• participation of Aboriginal adults in meetings/events
• graduation statistics
• evidence of improved/increased interpersonal contact between individuals of Aboriginal ancestry and Division personnel
• success rates of Aboriginal students compared with non-Aboriginal students
• the number of teachers and non-teaching staff of Aboriginal ancestry
• the number of women administrators
• fewer number of dropouts

We expect this list will grow as experience is gained and more people put their minds to how they can measure success. It will take time, creative minds, and the efforts of all of us to move forward. But just as we can see progress if we look back over the last ten years, we will see more progress when we look back years from now.

The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission looks forward to continuing to work with its partners in education to see the objectives of the policy framework document achieved.

Employment Equity

Since 1980, the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission has approved private and public sector employment equity programs in Saskatchewan.

The vision of employment equity is an inclusive workplace that benefits from the resources of a diverse workforce and enables all groups to contribute to the community’s economic well being.

Organizations with employment equity programs are leading the way in demonstrating Saskatchewan workplaces can become representative of the communities they serve.

In spite of the good efforts of some people, it seems as true today as it has been throughout twenty years of monitoring that in sponsor organizations where significant changes at the senior management level occur, without renewed commitment to equity, the achievements of the equity program diminish. Without regular scrutiny by senior management and time being given to equity issues, the program falters. This may indicate that equity initiatives are treating the symptoms of inequity rather than getting at the root cause.

It is fitting that in the last employment equity monitoring report of the 20 th century, we reflect on what we have learned from equity initiatives in the last two decades. There are three approaches to achieve equity reflected in the reports of the sponsors. They are:

Try to make designated-group people act like the people who are in decision-making positions. For example, designated-group people may be counseled to learn to play golf and use relationships formed on the fairways to move into positions of greater power.

• The weakness of this approach is that it will never eradicate the deeply entrenched, systemic factors that hold designated-group people back.

Make the current workplace more accommodating to designated-group people by fixing some of the barriers through special policies and benefits.

• This provides stilts to play on an uneven playing field, but does not level out the playing field.

Celebrate differences. Telling people to "value differences" doesn’t mean they will. It may result in different skills and styles being valued in only a marginal sense.

As we prepare to enter the 21^st century, we need to make our workplaces truly multicultural in nature where representatives of all groups in our society are productive and contribute to the socio-economic well being of Saskatchewan. We know the demographics of our province will change dramatically in the next two decades.

Perhaps a fourth approach to achieving equity is necessary; one that recognizes that inequity is rooted in our cultural patterns and, therefore, in our organizational systems.

Inequity will be undone only by a persistent campaign of incremental changes that discover and destroy the deeply imbedded roots of discrimination. This approach involves senior management probing an organization’s practices and beliefs to uncover its deeply embedded sources of inequity.

Here are some questions for senior managers of sponsor organizations to consider about their workplaces:

How do people in this organization accomplish their work?

What, if anything, gets in the way?

Who succeeds in this organization? Who doesn’t?

How and when do we interact with one another?

Who participates? Who doesn’t?

What kinds of work and work styles are valued in this organization? What kinds are invisible?

What is expected of leaders in this company?

What are the norms about time in this organization?

What aspects of individual performance are discussed the most in evaluations?

How is competence identified during hiring and performance evaluations?

This exercise, through one-on-one interviews and focus groups, should identify cultural patterns and their consequences. For example, which practices affect men differently than women, and why? Which practices affect other designated-group people differently than non-designated-group people, and why? With this knowledge, employers and unions can uncover the roots of the problems and effect change in a meaningful and permanent way. To get to the roots of inequity and bring about permanent change is our challenge for the 21^st century.

excerpt from Commission’s report, Equity 2000