The Americans may have their melting pot, but as any Canadian-schooled person knows, the Great White North is a mosaic of cultures. With the ethnic quotient ever on the rise through immigration, women still striving for more equality in the workplace, visible minorities still struggling to fit into the workforce and climb its ladders, it’s important that Canadian workplaces adequately reflect the country’s expanding mosaic. The question is “how?”

It’s the law

First and foremost, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has enshrined this as a protective measure. The Supreme Court ruled that section 15 of the Charter “allows for certain laws or programs that favour disadvantaged individuals or groups. For example, programs aimed at improving employment opportunities for women, Aboriginal peoples, visible minorities, or those with mental or physical disabilities are allowed under section 15(2).”

Veronica Utton, HR director for UNICEF Canada, takes a pragmatic stance on how best to foster diversity in the voluntary sector, advising hiring managers and organizations to set out clear goals and visions when hiring for diversity.

“The [hiring] guidelines for nonprofits are no different than what exists for the private and public sectors. (i.e. Human Rights Code, Employment Standards, etc.) However, an organization’s own philosophy, culture and policies will certainly influence its practices as it relates to diversity in the workplace,” Utton says. She adds that in any given workplace, diversity will usually be reflected by location.

“The level of diversity in any given market is directly related to the community that you target, and diversity is about reflecting the community in which you’re situated. (i.e. Toronto is known for its extensively diverse population as compared to many of the other major cities across Canada.),” she says. Utton stresses however, that UNICEF’s ultimate objective is to hire the best possible candidate for a given role.

“The recruitment process needs to focus on an individual’s ability to successfully perform the requirements of the job and not whether they help the organization meet particular ‘diversity goals’,” she states.

That said, Utton acknowledges that diversity recruitment is not generally an issue in an organization like UNICEF. “Given who we are as an organization, and that we have a presence in over 156 countries and territories, we literally attract applications from every corner of the world.”

But beyond the intrinsic laws of the land, other human resource experts say it’s not enough to rely on the legalities. Instead, organizations that want to foster a diverse workforce must be philosophically inclined to ensure it comes to be in their particular workplace.

Expand your organization’s mind

Kay Blair, executive director for Microskills, a community-based training centre in Toronto working with newcomers, women and youth to find meaningful employment, says it’s imperative for organizations to not just hire for diversity, but to build it into their everyday operations.

“People spend a great deal of their lives in the workplace. So we need to create the kind of workplace that can let employees experience a sense of community and belonging,” Blair says. “To sustain diversity in the workplace, one has to look at how decisions are made. Are the perspectives of diverse workers reflected in the decision-making processes in an organization? It’s constantly examining the organization…and seeing if each employee can contribute to the organization and have a say in the way that workplace [functions].”

And it goes beyond that.

Disbanding the ‘Old Boy’s Club’

According to Blair, there’s a major distinction to be made between hiring for diversity and actually executing diversity in an organization.

“I’m of the opinion that workplace representation is not diversity, because representation doesn’t necessarily speak to inclusion. If you really want to create a diverse workforce, then you’ve got to be prepared to unlearn some of the traditional practices and embrace ones that are inclusive,” she says. “One can look at the Federal Employment Equity Act, the Multiculturalism Act and the [Charter of Rights and Freedoms]. I think those are a good guideline for hiring practices for any sector and in particular the nonprofit sector. But I believe that diversity should be seen as an ethical perspective and shouldn’t be restricted to the legalities of inclusion in a workplace.” Others concur.

Sarah Gayer, CHRP, is principal of Sare and Associates and has been dispensing advice on HR matters for more than 20 years. She says that sometimes organizations forget that just because they’ve hired a “diverse” employee doesn’t mean they’ve made themselves more diverse as a result.

An organization may tell the new recruit, “’here’s our P&P and how we want [you] to do things’. So over time, that diversity gets lost because we’re not taking into account the diversity they went out to get,” Gayer says. What’s more, she says, sometimes when a company hires diverse employees, they force them to assimilate to fit the culture. “In essence, the structure of the organization hasn’t changed, nor has the way it manages employees,” Gayer notes.

For Blair, this is also a key issue.

“We try to work with employers to look at embracing workplace diversity from a principled perspective, so that workplace diversity becomes a core strategy within the organization. It moves from diversity being workplace representation to one that truly embraces and engages in diversity across the whole organization,” she says.

Challenges ahead

The fight to change “homogenous workplaces”, as Blair refers to those organizations whose command structure remains static and entrenched against diversity, is ongoing. In those instances, Blair says, change “requires sound leadership to truly acknowledge that there is something wrong with this picture and that there is a commitment to transform it. With a commitment to change that gets filtered through the organization, over time people begin to believe in the [new] vision…one that seeks to embrace diversity as an ethical imperative versus diversity as an economic possibility.”

Gayer sees diversity in the voluntary sector and in Canada as a whole, improving. “We’re heading in the right direction,” she says, “but we still have a battle to fight.”

For her part, Utton believes fostering a sense of diversity goes beyond a workplace philosophical shift.

“While the success of achieving a diverse workplace may be marked by the organization’s own philosophy and culture, and perhaps with the offering of some sensitivity training, in my opinion, it stands to reason that ‘a child lives what they learn’,” she says. “Similarly, acceptance of diversity begins long before an individual joins a particular workplace. We, as individuals, need to be practicing cultural inclusiveness beyond the office environment.”

The future is diverse

With the Canadian mosaic expanding by close to 200,000 newcomers a year, cultural tolerance, acceptance and inclusion are practices the nation should be engaging in daily. The Heritage Ministry website tells us that, “As a knowledge-based economy in an increasingly competitive global marketplace, every mind matters. All Canadians must have the opportunity to develop and contribute to their full potential.” A broad statement to be sure, but still tough to argue with.

And in 2005, an RBC Financial Group report, titled The Diversity Advantage: A Case for Canada’s 21st Century Economy, also stressed the need for all sectors to stay attuned to the value of hiring for diversity and how it’s essential for Canada’s economic future. A small excerpt follows:

“Smart employers recognize the benefits of diversity in gender, race and national origin, building a skilled workforce with a variety of cultural backgrounds, and that this will become even more important in the years ahead,” it states. “This same diversity must be extended to our political and cultural life and our social institutions. But for most Canadians, participation in society will start with successful employment. This is why all stakeholders in our society must work together to remove artificial barriers and improve the pathways to success for all of our people whether they are born here or come to Canada to build new lives as future citizens.”

That sounds simple enough.

Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf is president of WordLaunch professional writing services in Toronto. He can be reached at andy@wordlaunch.com.