Case study:
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ)

Industry

Arts and culture

Selected solutions

Customized training

Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), located in the heart of downtown Montreal, offers free access to the largest collection of French-language books and documents in North America. Its team of over 650 people is constantly striving to improve the quality of its services in order to play a leading role in Quebec's cultural sector, and to be leaders in their fields of expertise.

Challenge to solve

The Grande Bibliothèque, located in the heart of the city, plays an essential role as a meeting place and resource for the Montreal community. However, it faces a major challenge: managing interactions with a highly diverse user population.

Library staff, often ill-equipped to deal with these interactions, were faced with unexpected and sometimes tricky situations. The diversity of our users, including the elderly, the homeless, people with disabilities, people dealing with mental health issues, and people of all genders and sexualities, calls for an inclusive and caring approach. Since employees do not always have the necessary skills and tools to respond effectively to these varied needs, BAnQ called on the expertise of URelles.

Proposed solution

The coaching offered by URelles was designed to respond proactively to the challenges faced by BAnQ. Using a participative and dynamic approach, we developed a customized training program, called “Benevolence and unconscious bias”, to raise awareness and equip staff to better understand and feel confident in their interactions with a diverse clientele.

The training was co-constructed beforehand with members of staff, in order to fully understand their needs. The end result:

13 groups of around 20 people were trained in 2023, for a total of 195 employees.
This interactive format enabled everyone to get involved and take part in situations tailored to their daily lives.
Training was given separately to employees and managers, allowing everyone to be authentic and express their concerns.

Between the two workshops :

Online questionnaire sent to participants.

Gather questions and real-life situations from the workplace to address in the second workshop.

Impact of DEI workshops

BAnQ employees rated the training they received 4.7/5.

Staff were made aware of unconscious biases and their impact on day-to-day interactions.

BAnQ employees have gained a better understanding of DEI principles and their role in promoting inclusion.

What BAnQ thought of our collaboration

The comments that emerged referred to the strong impression left by the trainer, as well as a desire to continue discussions between colleagues on specific situations and to take DEI learning further. Since the training, we've noticed a more marked interest on the part of several participants to go deeper into notions and knowledge.”

- Sébastien Petterson, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Advisor, BAnQ

If you had to choose three words to describe working with URelles, what would they be?

Professionnalism

Excellent listening skills

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Case study:Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ)