Aparita

Toronto Star, [11/08/2004]

 

A new initiative has IBM reaching out to Canada’s aboriginal community Is it PR? Tokenism? Or market forces and the tide of history?

 

APARITA BHANDARI

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Skip Bird has “a lot of interest in technology.”

Since he was 7, when he got his first Nintendo game, Bird has taken things apart and reassembled them again.

“I loved the game, and I wanted to see how it worked, so I took the control pad apart,” says Bird, 17, in an interview from Edmonton. “I love taking computers apart, and building them up. And building software programs - I want to be a computer games designer. It’s my dream and goal.”

Bird grew up in the Paul First Nation reserve, near Duffield, Alta., and came to Edmonton with his family four and half years ago. Young though he is, Bird is married and has a 4-month-old child, and his life necessarily revolves around going to school and providing for his family. But when a school counsellor told Bird about an IBM Canada Ltd. information session for aboriginal youth in September, Bird was “very interested in going.”

“I thought it would be a great opportunity to go and talk to the IBM people,” he says. “To find out what they do, and what it takes to get up there. And after the session, I think I’m one step closer to achieving my dream.”

The information session was a pilot project, and part of a national strategy announced by IBM to expand its presence in aboriginal communities, increase opportunities for aboriginal-owned businesses and promote greater participation of aboriginals in the Canadian economy.

IBM Canada has also launched initiatives such as becoming a patron of the Seven Generations Campaign, which seeks to boost opportunities for aboriginals, has made donations of technology in the aboriginal community and has a contract with the Ojibway Cultural Foundation to help the Anishnabe of Manitoulin Island market their arts and crafts by Internet.

The workplace scenario today is fast-changing, with diversity initiatives becoming a business strategy. It makes sense when Canada’s visible-minority population, including its population of aboriginals, is increasing. Meanwhile burgeoning trade with markets around the world calls for the global outlook that diverse workforces can provide.

While aboriginal experts appreciate workplace equity programs, they point out the need to improve basic circumstances of aboriginal people - education, housing and family benefits - before larger numbers of people will benefit from real change.

When Bill Pickens saw an internal IBM e-mail asking for volunteers to speak at an information session for aboriginal high school students, he wasted no time signing up. The 50-year-old senior IT specialist at IBM’s Edmonton office saw it as an opportunity to help young aboriginals stay in school and give back to their people, just the way his grandfather did.

“My grandfather had made a tremendous difference in my life,” says Pickens. “He always encouraged me to try something new. Yes, it’s scary at first. But you have to find that internal courage. And you can do anything you want.”

As the last speaker at the IBM information session last month, Pickens told the story of his journey from a small reserve in Saskatchewan to IBM.

When Pickens stepped up to the podium, he greeted the students first in Sioux and then in Cree.
“Their eyes, their eyes,” says Pickens. “I dunno, they just kind of stared at me. Their eyes just got big. They were a great bunch of kids. And very smart ones. And I think we can make a huge difference in some of their lives.”

Growing up on a reserve, Pickens was deeply influenced by his grandfather, Walter Okuté, who was the chief of the Oglala Sioux tribe.

With his grandfather’s traditional stories helping him to deal with challenges and establish goals, Pickens finished Grade 12. After working in the construction industry, he went back to university and got some technology know-how. Then, starting at an oil company, he worked from the ground up.

After “cabling and programming,” he investigated PCs and LANs and moved up further to get management experience.

“I used to install IBM computers,” says Pickens. “I joined IBM about six years ago.
“I feel very fortunate to have had my grandfather as a mentor. He was such a courageous fellow, living in the midst of two cultures. He was able to take the best of both the aboriginal and the white world.”

IBM Canada’s aboriginal initiative continues the work of diversity task forces launched under former IBM chairman Lou Gerstner. The idea was to utilize diverse talent to understand and do better business in the more than 160 countries on the company’s client Rolodex.

The initiative encouraged people to think of IBM as an equal opportunity employer, while making the company attractive to a more diverse clientele.

It changed the face of IBM, as well as impacting its bottom- line.

According to an analysis of various IBM diversity initiatives published in the Harvard Business Review, the work of IBM’s women’s task force and other constituencies led IBM to establish its Market Development organization. A marketing arm targeting diverse small- and medium-sized businesses, it was responsible for $300 million (U.S.) in revenues last year, compared to $10 million in 1998.

Another project, the Minority Report, undertaken in Canada by Canadian Business magazine and OMNI TV, found that diversity is one of the keys to business success. The report looked at close to 450 firms that file reports with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada under the Employment Equity Act.

Passed in 1986, the act calls for elimination of barriers for four identified groups women, persons with disabilities, aboriginal people and members of visible minorities. It also seeks to remedy past discriminations and prevent future barriers. All federally regulated employers with 100 or more employees - such as banking, telecommunication, and international and inter-
provincial transportation - are subject to the act.

For the record, the Minority Report ranked Serco Facilities Management Inc. of Ottawa as best employer for aboriginal workers.

Call-Net Enterprises Inc. (Sprint Canada) ranked first over-all, with visible minorities making up a third of its work force, “with good representation at all levels of the company.”

While major banks lead the way in hiring practices and embracing diversity as a part of daily business strategies, many companies are now training their workers to understand and harness the power of cultural differences in project teams, in research and development and in consumer relations, the report says.

It’s good business sense, says Phani Radhakrishnan, a lecturer of organizational behaviour at University of Toronto.

“People are conscious about socially responsible companies,” she says. “If an environment-friendly company can build its image on that basis, why not diversity. It improves public life. It’s good PR.”
While Canadian companies are making decent progress in diversity initiatives in the lower employee ranks and the technology field, executives and senior management are still pretty monochromatic, says Radhakrishnan.

“Here organizations should have career development programs,” she says. “The government can set goals, but it’s up to the organization to have mentors. Visible minorities face the same barriers that women would not so long ago. They may not know the strategies, some as simple as networking. Going to a hockey game or a football game, where deals are made.

“These initiatives also depend on the charisma and influence of the CEO. You have to follow through, despite economic setbacks, or change in leadership. IBM has been pretty strongly committed. And this (information session with aboriginal school children) fits with the general strategy of IBM. Their diversity task force has identified that in order to recruit aboriginals, you need to develop skills and start young. IBM is being very proactive.”

Some critics might see the initiative as tokenism, but Radhakrishnan does not.

“Not everyone in the company will agree with these ideas, so you have to appeal to their materialistic side, and talk about how having minorities will help the company,” she says. “I don’t see this as wrong, it’s just a persuasion strategy.”

But while diversity task forces and equity acts are fine, there needs to be a reality check, says Ruby Durger, employment manager at Miziwe Biik. A not-for-profit organization, Miziwe Biik helps aboriginal people from across Canada land jobs.

Druger, who is Cree, worked with an international firm in human resources for more than 20 years before joining Miziwe Biik seven years ago.

“Our clients (aboriginals looking for work) come to us for three reasons,” says Druger, 62. “Employment, training or getting back to school. For our clients who come from living at a reserve, Toronto is a culture shock. They are like new immigrants.”

Young aboriginals often have children and limited resources for rent, transportation and babysitters. Since their educational qualifications are usually an issue, Druger helps her clients find work in every occupation from warehouse employment to more skilled jobs. And while her clients may want to upgrade their education, it’s difficult with just a minimum-wage job and a family to support.

Even if a client is skilled, cultural differences can make it hard for aboriginals to do well in job interviews.

“For example, when I tell my clients to make eye contact, they say, ‘but that’s staring.’” She has to make it clear that making eye-contact is desirable. “I have to tell them the difference. They may have good skills, but they would fail at a behavioural interview,” she says.

“Many of our clients want to work. But they believe in this myth that they’re not wanted in the corporate world. That they don’t have the skills. I have to counsel them to build their self-awareness, and show them how skills they are born with can translate into their work.

“It’s great (that) IBM wants more aboriginals. But there need to be more entry-level and mid-level jobs, where (aboriginal employees) can grow and be encouraged to grow.”

Illustration:

John Ulan epic photography for the Toronto Star. Skip Bird, 17, checks out Big Blue’s techy landscape with IBMer Bill Pickens, right, and a Thinkpad. Fears, phobias and disconnects must be overcome by all sides. “It’s scary at first. But you have to find that internal courage,” says Pickens. Then, “you can do anything.” “I’m one step closer to achieving my dream,” says Skip Bird, left, with IBM’s Bill Pickens who is also native Canadian. Workplace equity programs aren’t a magic wand but are pieces in a larger puzzle that also requires better education, housing and family benefits to solve.

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