Indigenous Recruitment and Retention

Link to the ResearchGate.net Original Document

This report was prepared for Government of Canada’s Interdepartmental Circles on Indigenous Representation in the Public Service in March 2017. Artwork © Donnell Taylor, from “Mother Teachings”. Used with permission.

It shows that the Government of Canada is already engaged in many of the best practices outlined in the literature, including having a clear representative workforce police, a voluntary self-declaration system in place for Indigenous employees, buy-in from the top, Indigenous youth recruitment programs, and partnerships with Indigenous organizations. Some federal departments and agencies also engage in the best practices of executive champions for Indigenous issues and outreach at educational and employment events.

This report outlines further actions the Government of Canada could take, based on best practices identified in the academic and grey literature. Some of the more transformative best practices include:

Recognize that transformation is a necessary step in reconciliation and building new and respectful relationships, and would also benefit non-Indigenous employees and the people of Canada as a whole;

Perform a workplace cultural audit which looks at structures, policies and practices for their impact on and inclusion of Indigenous employees.

Provide training in Indigenous issues for all public service employees in all occupational categories and at all levels in fulfillment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 57th call to action;

In addition to this training, provide training for managers in effective and collaborative modern management techniques, which would include a component of at least one day on managing Indigenous employees;

Provide training and tools for managers and human resources personnel on cultural sensitivity to Indigenous candidates in the hiring process.

Add Indigenous cultural sensitivity to competencies expected of all employees at every level and occupation, and support their training;

Establish an Indigenous Human Resource Unit or resource person in every department and agency;

When exit interviews are not always undertaken, prioritize exit interviews with Indigenous employees conducted by someone with cultural sensitivity, and pool exit interview data for Indigenous employees across departments and agencies to look for patterns and potential solutions;

Change employee evaluation forms to focus on employee strengths at least as much as employee deficits;

Appoint an Indigenous Ombudsperson for the Public Service of Canada who could: conduct workplace audits for cultural sensitivity and accommodation for Indigenous peoples; deal with complaints from Indigenous employees related to discrimination or lack of cultural accommodation and have the authority to issue remedies; promote and publicize best practices; report directly to the Clerk of the Privy Council, Prime Minister or Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs; and report annually about how to make the Government of Canada a better workplace for Indigenous employees;

Review job descriptions and postings particularly in regional offices in areas in which there are large Indigenous populations to ensure that value is placed on knowledge and experience of the local Indigenous culture and language. This might involve creating new job categories, such as “PM-02 – Indigenous”, in which cultural and linguistic knowledge are a part of the essential rather than asset qualifications of the position;

Wherever an employee may be based, place value on knowledge of an Indigenous language and allow Indigenous and non-Indigenous public servants to make learning an Indigenous language a part of their training plan.

Address the concentration of Indigenous employees in certain occupations and departments, and provide a recruitment and retention incentive, through the establishment of an Indigenous Career Development Program, in which existing Indigenous employees would be supported to train for some public service occupations in which Indigenous peoples are under-represented;

Create a leadership training program for Indigenous employees that would have all the features of leadership programs plus address specific issues such as tensions between communities and Government; handling experiences of discrimination; and exploring whether and how to incorporate traditional values and strengths into one’s work. Program cohorts could provide peer support to one another as they progress through the public service;

Conduct research with existing Indigenous employees and managers about Indigenous recruitment and retention;

Recognize excellence in the promotion of Indigenous recruitment, retention, or making the workplace welcoming for Indigenous peoples;

Consider broadening concepts of bilingualism to include placing value on Indigenous languages;

Ensure that Employee Assistance Programs are able to offer Indigenous-specific cultural options, and can address mental health and distress concerns arising from bullying and discrimination against Indigenous peoples in the workplace;

Acknowledge the effects that past and ongoing trauma may have on employees, the high rates of trauma among Indigenous peoples, and investigate the steps that would have to be taken to become a trauma-informed workplace.

Build-in cultural accommodation around definitions of family for purposes of bereavement leave and family leave in recognition that employees may have been raised in whole or in part by aunts, grandmothers or others, and may have some responsibility for children who are neither their biological nor legally adopted children;

Acknowledge that for the purposes of bereavement leave, there may be a cultural expectation or need on the part of an employee from a small community to attend the funerals of some community members;

Acknowledge that some Indigenous employees require time off for re-connection to community or to traditional practices;

Considering the higher fertility rate among Indigenous peoples in Canada, which is particularly high for Inuit, consider developing creative solutions and partnerships to meet the child care needs of potential Indigenous employees, particularly those who must move from far away to take a position with the Government of Canada.

Work with unions to develop cultural accommodation policies that are viewed as the norm and where managers would have to justify in writing to the appropriate authority why cultural accommodation could not be given;

Inuit are historically, culturally and linguistically distinct from other Indigenous groups and recognized as one of three Indigenous groups in the Canadian Constitution. As the most recently colonized Indigenous peoples and forming a disproportionate number of survivors of residential schools, many Inuit face both intergenerational and ongoing trauma, are closer to traditional economies than most Indigenous peoples, and statistically, on average, have the lowest rates of education, employment and highest fertility of any Indigenous group. Inuit also offer strengths and expertise, but this is often not adequately recognized as such within the public service. It is not possible to see how Inuit are doing in the public service, as they are subsumed under the “Aboriginal persons” group;

Strengthen its existing partnerships with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the Government of Nunavut, and public service unions to conduct an Inuit-specific cultural audit of Nunavut government workplaces and determine courses of action that would include experiments with structural change as well as changes in policies and procedures to facilitate the recruitment, retention and advancement of Inuit;

Pilot a team approach in a workplace, in which skills are shared, decision-making takes place more consensually and in which employees can teach and learn skills from one another as a part of their job expectations;

Establish a Government of Canada office in Nunavut to provide on the job support and training to any Nunavut-based employee of any federal department or agency, whether Inuit or non-Inuit, which could include help with writing and editing skills, administrative and management skills, Inuit language skills and cultural competency;

Streamline the bureaucratic application process for Nunavut jobs wherever possible and find ways to focus on the ability to do the job rather than meet all the qualifications on paper;

Build on existing best practices of a housing allowance and travel allowance, which recognize the particular circumstances and difficulties faced by employees in Nunavut, to also add a greater education and training allowance for employees who have not had the opportunities most southern Canadians have had to further their education and training, and work with partners to develop creative solutions to support employees with child care responsibilities;

Work with partners to build on the best practices that will be identified by Employment and Social Development Canada’s Nunavut Inuit Labour Force Analysis (NILFA) team in its current research, and make all documents pertaining to NILFA and the Government of Canada’s Inuit Employment Plans, performance measures and evaluations public to increase accountability.

The best assets for recruiting and retaining Indigenous employees are existing Indigenous employees. Some departments and agencies already engage in the following best practices: an Indigenous Employee Network, career counselling and mentoring, visibly valuing Indigenous peoples in physical spaces, conducting and learning from exit interviews with Indigenous employees. This varies widely by department and agency.

Marika Morris