Ways to Nurture Inclusion for Indigenous Peoples in Canadian Workplaces
4 min read · February 10, 2021
Jennifer Thorpe-Moscon and Joy Ohm, Catalyst Research
Summary
Indigenous peoples are underrepresented in the workplace, experiencing wage gaps and often isolation because of a lack of Indigenous role models at senior levels. This report highlights the stress and racism that Indigenous peoples face in Canadian workplaces. The study findings point to actions that managers and team members can take to build understanding, relationships, and work environments to help Indigenous peoples belong, contribute, and thrive in the workplace.
The author says that many Indigenous peoples in Canada pay an ‘emotional tax’ and experience low psychological safety at work. This emotional tax is an idea that was first described in the Catalyst 2016 report, where they mention it as a "heightened experience of being different from peers at work because of your gender and race/ethnicity, being on guard for experiences of bias, and the associated effects on health, well-being, and the ability to thrive at work." The report shows that many Canadians of colour are constantly being 'on guard' and have a high intent to quit. Being on guard can emerge from enduring acts of bias or discrimination in society or the workplace.
Key findings
The report data sample consists of 86 Indigenous peoples working in Canada. With 43 self-reporting as women and 42 as men, one person identified as another gender. From the sample, about 68 percent of people identify as First Nation origin, 26 percent as Metis, and 5 percent as Inuit.
Emotional Tax:
More than half of survey respondents (52 percent) said that they are regularly on guard to experiences of bias, a hallmark of the emotional tax. Indigenous women (67 percent) reported this experience much more commonly than Indigenous men (38 percent), reflecting the disproportionate discrimination and violence they experience compared to other groups.
Psychological Safety:
61 percent of Indigenous peoples surveyed indicated that they do not or seldom feel psychologically safe at work. There was no significant difference between women and men.
Compared with Indigenous employees with low levels of psychological safety, the results suggest that those who experience high psychological safety are over five times more likely to experience being valued for their uniqueness, almost five times as likely to have a sense of belonging, and twice as likely to speak up when something is not right.
Takeaways
The study found that Indigenous employees feel more psychologically safe when leaders create an empowering workplace, show accountability, and demonstrate humility. Managers and teammates can take actions to help create an empowering environment, few ways mentioned in the report to empower everyone are as follows:
Empowerment: Foster opportunities for building respectful, genuine, and trusting relationships among all team members. Move toward a more collective mindset where the team's health and success are everyone's top priority — and giving back to the community is expected.
Accountability: Ask team members and leaders how they interrupt biased behaviours and processes. Set explicit goals for learning, collaboration, and potentially uncomfortable dialogues about colonialism, racism, sexism, and other complex topics.
Humility: Explore Indigenous values. One such example is the Anishinaabe People's Seven Teachings of love, respect, courage, honesty, humility, wisdom, and truth, which many Indigenous Peoples share across the land.
Read the full report here.
References
Thorpe-Moscon, J. & Ohm, J. (2021). Building inclusion for Indigenous Peoples in Canadian workplaces. Catalyst.
