Manulife Sets Goals to Increase BIPOC Recruitment and Leadership Representation as part of Five-Year Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Plan

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Jul 17, 2020, 07:00 ET

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TORONTO, July 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Today, Manulife announced it has established leadership and recruitment goals to increase the representation of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) across its North American businesses as the company advances its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts.

"We recognize how important it is to improve the diversity of our organization at all levels," said Roy Gori, President and CEO, Manulife. "Establishing goals not only demonstrates our commitment to this important work, it will help us build a more inclusive culture to drive innovation and enable us to better serve our customers."

Across Manulife's North American operations, which includes John Hancock in the US, and Manulife Investment Management across the region, the company has committed to further diversify its workforce in Canada and the U.S. by:

Increasing BIPOC representation in Leadership roles by 30% by 2025
Annually hiring at least 25% BIPOC talent in its Graduate program

In addition to these commitments, Manulife has also signed on to the BlackNorth Initiative Pledge in Canada, as well as the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion pledge in the US, as both efforts align with our company's objective of advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Last month, Manulife announced investments of more than $3.5 million over the next two years to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace and the communities we serve. The goal of these focused investments is three-fold: to increase the representation of diverse talent at all levels in the organization; to create greater inclusion across the company through enhanced training; and to support organizations helping BIPOC communities. These initiatives build on a number of foundational DEI building projects that Manulife has undertaken in recent years, including: support of 31 local chapters of 9 Employee Resource Groups, hiring of new Canadians through Career Edge, support of annual recruitment events that attract diverse talent and the formation of an Executive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council.

Manulife recognizes that diversity and inclusion are multi-layered, complex issues that we need to tackle holistically to better engage and support all underrepresented groups. Manulife is committed to addressing the concerns and needs of our diverse employees and increase equity for all. For more information on Manulife's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, please visit: manulife.com/about/inclusion.

About Manulife

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services group that helps people make their decisions easier and lives better. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we operate as Manulife across our offices in Canada, Asia, and Europe, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States. We provide financial advice, insurance, and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. At the end of 2019, we had more than 35,000 employees, over 98,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving almost 30 million customers. As of March 31, 2020, we had $1.2 trillion (US$0.8 trillion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made $30.4 billion in payments to our customers. Our principal operations are in Asia, Canada and the United States where we have served customers for more than 155 years. We trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong.