Employment and Social Development Canada (formerly Human Resources Development Canada) awarded Manitoba Hydro its Vision award for creativity and innovation in its employment equity programs. Currently, Aboriginal people make up 8.3 percent of Manitoba Hydro’s workforce. In northern Manitoba, where there is a greater concentration of Aboriginal people, 27.4 percent of the corporation’s workforce is Aboriginal. The goal is to get the overall corporate representation of Aboriginal people up to 10 percent and up to 33 percent in the north. The creative ways in which these goals are being reached include the following:

• A zero-tolerance policy of workplace harassment and discrimination
• An outreach and partnership program with Aboriginal organizations to provide information about employment and training opportunities
• Partnerships with postsecondary institutions to provide educational programs and career information and to brand Manitoba Hydro as an employer of choice
• A review of training programs to ensure that there are no systemic barriers
• Systematic recruitment efforts to introduce Aboriginal people by means of internships, co-op placements, summer employment, and part-time work The most successful program is the preemployment training designed to facilitate the entry of Aboriginal people into Manitoba Hydro’s training programs, which are more like apprenticeship programs. The preemployment training provides academic upgrading, a rotation through three trades to familiarize candidates with these jobs, and workshops to deal with the concerns and issues about being away from home. A recent addition to the program is the utility’s “Building the Circle Camp,” which introduces girls in northern Manitoba to opportunities in engineering, technology, and trades. 

SaskTel is a Crown corporation providing cellular, phone, Internet, and multimedia services to 13 cities and more than 500 remote communities in Saskatchewan, many of them inhabited by First Nations and Métis people. SaskTel cares about the Aboriginal population as both customers and employees (8 percent of SaskTel’s workforce is Aboriginal, and the company has a target of 13.5 percent, the provincial labour force rate). The company’s call centre can offer service in three different First Nations languages. Potash is another large Saskatchewan employer looking to hire more than 800 workers in the next two years. This company has developed a pilot project to introduce Aboriginal people to the world of mining. The rationale is not just social justice or corporate responsibility but an economic growth strategy. 

First Nations people are participating in the drive to hire and retain more Aboriginal workers and have produced a two-day workshop. The goals are to support the business case for creating a workforce inclusive of Aboriginal people, to become an employer of choice for Aboriginal people, and to develop strategies to recruit, train, and advance Aboriginal workers.

Questions
1. What are the reasons cited by the companies for wanting to hire Aboriginal people?
2. Of the three initiatives described, which do you think will be most successful to achieve these objectives? Why?