AIMCo job cuts raise questions about commitment to inclusion, critics say

The Alberta Investment Management Corporation's removal of an employee in charge of formal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives raises questions about the corporation's commitment to fostering a positive work environment, human resources experts say.

AIMCo, the Crown corporation responsible for managing $160-billion worth of provincial government investments and 500,000 current and former Alberta workers' pensions, said on Tuesday it cut 19 jobs from "non-investment areas," including the sole person in charge of running the DEI program.

Spokesperson Carolyn Quick said in a written statement it has not lessened the corporation's commitment to inclusion, and that "vibrant employee resource groups" remain intact.

"All AIMCo colleagues will continue to share the responsibility and accountability for ensuring AIMCo remains diverse, inclusive, innovative and motivating, in keeping with our corporate objectives and core values," Quick wrote.

Quick did not answer a question about whether the Alberta government or the board has given any instructions to reduce DEI initiatives.

"AIMCo's mandate is to earn the highest returns at the lowest cost, and though they manage their operations independently – we support them in making decisions that reduce their operating expenses," said Finance Minister Nate Horner in a statement. 

Horner did not answer a question about whether the government had given such orders.

The job reductions follow a dramatic November shakeup in which Alberta's finance minister fired AIMCo's board, CEO, and three other senior executives. Horner said the move came because he was worried about AIMCo's investment performance and its rising expenses.

Among the executives fired in November was Krista Pell, who was in charge of human resources and "responsible for supporting AIMCo's DEI strategy and targets," according to a 2022 AIMCo news release.

Following the firings,  Horner appointed the Alberta government's top civil servant, Ray Gilmour, as interim CEO of AIMCo. After briefly replacing the board with himself, Horner appointed former prime minister Stephen Harper as board chair, and gave his deputy minister of finance a permanent seat on AIMCo's board.

Helen Ofosu, a human resources consultant and adjunct psychology professor at Ottawa's Carleton University, says removing leaders in charge of inclusion and diversity sends the message those principles don't matter to the organization.

"That's basically telling people who may be dealing with a disability, being a visibly racialized person, a religious minority — any of those people all of a sudden start to feel like, 'Hmm, what is my place here? Do I matter?' "

Experts say diverse investment teams get bigger returns

Laura McGee, founder and CEO of Diversio, which provides training to companies to become more inclusive, said employers aren't just interested in DEI because it makes them look good.

She said more diverse businesses generate more revenue and profit and are more innovative. She pointed to a longitudinal study that found a more diverse team of investment managers were more successful at picking high-performing stocks.

McGee said removing the employee in charge of DEI could signal an organization is distributing the responsibility for inclusion across the organization, or it could represent a retreat from the practice.

An investment manager like AIMCo placing less priority on DEI "wouldn't bode amazingly for their future returns," McGee said.

Abandoning DEI objectives would be irresponsible, she said, as corporate managers have a fiduciary duty to investors to maximize financial performance.

Sebastien Betermier, an associate professor of finance at McGill University, did not comment specifically on AIMCo's employee reductions, but said diversity is important on any team responsible for high-stakes investments.

"One of the most dangerous things in investments is groupthink, and you're no longer able to look at all perspectives at a problem," he said.

The teams must predict changes happening years in the future to realize long-term payoffs, in a world that is rapidly changing, he said.

He said investment managers need employees who foster a collaborative culture.

"What you do not want is a situation where each of these asset classes invests in separate ways without necessarily speaking to each other," Betermier said.

AIMCo did not answer questions about whether more organizational changes are on the way. The corporation has about 640 employees in Canada.

Betermier says he's watching to see whether AIMCo will reduce employees from its offices in Singapore, Luxembourg and London, England. He said it's advantageous for investment managers to have employees on the ground to build relationships and maximize intelligence.