Inclusion in Canadian Workplaces
In last week’s post I discussed diversity in the federal service, not-for-profit and for-profit sectors. From this overview, I found Canada’s not-for-profit organizations to be very diverse, followed by the federal government, and then businesses. Finding data that breaks out who works in these sectors was difficult and revealed a large gap in data that we need to fill in Canada. Some employers still say they do not ask employees to indicate their various identities, but it’s 2023 and this needs to be asked! This is the only way workplaces can measure and monitor how they are progressing on their diversity goals.
Today I will continue examining Canada workplaces by assessing inclusion.
Inclusion
Focussing on diversity alone is not enough: Morfaki and Morfaki’s study found that although workplaces might hire more diverse persons, oftentimes those persons experienced discrimination and stress, were not promoted, quit or were fired. An important question to ask is do staff from equity-deserving communities feel included at work? One definition of inclusion is feeling safe and being free from harassment and discrimination. The Institute for Social Research at York University in Toronto found that 96% of Black workers surveyed across Canada said racism was a problem in workplaces and 78% of those persons said that it was a serious or very serious issue. In comparison, 56% of White workers said racism was not an issue, or it was a small issue in Canadian workplaces. This difference in the responses between Black and White employees could be explained by the fact that Black workers were more likely to experience racism than White workers, and would then be more likely to view it as a serious workplace issue.
Zou, Opasina, Borova, and Parkin with the Environics Institute for Research in partnership with the Diversity Institute at the Toronto Metropolitan University surveyed over 5,000 workers in 2021 and again in 2022. They found that Black employees reported experiencing racism at their jobs at a rate 3 times higher than the average for all workers, i.e., 48% compared to 16%. The rate of workplace racism reported by South Asian employees was slightly lower at 45%, and was 42% for Indigenous staff, 35% for Chinese employees, 35% for all racialized workers, and 7% for White employees. This result suggests that racism continues in Canadian workplaces and workplaces need to better prevent and respond to it.
The study also examined workplace wellness and found that Black, Indigenous and persons of colour, or BIPOC workers who reported experiencing racism at work were also more likely to describe their mental health as fair or poor. For example, 35% of Black survey respondents reported having poor or fair workplace mental health and well-being compared to a rate of 24% for all respondents. These findings suggest workplace racism continues to be a significant issue for BIPOC workers and negatively impacts their mental health and well-being.
Zou, Opasina, Borova, and Parkin found that of the more than 11,000 Canadian workers they surveyed, 50% of Black Canadian employees reported experiencing racism at work, compared to 40% of racialized and Indigenous workers, 30% of women, 33% of youth and 25% of persons with disabilities. Anti-Black racism in the wider Canadian society is still prevalent. For example, KPMG Canada said that in 2020 reported hate crimes increased by 32%, but when hate was race-based, there was an explosion of hate crimes against Black Canadians, who experienced an increase of 92% in these types of crimes. Anti-Black sentiments in the broader society is also reflected in our workplaces.
Racism is a serious issue in Canadian society and in workplaces. It causes significant health issues including headaches and migraines, fatigue, burnout, and hypertension. Racism can lead to chronic employee burnout when it is not responded to quickly and effectively. Racism is a workplace health and safety issue that employers have a legal obligation to prevent and investigate. In Ontario, the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Ontario Human Rights Code protect workers from harm and make it mandatory for managers and employers to act once they become aware of a racist incident. Unfortunately, most workplaces do not take this approach to racism and instead brush it off as an interpersonal issue and they often blame BIPOC workers. This is not acceptable.
Does your workplace address racism as a health and safety issue and responds appropriately to racism? Please let me know.
Thanks for reading this post and let me know what you think about inclusion in Canadian workplaces.
Michelle
References:
Morfaki, C., & Morfaki, A. (2022). Managing workforce diversity and inclusion: A critical review and future directions. International Journal of Organizational Leadership, 426-443.
Zou, C., Opasina, O.K., Borova, B., and Parkin, A. (2022). Experiences of discrimination at work. Environics Institute for Survey Research, Future Skills Centre and the Ted Rogers School of Management and the Diversity Institute, Toronto Metropolitan University.