“The difference between behaviours that were tolerated in the eighties and what’s accepted now are immense,” says Wendy Cukier, founder of the Diversity Institute at Ryerson University. “People had sunshine girls all over the walls, they would comment on your body parts and other women’s body parts, and there was no recourse. You simply sucked it up.” Thankfully, after decades of striving for equality and diversity in the workplace, we’ve come a long way.

As Canadians, diversity is as much a part of our culture as politeness, toques, and Tim Hortons. According to the 2012 Forbes Insights report, our country is ranked seventh on the global diversity index, which reflects the diversity of our workforce, which has significantly grown over the years. While there’s still a lot of room for growth and progress, we’ve definitely made some impressive strides.

Human resource departments love to use terms like diversity, inclusion, and tolerance, but what do they mean for employees? In order to ensure diversity and inclusion is put into practice in your workplace, it’s important to have an understanding of these terms. “Diversity refers to the idea that we see real or perceived differences between people based on certain characteristics,” says Dr. Ron Ophir, assistant professor at the School of Human Resource Management at York University. “They can be demographic characteristics, or they can be more functional. It’s very broad, while inclusion is about how different people feel that they belong, and whether they have a voice that is a full part of an organization.”

Dr. Ophir also notes that, while the terms diversity and inclusion definitely belong in the same camp, they can mean very different things. “Inclusion deals with being a real full fledged member, compared to diversity which in general doesn’t [necessarily] take that into account.

This idea of diversity and inclusion in the workplace didn’t just pop out of thin air. Several historic moments in Canadian   history have played a role in paving the road for equality in the workplace. In 1919, women were given the right to vote, which brought us a step closer to gender equality. In 1960, non-enfranchised aboriginal people were given the right to vote. The civil rights movements during the sixties also played a huge role in the advancement of gender, class, and race equality. These moments in history helped lay the foundation for what would become the Employment Equity Act in 1986 (and later revised in 1995). The act is meant to encourage equal opportunities in the workplace for women, people with disabilities, aboriginal people, and visible minorities.

Michael Bach, the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at KPMG, notes that we’ve arrived at a good place more recently. “If I look back, the eighties were about exclusion. There was blatant discrimination going on. The nineties was the ‘I treat everyone the same’ generation, where phrases like ‘I’m colour blind’ came about. Whereas, in the 2000’s and beyond, there’s been the recognition that differences exist--though not all employers actually do this.

“It’s really been a game changer because now we’re saying ‘Okay, we need to talk about the different cultures people come from, their expectations, and their work style. It’s become a much more complex situation, but it’s also become a more valuable conversation,” says Bach.

Though admittedly complex, these are the types of conversations organizations are more than willing to have. That’s because of the business case, which “takes a financial, cost efficient look at diversity and says that there are a variety of reasons for why having a diverse workforce will be good for the organization,” says Ophir. “A diverse group has the potential of reaching better solutions to problems and identifying those problems sooner. So there’s the benefit of having multiple points of views from people coming from multiple different backgrounds.”

The fact that businesses now view diversity as an asset is indicative of how far we’ve come with equity in the workplace. It’s also a sign of our changing culture in Canada and how businesses must adapt in order to breed success. “Demographics are changing, the marketplace is changing, the workforce is changing, so companies need to take advantage of diversity and inclusiveness,” says Janet Naidu, the president and founder of HR Diversity Solutions Canada. “These terms are important because without them it’s like a melting pot, which is not what we’re about in Canada. Canadians value their cultural identities—and all identities as a matter of fact. So these words act as pillars that corporations continue to put in their mission statements.”

Although Canada has made leaps and bounds towards greater diversity and inclusion in the workplace, we still have a ways to go. “I think we’re comprised of people from different backgrounds and it’s part of our source of pride. And rightfully so! But that does not mean that all issues of discrimination have been resolved,” says Ophir. “We’re sadly far from it …. It’s not intentional, but adverse impact happens when we have seemingly neutral policies or practices on how we treat people, but we actually are not aware of the discrimination that happens as a result of that.”

So, where do we go from here? Bach, for example, would like to see the Employment Equity Act to be updated to include the LGBT segment of the population. Naidu says that simply to have these policies isn’t enough, they need to be brought alive by engaging the employees. “Create a diversity day, create affinity groups …. Have some sort of awareness session for employees. Without engagement, you lose the whole message that you have in your mission statement on diversity and inclusion.”

We’ve progressed from a time when policies on diversity, inclusion, and equality in the workplace didn’t even exist to a time when these policies are actually important to a company’s growth and success. The important thing to remember is that worthwhile change always takes time. “We’re talking about a cultural and societal change in many of these situations, so they don’t happen in a vacuum and they don’t happen in one day,” says Ophir. When working towards positive change, all we can do is take it one victory at a time.