Diversity

Is diversity an important criteria for the work place? How is it or should it be defined and how does SierraSil as a business stack up?

As I reflect on this, I’ll note that as a Vancouver based company, population diversity is par for the course. On a recent hire opportunity, our five person applicant pool had personal connections to Colombia, India, Iran, Japan and Russia. Not one was born and raised locally!

SierraSil has seven full time employees and a number of part time employees or contractors with particular experience such as regulatory expertise or internet marketing. Our full time staff includes 4 males, 3 females. Currently our part time team includes 5 females and 3 males. In terms of ‘senior positions’, we are evenly divided among gender lines, although we have male President.

Ethnically, our staff has personal links (birth or raised) in a number of countries including Australia, Canada, India, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Switzerland, and the USA. Not quite a UN, but still a pretty good mix for a small team.

Age wise, we range from 20 something to 50 something, but if you include our board, that stretches to 80 something (still young at heart and active, thanks to SierraSil).

As a small business, our informal hiring policy is to hire the candidate who is the best fit (for them and for our business), and to do so without racial, gender, sexual, religious or other restrictions or biases. While we have no physical ability limited employees at present, our work place is wheel chair friendly and we desire to provide a respectful environment for staff, guests and callers.

Michael Bentley