Canadian academic cites lack of understanding, 'tokenism' by employers in hiring from Indigenous community
This month, the Indigenous Employment Policy (IEP) came into effect in the Northwest Territories (GNWT).
The IEP's primary goal is to train and recruit Indigenous applicants for the public sector while providing equal opportunities and career growth.
But will policies like the IEP be enough to address challenges seen around recruiting and retaining Indigenous employee?
A report published in 2024 by the Yukon government found that many Indigenous individual respondents who were retired, pursuing careers, or had left the government, many faced significant barriers at every stage of the employment process.
During recruitment and interviews, the 170 participants reported that HR recruiters often failed to provide culturally appropriate accommodations. Among those who left, many cited a lack of cultural awareness in the workplace, feeling undervalued, and unclear expectations as key reasons for their departures
Susanne Thiessen, an associate professor at the University of Victoria, has seen barriers like this firsthand.
"I know a lot of Indigenous people... mostly directors going on stress leave because of these issues... of the expectations and the tokenism,” she says.
Thiessen, who is of Gitxsan, Scottish, and Canadian ancestry, focuses on the area of administrative science and decolonization. In the past, she has conducted research on the problems and ways that organizational structure and culture influence and engage First Nations people in Canada’s workplaces.
She says that there are different approaches employers and managers can take to recruit and help retain Indigenous employees while making sure to keep cultural context and decolonization practices in place.
“Recruitment is one area where I see organizations really missing opportunities to attract potential Indigenous talent,” says Thiessen. “I think the reason this happens, and I say this from experience with a non-profit, is that these organizations have systems for recruitment already set up.”
Many HR departments, she says, will follow bureaucratic systems when creating job ads that often can't be changed or adjusted. These ads are often created by managers who are on tight deadlines and won't stop to really think about strategic plans for how to attract indigenous employees.
When it comes to creating these job descriptions, Thiessen says managers need to think critically and question how an Indigenous person might see themself in the role, and how the employer plans to work effectively with Indigenous communities. Specifically, the reconciliation strategies and plans from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report.
Released in 2015, the report's 94 calls to action specifically calls out businesses to undertake initiatives that encourage inclusion and greater outcomes for Indigenous peoples.
If attracting Indigenous employees is an employer's main goal, then Indigenous history, reconciliation, or community engagement plans should be mentioned in the job description, says Thiessen.
“If an organization is truly desiring to put reconciliation in place, that would be an expectation of or a KSA [knowledge, skill and abilities] section somewhere in that job description,” she says.
Where these job ads are shared and posted is equally as important.
“Not all Indigenous people are going to see those postings,” Thiessen explains. “We have very broad but more niched networks in how we're communicating with other Indigenous people.”
Employers, she says, need to be intentional in the networks they use for engagement and recruitment.
Often, for many Indigenous people, work and life cannot be separate.
"We’re involved in family, community, and culture alongside our jobs," Thiessen says. "We take our hearts to work... and in taking your heart to work, you need the space to be able to be vulnerable,".
Due to this holistic approach, Thiessen emphasizes the importance of creating workplaces where vulnerability is welcomed, and deep trust can form. In Indigenous communities, colleagues often become like family, making relational bonds crucial to employee retention.
Recognizing cultural workdays also plays a big role in this.
Some employees, she shares, have cultural responsibilities, and traditional practices, so flexibility around cultural commitments, even without pay, makes a significant difference in supporting Indigenous
There are three specific strategies that employers can take to help with retention, Thiessen notes:personal, organizational, and systemic.
On a personal level, managers or employers should work to create opportunities for employees to come together to understand each other and build trust. Employees should have opportunities to learn about Canada’s history with Indigenous peoples, along with anti-racism, and trauma-informed practices, she explains.
The way of coming together, she says, should also not default to traditional corporate activities that can have some employees feeling excluded, such as communication in these settings.
As an associate professor, Thiessen says she will participate in a "circle meeting for communications."
"We use a circle to make sure that everybody has a voice, and everybody's views are valued and listened to. That changes the tone and the opportunity, and it creates equality in those spaces," she explains.
On an organizational level, Thiessen stresses that organizations should prioritize true decolonization frameworks — not to be mistaken with a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) framework.
"We're rights holders under the Constitution, under Section 35; we're also rights holders under the Indian Act... there are also many localized laws and treaties that we have that are specific to place and space. So, an organization should know and understand [those]," she says.
Understanding local Indigenous laws and history not only plays a part in the reconciliation process but should be embedded in organizational processes and systems.
"Make the space and the time to put the action behind reconciliation and that process of trust building and relationships,” Thiessen adds
