Panelists discuss ways to ‘decolonize’ human resources
HR consultant, procurement officer and project manager bring their ideas to the table at Nunavut Trade Show
Around 50 people attend a Nunavut Trade Show panel Tuesday about ways to approach human resources in Nunavut. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Employers should meet Inuit “where they are” and be more flexible to be more effective in hiring qualified staff in the North, says one hiring expert.
“Nothing screams colonialism more than HR polices,” said David McAdams, senior human resources consultant at Ilinniapaa Skills Development Centre, during a panel discussion at the Arctic Winter Games Arena on Tuesday at the Nunavut Trade Show and Conference.
It was the third panel discussion of the day and attracted around 50 people.
Many companies do not provide cultural days for Indigenous people and are run from a “western perspective,” he said, and this practice runs right through to the hiring process.
David McAdams from Ilinniapaa Skills Development Centre speaks at the panel discussion at the Nunavut Trade Show Tuesday. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
McAdams offered a few ideas to “decolonize” hiring, including the way job descriptions are written. Instead of demanding “data entry experience” employers should break it down and explain what that means.
As an example of breaking down these terms, McAdams described making a purchase on Amazon, which requires people to accurately fill out a form with information like name, address and billing information.
“Isn’t that that data entry?” he said.
Other panelists included from Brian Burke, senior project manager at Qikiqtaaluk Corporation and Daisy Truong, procurement officer at Government of Canada. The discussion was moderated by Okalik Eegeesiak, senior consultant at NVision.
Truong talked about her role in informing people about how to sell goods and services to the Government of Canada and how to navigate the relationship with the government when doing that.
Truong said her department partners up with other federal departments to make the communication between residents and the government easier.
Burke mentioned a brand new internship program for high school and college students from Iqaluit, where they had the chance to spend time in Newfoundland to get hands-on experience in ocean sector, including fishery.
Consultants are a dime a dozen.
This is just insane.
This guy is literally equating “decolonizing” with dumbing down. Inuit don’t need the bar lowered even more.
Essentially this is it, the bigotry of low expectations. Data entry hard, demanding! Cal it something else = “decolonization.” So ridiculous and transparent.
This place is getting more ridiculous with each passing day.
Can’t wait to watch Nunavut and its “government” go belly up and return to Yellowknife and Ottawa.
De-colonizing the panel might be a good place to start.
What would that look like, in your opinion?
Start by not inviting a southern based HR consultant whose business model is to sell “de-colonization” as if it’s a new fad diet pill.
who in Iqaluit is qualified do you think to do this?
And now you can pay these white men thousands of dollars to help decolonize your organization. What a joke
Kimosabi still advising Tonto….
Nunatsiaq news loves these kinds of pieces, they serve as absolution for the fact that they have NO Inuit writers.
Prostrate yourselves, NN… admit you are filled with sin.
NN deals with the same issues that the rest of Nunavut deals with: lack of qualified candidates.
Newspaper writing is a skill. It’s not the same as posting to Facebook or dropping a comment here.
Just as data entry isn’t the same as entering an Amazon orders.
You can de colonize HR all you want. It won’t address the skills gap that exists. If you want local staff, you need to ensure training is available locally.
It’s not rocket science, but it takes more than just dumbing down and denying that the skills gap exists.
Whatever you say, Corey
I think there are times when the phrase ‘decolonize’ is meaningful, and times like this, when its thrown about around for social approbation. The latter being by far more typical.
Of course, Nunatsiaq has the same problems finding skilled people as everyone else. The point of my comment is not about what they should do, but rather what they are doing.
Train locally?
Acquire the proper education, college or university. Stay in school and get the education and experience rather than constantly expecting dummied down “local training” programs.
Welcome to the 21st century Inuit. Try to keep up.🤣😂
White men getting paid to lecture on decolonization is so Nunavut 2024.
Anybody who attends this event can share those few ideas to decolonize hiring? Let’s spread these game-changin infos…
So do you not think that NN or any employer would hire an Inuk journalist trades, Dr. Nurse, Teacher, engineer butcher baker or candlestick maker if there were some to hire. Stop blaming everything on everyone that gets hired simply because there is no one locally that can or will do the jobs. That is not colonialism or taking your job. The work is there. If you want it. Go get it. You have the home ice advantage.
I’ll gladly leave when there’s skilled Inuit that show up every single day to work.
Which is to say I’ll die in this territory and reap the benefits that are there for anyone of any race.
I have been working for almost 20 yrs and have never missed more than 5 days in a year and if I have, it’s because I was really sick. Quit putting people especially natives in a stereo type fashion.
Not natives do have faults too, like everyone else.
Are there any other organizations outside of Nunavut that could share information on how they do practices outside of the standard western style? I’m genuinely curious and wonder if the GN has ask for information gathering. Of course the commenters aren’t positive- but at a human level, can we just see it from a different perspective or be more open? Cultural differences shouldn’t create hate (all sides). Also, the GN was founded on and for Inuit and local population to work together. It’s what the vision was but didn’t happen (slower pace maybe?) and we can continue to argue “what if” or “why this long” but instead get actioned oriented. It’s not easy but mindsets need to be changed here.
“Watered down for Inuit” comment or within that frame, please remember it’s hurtful, and can be harmful – we live in a place where suicides are high. Inuit were seen as inferior and still based on these comments. Words matter. Putting this out there.
No, the GN wasn’t founded ‘on and for Inuit’ – that is what the Inuit orgs are for. The GN is a public government meant to serve the public in an equitable manner. Nunavut may have been founded for the benefit of Inuit, but not the GN.
You are spreading misinformation.
Saying that the GN is meant to serve the public and that the GN is meant to serve Inuit is pretty much the same thing. Have you taken a look at who constitutes the Nunavut public lately?
Nothing screams cololoniasm like a white guy named McAdams telling us about colonialism.
Simple question for these consultants: are they willing to fly on a commercial airliner maintained by aircraft mechanics who don’t have to meet industry standards and where the pilots are not required to have the requisite training but instead are hired based on what someone decides is culturally-appropriate alternate equivalencies?
To put it bluntly, the call for decolonized hiring is an excuse to hire the unqualified, the unwilling and the incompetent. So who wants to decolonize the hiring of pilots at Canadian North or the doctors at the hospital?
Yes, there’s bigotry of low expectations pretty much everywhere, notably among the token representatives in the legislature, unqualified as they are for any real job. The only way to turn things around is in the schools, starting in kindergarten.
OMG!!! You mean actually try?!!
Work?!! Ouch….
I don’t have skooling or experience but I have relatives in local HR board.
Guaranteed instant hire.🙃😉
It not just your run of the mill, nepo-hiring anymore. It not just inuit. If the manager is african, most of the staff will be african, this is the same with filipinos, etc. But let’s make sure they can do the job and not just because of the same skin colour or relatives, kwim?
It would be interesting to see how the “decolonized” job description for a “senior human resources consultant” position would look like!
This certainly raised concern with staff hiring of Student Support Assistants without any TEACHING background nor Teacher CERTIFICATION’s! This must of been an promotion of newly hired Deputy Minister of EDUCATION? The EDUCATION in Nunavut is very flawed at all levels particularly under the NOSE of KSO Head Office.
Why are administration in schools recruiting 95% Student Support Assistant’s that have NO Teacher QUALIFUCATION’s nor ACADEMIC background? This certainly is very flawed at all levels particularly when high percentage of STUDENT’s are NOT pursuing further EDUCATION in College or University!
WHY are full-time scale CULTURAL programs taught in schools, and less ACADEMIC programs in classes? Where is the Minister of EDUCATION??? Job’s???
Sometimes the truth hurts, and ‘watered down’ is an accurate description.
I’m confident the Inuit reading these comments are resilient enough to deal with them. If not, they are not resilient enough for employment in the modern workplace.
Because who else who get hired? These people do not exist in anything like the necessary numbers. s not a body in the position better than no body at all?
The change needed starts WELL before kindergarten. Parents should be instilling good social values in their children from BIRTH. Don’t fight in front of your kids. Show them what dedication is by showing up to work and for THEM every single day.
Teacher can only play catch-up when these fundamental life values are not instilled in children from a young age.
Plus, they’re TEACHERS, not parents.
This! Sadly, for many it is too late by age five and the path has already been set. This is not just a Nunavut thing, but anywhere. Those first three years are SO important.
SORRY – THUMB WAS NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO THE JOB AND SUBMITTED THIS LETTER EARLY. I’LL REDO iT BELOW.
What a sickening mess of racist/culturalist reactions to this story!
Taking points out of order, not all workers need formal Euro-style job training. When safety is an issue, as in medicine or aviation, formal training and testing are essential. Even in the South, however, tradesmen get their qualifications largely on the job. We call the system apprenticeship. I doubt that Tagak Curley and Ann Hanson had journalism degrees when they became newspaper editors back around 1970. What they had were brains, fluency in English and Inuktitut, and an understanding of what constituted news.
When I worked on Nunatsiaq News, there were quite a few training grants available, and we trained both Inuit and Whites at all levels, from basic turn-up-for-work skills to printing, darkroom work, layout, writing, and bookkeeping.
When I was a child, our home, my father’s work and our school were within walking distance and we all came home for lunch. Dad always was served first because he had to be at work before we had to be back at school. We learned about going to work on time. But we also knew it wasn’t always that way. Remember Scrooge in Dickens’ Christmas Carol? He thought Bob Cratchit was stretching things in expecting Christmas off. Those standards have changed.
Among the changes Nunavut could make:
– write job descriptions in clear language;
– establish on-the-job training at different levels; all GN “bosses” should have understudies;
– research Inuit values regarding job attendance, and with the unions, work out compromises.
Inuit Social Values include Qanuqtuurniq, creative problem solving, or thinking outside the box. Apply it to these problems.
The preceding comment highlights part of the problem. What are “Inuit values regarding job attendance”? Because, historically, if Inuit did not show up for work, whether that work involved hunting, fishing, preparing food or supplies, raising children, or any of the other jobs required to simply survive, the consequence tended to be kind of final and they never had to worry about working ever again.
Nunavut minecraft is in the making when these guys enter the building…