I, needed to be attained from the belief that the vision of leadership was to see and seek change. Accordingly, I was enthused and honoured to spearhead this meaningful initiative.
We have made progressive strides in embracing DE&I as a company.
I have worked with our teams and sought outside advice on how to make Paragon the best place to work. Subsequently, lending better representation of the communities, people, and brands we serve.
As such, we partnered with the Discourse Agency to provide education to Paragon’s leadership and senior management team, but we didn’t stop there.
In a recent meeting with the Paragon leadership team and our Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility, I shared our immediate, and longer-term goals. This included though is not limited to, our commitment regarding diversity, inclusion, and corporate responsibilities.
- Hiring Practices: Improve hiring practices that diversify the candidate pool and remove biases from the selection process.
- Internal Education & Awareness: Implement educational strategies that create a constantly evolving learning culture. Provide a platform to raise awareness of our employees, cultures, and communities.
- Community Involvement: Create partnerships with community organizations to help increase our connection to our communities.
- Company Procurement: Identify and utilize procurement opportunities for all, without any bias and attentiveness to minority-owned businesses.
These initiatives have marked a new chapter in Paragon’s evolution. Therefore, driving change and accepting responsibility for our roles in the communities, with our priority to serve and make impactful connections.
It is an honour to be the employer of choice for many thousands of security guards in Ontario, and the trusted security service partner for our clients and their communities. We are committed to working together, keeping our employees safe, and enabling them to have a voice. We are excited to work with our people and our communities to continue to create positive change and learn from each other, with aspirations to build a better world along the way.
