Custom designing an equity-based program to combat racism & discrimination
Advancing Diverse Talent
A one-of-a-kind Sponsorship Program for historically marginalized employees within Natural Resources Canada
Natural Resources Canada
Context
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), like all other organizations within the federal public service, was tasked with making meaningful and measurable steps to tackle racism and to advance reconciliation, equity, diversity, and inclusion internally. One of these steps was a sponsorship program that could ready Indigenous, Black, and other racialized employees for leadership roles.
The data both within NRCan and across the federal public service indicates that marginalized employees are too often stuck in entry- and mid-level jobs despite their talent and education — often overlooked or pigeonholed, lacking autonomy over their own careers due to the racial bias of the predominantly white public service.
And when they do reach beyond the glass ceiling, they can be met with a hostile and unsupportive environment. Dr. Rachel Zellers’s independent report, A Study of the Black Executive Community in the Federal Public Service, details harrowing accounts of racism and discrimination experienced by Black employees in these environments.
On its surface, this seems like a simple design that required matching sponsors with employees from equity-impacted groups. But without more thought or consideration of the needs of the target demographic, we would recreate the same harms and barriers that this program was intended to address.
I co-led the stakeholder engagement, then led the development of the pilot program and materials. My team and I wanted a sponsorship program that would meet the immediate need of increasing diversity up the ranks, but also begin building the infrastructure necessary to ensure the long term support for these groups once they moved closer to the top.
We developed a program to help uncover the barriers and challenges faced by marginalized employees, connect them with senior leaders that could use their social and professional capital to help advance their careers, and turn those senior leaders into educators and advocates for cultural change within the department.
At a glance
Key Insights
Challenge
How to co-create a sponsorship program alongside the employees being served that understands their experiences, meets their needs, & fits within the risk-averse governmental context ?
Approach
I co-led several months of stakeholder engagement, which included networks and committees for equity-impacted employees, senior management, and the Deputy and Associate Deputy Ministers. My role was to listen deeply to their needs and design from the margins. I designed and facilitated several workshops with my racialized colleagues to develop personas of the participants and sponsors we were targeting, using data from within and outside of the public service. With this information we were designed a program that empowered participants and provided the necessary support along the way to ensure their success.
Outcome
A sponsorship program that matches a marginalized employee with an executive to help them articulate their career goals and connect them to people and opportunities to realize them. Executives gain greater insight into the challenges of marginalized employees and influence a top-down cultural shift toward equity.
My Impact
I introduced my colleagues to a different way of thinking and working by using a human-centred design methodology, which they described as refreshing compared to convention. My structural social work background enabled me to better see the power-relations and socio-cultural phenomena beyond the data than many of my white colleagues, better positioning me to bridge the gap between them and my racialized colleagues. I provided a trusting, supportive, and non-judgmental presence to participants, helping them to decode the culture and power dynamics that they could feel but not understand.
Impact
Taylor is incredibly emotionally intelligent and a strategic thinker — hate to say an outside the box thinker because there is never a box around her thoughts. She builds relationships that feel authentic and not one way or transactional. She so effortlessly creates structure and organization. - Sachelle Pardo NRCan Communications Advisor
