NEADS Conference 2004 - Right On!

Sponsorship

BMO Financial Group

BMO Financial Group Logo

BMO's people strategies focus on the importance of talented, engaged and high performing employees. Developing an equitable and supportive workplace, which reflects the diversity of the communities in which BMO does business, are objectives that are explicitly aligned with strategic initiatives from the top and, which, are carefully measured and connected to performance.

BMO has been a leader in the area of diversity and workplace equity since they first launched their Task Force on the Employment of People with Disabilities in 1992. It was the third in a series of Task Forces launched by the President and CEO Tony Comper. Others were The Advancement of Women (1991), The Advancement of Aboriginal Employment (1992) and The Advancement of Visible Minorities (1995). A direct result of the findings from this report is BMO's innovative, centralized workplace accommodation policy created to ensure the provision of support to people with disabilities from recruitment to ongoing employment. The policy covers the cost of individual accommodations such as JAWS software, workplace modifications, technological support for the learning disabled, and ASL interpreters.

Learning and professional development continues to be a high priority and is a central part of BMO Financial Group's Corporate Values. BMO seeks to accelerate individual employee performance through access to job specific knowledge and skills learning opportunities. BMO is committed to fostering an environment where all colleagues receive consistent and candid feedback from their managers on how to build their current capabilities to enhance performance and develop new skills that provide potential opportunities for advancement.

Established in 1817, as BMO, BMO Financial Group (NYSE, TSX: BMO) is a highly diversified financial services organization. With more than 34,000 employees, BMO provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and solutions. BMO Financial Group serves clients across Canada and in the United States through its Canadian retail arm BMO Bank of Montreal, Chicago-based Harris Bank, a major U.S. mid-west financial services organization which also has wealth management offices across the United States, and BMO Nesbitt Burns, one of Canada's leading full-service investment firms.