BMO Wins ATD BEST Award for Talent Development and Corporate Learning

TORONTO, Oct. 27, 2021

Distinguishing corporations that demonstrate enterprise-wide success through talent development, ATD's BEST Award is one of the industry's most rigorous and coveted recognitions. Winners include small and large, private, public, and not-for-profit organizations from around the world.

"We are honoured to be recognized, once again by ATD with a BEST award. The award showcases our Purpose to Boldly Grow the Good through a winning culture," said Karen Collins, Chief Talent Officer at BMO. "We are embracing new ways of working and learning with agile approaches, minimizing complexity, streamlining processes, and investing in enabling technology to drive innovation, efficiency, effectiveness and wellbeing for our employees and customers."

As a champion of employee development, BMO has been at the forefront of corporate learning initiatives for more than 25 years. The bank invested $65.8 million in employee training in 2020, an average of $1,478 per employee. As organizations continue to navigate evolving workplaces, the expansion of business models, and rapid technology shifts – especially with the COVID-19 pandemic – these changes necessitate investment in skills and education.

"We're passionate about creating an environment where everyone can build future-focused skills and thrive," said Gina Jeneroux, BMO's Chief Learning Officer. "In line with BMO's commitment to Zero Barriers to Inclusion, a key way we level the playing field is through learning. The goal is to create solutions that hit the mark and spark curiosity, with experiences that feel like they were 'made for me'. As we focus on innovating and building skills for today and tomorrow, we champion opportunities for team members to learn and grow in ways that matter to them."

With its unwavering commitment to learning and development, BMO has created a variety of resources and programs to enable industry-leading talent development across the company, such as:

• 'BMO Forward' Future of Work Reskilling Program: Helps employees build cutting-edge skills in areas like data science, analytics, AI, cybersecurity, and digi-tech. It also includes 'human' skills – such as empathy, resilience, judgement, and cultural intelligence – to forge stronger connections among individuals, teams and customers. The goal is to raise the water line for all employees, help experts stay at the top of their game, and equip leaders to lead in a new context. To date, approximately 8000 employees have engaged in this voluntary program.
• BMO U: A mobile, 24/7 learning platform that provides personalized experiences with easy access to thousands of formal and informal learning resources, insights, experts, and learning communities. Approximately 80 per cent of all BMO employees are active users.
•  BMO Institute for Learning (BMO IFL): This state-of-the-art learning facility in Toronto offers a range of educational options from formal classroom programs and online courses, to digital resources and on-the-job development activities, so employees can choose what, where, and how they build their skills.

For more information on BMO's commitment to building a diverse and engaged workforce, visit: https://jobs.bmo.com/ca/en.