CPABC champions equity and diversity for all

With 159 full-time and 12 part-time employees, the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia (CPABC) is not a large workplace. But as the training, governing and regulatory body for more than 40,000 CPAs and 6,000 students across the province, it represents and embodies the membership in all its diversity. That’s why it adopted a formal equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) plan in 2022.

“The intent is really to ensure that we are creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment that really supports our employees as well as our members,” explains president and CEO Lori Mathison. “Having a diverse team enables us to achieve our goal of protecting the public.”

As soon as she heard at a town hall meeting that the organization was establishing an EDI Alliance, Brianne Formosa volunteered to join. The associate director, practice review, a CPA herself, had served on a similar team at her previous employer, a public accounting firm. In its short history, CPABC’s 15-member alliance has launched an EDI book club, suggested topics for lunch-and-learn sessions and is now working on an employee guide for the use of appropriate language.

The work is just an extension of moves CPABC management was already making, including changes to health benefits to embrace the diversity in the workplace, Formosa says. She appreciates having that support.

“That’s helpful because even if you make suggestions, if your leadership isn’t behind it, meaningful change isn’t going to happen,” she says.

The CEO is certainly on board. “We want to make our staff more aware of the EDI issues affecting different people, with the ultimate goal of creating a culture of belonging, where everyone feels they can bring their full selves to work,” Mathison says.

To nurture that sense of belonging, CPABC also employs two different mentorship programs. When they join the organization, new hires are assigned a buddy under the organization’s Buddy Program who can help them navigate the unwritten rules and conventions of the workplace over their first 90 days. It’s important that the new recruit has a “trusted point of contact beyond their direct manager,” Mathison says. “That way, they have someone to go to with even the silly questions.”

More seasoned employees can enrol in the STARship program – an acronym for support, teach, aspire, reach – which pairs workers, usually from different departments, to lend an ear and share knowledge with each other on an ongoing basis.

It’s not all serious. Many CPABC employees have embraced an annual Halloween costume competition. Some take advantage of a Day of Giving once a year to volunteer for a cause of their choice rather than coming to work. They also have access to a sustainable commuting subsidy and a flex spending account for health and wellness. A newly renovated “work café” in the Vancouver office enhances the relaxing, stimulating work environment.

Looking to her future with the organization, Formosa last year signed up for the LEAD (leadership, education and development) program, which involved monthly, on-site classes with external instructors on topics such as influencing without authority, project management, critical thinking and problem solving. The six-month course wrapped up with a graduation ceremony last June.

“Definitely, I feel like I took a lot away and brought it back into my day-to-day work,” Formosa says. “I’m a big learner at heart and it’s nice to work for a place that supports that.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's BC’s Top Employers winners, published February 11, 2025 in the Vancouver Sun. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.