It was 26 years ago, Vinita Savani remembers, when she spoke to an on-campus recruiter from RBC about becoming an advisor at a branch after graduating with a commerce degree.
“Even back then, RBC spoke about the culture, but the opportunity to learn, grow and develop was most attractive to me,” says Ms. Savani, who is now senior vice-president of personal lending and auto finance, after moving through several roles throughout her career at RBC, including senior vice-president and regional president of Atlantic Canada.
From the start, RBC “was an incredible environment. It was very supportive with numerous investments in learning, development and training,” she says. “There is a lot of opportunity and encouragement to try things that are different. And that’s really helped me grow and develop as a leader.”
“I’ve learned to be willing to adapt,” she says, noting that during the pandemic she moved to a new role in a new location with new people. There, she had to “be aware of what’s happening in the environment and to never get fixated or to get tied to an idea, because the world around us was changing so quickly.”
She’s also seen the value of having mentors, as well as being one. Ms. Savani had several formal mentorship opportunities as a participant in RBC’s Accelerating Women in Executive Leadership Action Team and being part of RBC’s NextGen Employee Resource Group. She’s shared her expertise by mentoring up-and-coming leaders, many of whom are women and visible minorities and have risen to senior roles.
Not all organizations are able to attract and retain women talent throughout their careers. In fact, McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace report details the troubling trend of women in leadership positions leaving their companies due to a lack of advancement, overwork and the desire for a better, more inclusive work environment. RBC is finding ways to address these challenges, in an effort to buck the trend.
Katherine Gibson, is RBC’s interim chief financial officer and senior vice-president, finance and controller who joined RBC more than 20 years ago. “There’s been no reason for me to leave, as my career goals and aspirations were consistently met through roles that RBC had within the overall organization,” she explains. Those roles “were building development experiences for me that would allow me to take on more senior roles.” RBC “has a culture of fostering talent and I’ve been the beneficiary of that,” she adds.
