Our achievements in diversity and equity

We promote diversity and equity in both our mission and our everyday operations. Here are a few initiatives or recognitions of which we are particularly proud.

• Desjardins Group is a recognized and sought-after group of employers. In 2007, one of its components, Desjardins General Insurance Group (DGIG), ranked 12^th in "The 50 Best Employers in Canada" list published in the Globe and Mail's Report on Business; this is the 3^rd time DGIG has made this prestigious list, which is based on employee evaluation.

• Développement international Desjardins (DID), which exists to support the development of financial cooperatives abroad, is currently working in 25 countries in Africa, Latin America, the West Indies, Asia, Central Europe and Eastern Europe.

• Desjardins was the main sponsor for the Ministère de l'Immigration et des Communautés culturelles du Québec's Semaine québécoise des rencontres interculturelles in October 2007.

• On December 3, 2007, Desjardins.com was recognized as the best financial site in Canada for its accessibility for non-sighted users. This recognition comes from a Canada-wide study conducted by the Institut Nazareth et Louis-Braille (INLB) and the Coopérative Accessibilité Web. See the press release

• Since September 2007, we have been organizing internal diversity days.

• Desjardins offers young people age 18 to 30 the chance to complete a one-year practical internship on the Board of Directors of a caisse through its Young Intern Officer program. By working with the elected officers, young people can become familiar with the role of a caisse administrator and can make valuable professional contacts for their careers.

• Desjardins visits university campuses and career fairs to recruit young people.

• Desjardins Group hires many students from various cultures to work in its call centres, which provide flexible work schedules suitable for students. Our objective: to offer these students a job when they complete their education.

• Desjardins is present in many cultural communities. Several caisses, especially ones in large urban centres, have also developed their staff in order to help their members, in particular newcomers to Canada, carry out transactions in their mother tongue. In total, 21 languages are spoken in the Desjardins caisse network.

• The new Desjardins advertising campaign reflects its cultural diversity.

• We reach out to cultural communities in several ways, namely by providing guidance for using our personal services and by building business networks of contacts with businesses that represent these communities.

• The Carrefour Desjardins, which opened in January 2007, makes Desjardins Group more accessible to the multicultural reality in the Greater Montreal area.