Board Resolution 2013-10-05(c)

Meeting room

Topic: Fiduciary
Subtopic: Diversity Fiduciary Policy
Date: 10/25/2013
Status: Active

Policy Regarding Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Diversity of Fiduciaries

Purpose

This policy defines IMRF's goals for diversity in its senior staff and fiduciaries.

Philosophy

The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund is committed to diversity in all hiring, employment, and contracting decisions and to providing opportunities for minorities, women and persons with a disability to have a meaningful role at IMRF.

Board of Trustees

IMRF's goal is to achieve diversity through the current Board election process. Trustees are elected by employers, members, and annuitants. No trustees are appointed or hold office ex-officio. The Board of Trustees encourages individuals who qualify as minority to run for the Board of Trustees. In addition, stakeholder groups representing IMRF members and employers are encouraged to seek out qualified minorities to support in all elections for the IMRF Board of Trustees.

Senior Staff

IMRF's goal is that staff diversity levels mirror the external recruiting area. Senior staff consists of directors, managers, supervisors, and team leaders.

IMRF defines its external recruiting area as six northeast Illinois counties - Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will. The population for comparison is taken from the US Census 2000 "total civilian labor force."

IMRF will work to ensure its workforce reflects the recruiting area's population or the population diversity of the recruiting area diversity as reported in the most recent decennial census.

IMRF considers its existing employee population as the primary recruiting base for senior staff positions. By having a diverse staff at all levels of the organization, the Fund offers internal promotion opportunities to reflect diversity on its senior staff.

IMRF has an internal job posting program which requires all open positions to be posted without exception. By providing a variety of training and development programs, all staff members have the opportunity to gain the required education and skills to apply for senior staff openings.

The programs include a tuition reimbursement program, available upon hire; and a Succession Plan Program, with a separate tuition reimbursement program and training programs, with eligibility after two years of employment.

All staff involved in hiring and employment processes, including Human Resources, must perform their roles with the highest integrity as required by IMRF's Code of Conduct and Business Ethics policies.

The IMRF Employee Handbook states the following:

IMRF does not tolerate discrimination towards applicants, employees, visitors, or vendors, on the basis of gender, race, color, religion, family status, military and veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, age or political beliefs.

Even though IMRF is not subject to annual filing requirements of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), we will annually complete an "EEO-1 form" to monitor the racial, ethnic and gender diversity of the entire staff.

Other Fiduciaries

In addition to the Board of Trustees and IMRF staff, other third party consultants act as fiduciaries to the Fund. When searching for consultants, IMRF is committed to diversity in hiring such firms. IMRF will also work to ensure that majority firms acting as ficuciaries will hire and promote minorities into top management and ownership positions. IMRF will obtain EEO-1 forms from the consultants to monitor the racial, ethnic and gender diversity of their staff and owners.