Inclusive Leaders Wanted!
This guest blog post from HRTech’s CEO, Stephanie Hollingshead, was created to bring awareness of diversity and inclusion resources and training programs to increase the attraction, retention and advancement of under-represented groups in skilled occupations in B.C.'s Tech sector.
Want to support your diverse team members and promote inclusion at work?
Create trust. Speak up. Be accountable.
Whether you are a summer intern or a vice president, you can be an ally for under-represented groups. Women, Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, people of colour, newcomers to Canada and individuals who identify as LGBTQ/2S are under-represented in employment sectors across B.C.
Both visible and overlooked
In Canada, people of colour regularly face systemic racism and barriers in the workplace and in other parts of their lives. The racism and barriers impact people of colour’s comfort, safety, mental and emotional wellbeing, and their likelihood of being hired or promoted. Such conditions also affect their earnings.
Supporting Indigenous employees to thrive
Equality for all requires thoughtful engagement with Canada’s First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. Engagement and inclusion for Indigenous peoples begins with a deeper understanding of these diverse groups.
The skilled talent of newcomers
Immigrants and refugees have left all that they knew behind and are building a new life in Canada. Through their unique experiences and often strong educations, newcomers to Canada have unique perspectives and skills that can benefit any company that hires them. Yet time and time again, we hear that newcomers are not hired despite their qualifications, because they lack Canadian work experience. Many times, immigrants and refugees are filtered out of the process due to cultural differences in resume and cover letter formats, interview practices, or biased assumptions on language proficiency.
Removing barriers for people with disabilities
Research shows that having employees with disabilities improves a workplace’s productivity, morale, and innovation, as well as a company’s consumer reach, yet people with disabilities face significant stigma and workplace biases that prevent them from getting and keeping work.
Elevating women in the workplace
A gender inclusive workplace makes sure that women have a fair opportunity to be hired or promoted into any roles and to take part in the company’s decision-making processes. While many workplaces achieve gender parity in lower level positions, representation of women starts to fall off at the level of manager.
Safe spaces for all sexual orientations and gender identities
Many queer, transgender, and Two-Spirit professionals have experienced bullying, rejection or exclusion in the workplace due to their gender identities or sexual orientation. That does not need to be the experience your teammates have.
An ally is someone who speaks up and advocates for members of under-represented groups.
Allyship means using your privilege to advocate for others and promote equity and inclusion. It also means doing the work of questioning your own biases. (We all have them!)
Individuals from under-represented groups should not have to shoulder the burden of educating everyone on inclusive behaviours. Allies support them by stepping up and helping to shift behaviours and attitudes.
Allyship at work involves educating others. It can be encouraging your peers to correct their language or behaviours. You can counter microaggressions that you observe. Depending on your position, you might have different opportunities to be an ally. You could encourage an individual to put their name forward for a role or project. You might consider being a mentor. You might even use your voice to ensure others are heard by reinforcing what they are saying in meetings or crediting their ideas.
HR Tech Group recently launched the D&I Resource HUB, a free online Diversity and Inclusion tool that provides access to more than 300 diversity and inclusion resources and tools. There is an entire section of resources for Allyship.
Learn what you can do. Inspire and influence others to take action.
Become an inclusive leader.