– Craig Hall & Kelly J. Lendsay
Canada has reached a juncture in Indigenous reconciliation. A new era of Indigenous relations has taken root, and it will affect the way that non-Indigenous companies conduct engagements, build relationships, and forge partnerships with Indigenous people, businesses, and communities. In this new era, companies can not afford to simply take a checkmark approach to their Indigenous relations strategies. More thoughtful and purposeful strategies are needed. This is the case in developing the Indigenous employment partnerships needed to accelerate and grow Indigenous employment, and to effectively build an Indigenous workforce. It requires dedicated planning and execution to be successful in this journey.
Indigenous Works, a national Indigenous not-for-profit organization has done a long take on the state of workplace inclusion and Indigenous employment in Canada. In 2024 it celebrates its 25th anniversary and as a national organization focused on building social capital between Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations, it has established some informed perspectives about Indigenous employment in Canada and what is needed in the coming years to further grow Indigenous jobs and careers.
Five factors to Understanding and Success
In today’s environment your mastery of the 5 key factors which are important to achieving success in Indigenous relations and employment include: (i) understanding the recent changes in the Indigenous landscape; (ii) navigating the Indigenous labour market ecosystem, (iii) refining your Indigenous employment brand; (iv) putting into place the right Indigenous employment and workplace policies, strategies, and practices; and (v) developing improved understanding and relationships with the Indigenous communities where you do business or conduct operations.
These management and organizational competencies will be part of the learning program of this year’s Inclusion Works ’24, a learning event which will be held in Nanaimo, British Columbia on October 8 to 10, 2024 with the title “Going Beyond the Checkmark for a New Era of Indigenous Inclusion”. The theme of Indigenous Work’s event underscores the importance of staying abreast of the changes which have ensued in Indigenous relations in the past few years, and why it is important that companies evolve their strategies and systems to align with these developments. Those who can get ahead of the curve are “going beyond the checkmark”.
The beginnings of Indigenous Works dates to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and the commentary of that 1996 report which drew attention to the gaps that existed between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples. The Aboriginal Human Resource Development Council of Canada (as Indigenous Works was then called) was established as a response to the opportunities that could come from “increasing Indigenous peoples’ full participation in the Canadian economy”. This mandate brought together leadership which established a board of directors with initial representation from private sector, government, Indigenous organizations, education, and labour.
Twenty-five years later, Inclusion Works ’24 event is focused on a review of the current state of relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, businesses, and communities. The main feature of the event is Indigenous employment and building the management and organizational skills needed to develop and guide your strategies in a landscape which has grown in its complexity in recent years. Many new developments have taken place in recent years and a reminder of the significant legal, social, economic, and political changes will provide Inclusion Works’ delegates with a common framework to ‘move beyond the checkmark’.
At the event, participants will learn what these changes in Indigenous relations have been about, including trends, the latest research and insights. Based on this changing picture, what new states of organizational readiness are needed to build more effective and authentic engagements, relationships, and partnerships in Canada today? What expectations and aspirations do First Nations, Métis, and Inuit currently have about their goals for sovereignty, self-determination, nation-to nation relationships, reconciliation and employment? At this juncture, what should non-Indigenous companies be doing to learn more about Indigenous people and their communities and to prepare themselves and their company for a new era in Indigenous inclusion?
A deeper understanding of the five factors which can grow your competitive edge and make your company more successful in your ability to establish relationships and partnerships and to attract, recruit, advance and retain Indigenous people for your workforce are highlighted here as a preview to Inclusion Works ’24.
In Canada, the last few years have seen some significant developments with reconciliation now becoming an imperative to which every company needs to respond. Companies need to read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action, determine which ones apply, and how best to construct a Reconciliation Action Plan. An important document which your company also needs to review is the 2022 ‘Indigenous Economic Strategy: Pathways to Socioeconomic Parity for Indigenous Peoples’ which was developed through a collaborative initiative with over twenty-five Indigenous organizations. The national economic strategy states that “if the gap in opportunities for Indigenous communities across Canada were closed, it would result in an increase in GDP of $27.7 billion annually or a boost of about 1.5% to Canada’s economy.” Given the same access to economic opportunities available to other Canadians the resulting increase in employment would result in an additional $6.9 billion per year in employment income and approximately 135,000 newly employed Indigenous Peoples.
The 2022 National Indigenous Economic Strategy features 107 interconnected Calls to Economic Prosperity within its four strategic pathways (People, Lands, Infrastructure and Finance). The Strategy highlights the importance of fostering and growing the social capital of Indigenous peoples, specifically in Call to Economic Prosperity #29 – that all entities establish Reconciliation Action Plans that are measurable and communicated publicly.
Many large companies have dedicated Indigenous Relations specialists who are struggling with the rapid pace of change they are seeing in the Indigenous landscape. Understanding the changes that have ensued in the Indigenous landscape will require deeper reading, research, and experiential learning. Companies also need to better understand the Indigenous labour market ecosystem which has been developing in many ways over the years. Today there are many organizations that companies can leverage to build their strategies and rely on to improve their reach and search for Indigenous talent. Your company needs to be able to navigate the growing ecosystem. Your success is dependent on the partnerships you establish with organizations that can offer expertise or channels to employment talent.
Other considerations which are feeding the complexity of today’s environment include the impacts of judicial wins which have achieved their tipping points. Indigenous people and organizations continue to fight new and innovative legal cases based on rights and self-determination. Indigenous organizations are also uniting and seeking equity positions in major projects. Expectations are increasing on the part of Indigenous people and governments. In this changing environment non-Indigenous companies need new approaches based on co-design and a better sense of what Indigenous communities are wanting to achieve for the long term.
Your Indigenous employment brand is the way that companies convey why Indigenous people will want to work for your company. What Indigenous people think of your company and what they see as the reasons why to choose a career with you needs to be clear. Remember that Indigenous people are looking for the kinds of careers that offer personal professional growth including ways that these careers can assist their communities.
Does your company have a dedicated Indigenous employment policy? This can be a way to affirm what your company stands for with its Indigenous employment and workplace inclusion goals. Effective policies are always supported by strong strategies and systems. Companies that have achieved success at Indigenous employment have generally brought clarity to the leadership, strategic, and tactical systems which guide Indigenous partnerships and employment. Often companies engage in co-design activities with Indigenous organizations to build these organizational practices and assets.
The companies which are successful in Indigenous employment have made a point of visiting the communities where they do business. They understand the goals the communities have established, and they understand that building trust takes time and effort. It is these factors and many others that are helping to define the current state of Indigenous relations and the need for more acute strategies which go beyond the checkmark approach.
Indigenous Works likens the process of building the organizational readiness and management strategies needed by companies to be successful at Indigenous employment and partnerships as a journey. Your company’s journey is like a canoe trip that requires a better knowledge of the waterways you are traversing. In the early days you are just learning your balance and a few key paddle strokes. Gradually, you become adept at paddling alone in different waterways, sometimes slow and steady, and sometimes through difficult bends in the river. Gradually you learn to paddle together as part of a team. Further along in your journey you gain a mastery of the skills and understandings needed and you find you are paddling alongside Indigenous people in synchronous routes and understandings. Effective Indigenous relations is best undertaken in a precision craft equipped with a map of the waterways and everyone working together in a common direction.
For 25 years Indigenous Works has been working with companies to build the management and organizational skills needed to be successful in their respective Indigenous relations journeys to achieve exemplary Indigenous partnerships and employment results. Inclusion Works ’24 in Oct 8-10 in Nanaimo will offer a showcase of learning to help companies get beyond the checkmark approach and to navigate in a new era of inclusion.
1 – 2022 National Indigenous Economic Strategy. p.18. https://niestrategy.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/NIES_English_FullStrategy_2.pdf
2 – National Economic Strategy. Original reference is from the National Indigenous Economic Development Board, ‘Reconciliation: Moving Canada Forward by $27.7 Billion, 2016.’
