New survey to explore career development and advancement of visible minorities
A new survey hopes to identify barriers to advancement that professional, visible minorities face in corporate Canada.
The survey, Career Advancement in Corporate Canada: A Focus on Visible Minorities, led by Catalyst Canada and the Diversity Institute in Management and Technology at Ryerson University, will explore the career development and advancement of visible minority professionals, managers and executives in various organizations across the country.
“Businesses have been dropping the ball when it comes to tapping the potential of visible minorities in our workforce," said Gordon Nixon, CEO of RBC Financial Group, which is the survey's lead sponsor. "Diversity can be Canada’s competitive advantage. So the challenge for corporate Canada — for each of us — is finding out exactly what barriers are preventing visible minorities from advancing in their chosen careers and then addressing them.”
By 2016, visible minorities are expected to represent one in five people in Canada’s available workforce. In major cities across the country, the visible minority representation in the labour force will be closer to half.
Issues facing visible minorities continue to be well documented, yet, according to Catalyst Canada, no research to date has contributed to understanding the fundamental challenges faced by many visible minorities in their professional lives.
“If Canada is going to succeed in the very real and highly competitive global war for talent, we must start with a very clear picture of the fundamental issues faced by visible minorities in the business community,” said Deborah Gillis, executive director of Catalyst Canada.
The Catalyst-Ryerson research team will launch concurrent confidential e-surveys of employers and employees in participating companies beginning this month.
Both visible and non-visible minorities at the executive, professional and managerial levels in participating companies will be surveyed. To date, companies representing 435,755 male and female employees including more than 20,000 professionals, managers and executives across Canada have signed on.
Among the questions the study addresses:
• What are the barriers that visible minority professionals, managers and executives face with regards to their career development and advancement?
• What practices and polices do organizations adopt to enable visible minority professionals, managers and executives to excel professionally?
• What are the differences between organizational practices that aim at attracting, motivating and retaining visible minority professionals, managers and executives and their employees’ perceptions of those practices?
Companies not yet participating in the survey are urged to contact Gillis at [email protected]. Research results will be released in 2007.
The survey, Career Advancement in Corporate Canada: A Focus on Visible Minorities, led by Catalyst Canada and the Diversity Institute in Management and Technology at Ryerson University, will explore the career development and advancement of visible minority professionals, managers and executives in various organizations across the country.
“Businesses have been dropping the ball when it comes to tapping the potential of visible minorities in our workforce," said Gordon Nixon, CEO of RBC Financial Group, which is the survey's lead sponsor. "Diversity can be Canada’s competitive advantage. So the challenge for corporate Canada — for each of us — is finding out exactly what barriers are preventing visible minorities from advancing in their chosen careers and then addressing them.”
By 2016, visible minorities are expected to represent one in five people in Canada’s available workforce. In major cities across the country, the visible minority representation in the labour force will be closer to half.
Issues facing visible minorities continue to be well documented, yet, according to Catalyst Canada, no research to date has contributed to understanding the fundamental challenges faced by many visible minorities in their professional lives.
“If Canada is going to succeed in the very real and highly competitive global war for talent, we must start with a very clear picture of the fundamental issues faced by visible minorities in the business community,” said Deborah Gillis, executive director of Catalyst Canada.
The Catalyst-Ryerson research team will launch concurrent confidential e-surveys of employers and employees in participating companies beginning this month.
Both visible and non-visible minorities at the executive, professional and managerial levels in participating companies will be surveyed. To date, companies representing 435,755 male and female employees including more than 20,000 professionals, managers and executives across Canada have signed on.
Among the questions the study addresses:
• What are the barriers that visible minority professionals, managers and executives face with regards to their career development and advancement?
• What practices and polices do organizations adopt to enable visible minority professionals, managers and executives to excel professionally?
• What are the differences between organizational practices that aim at attracting, motivating and retaining visible minority professionals, managers and executives and their employees’ perceptions of those practices?
Companies not yet participating in the survey are urged to contact Gillis at [email protected]. Research results will be released in 2007.
