This first module will help you become familiar with fundamental concepts in the area of human rights and equity. You will learn about the overarching legislative framework in Ontario, as well as McMaster’s EDIA strategy, and McMaster’s policies and resources. You will also learn the important role workplace supervisors play in maintaining a harassment and discrimination free workplace, and how to recognize, respond, and refer employees who report a potential violation of the Discrimination & Harassment Policy to you.

Our behaviour is impacted by the assumptions, biases, and stereotypes (both positive and negative) that exist in our subconscious. Accordingly, the assumptions we hold inform the decisions that we make – but these decisions may create unequal outcomes for those that we lead. It is therefore important for leaders to be aware of how our experiences, shaped by intersecting factors, can influence the ways we communicate, how we approach and resolve conflict, and ultimately how we lead. This necessarily involves recognizing and managing our biases so that we are better able to promote diversity and inclusion through our decision-making while fostering creativity and productivity in ways that promote a healthier and happier workplace culture. This module will provide you with the skills and techniques for achieving these goals. It features self-awareness and reflection activities to help us explore our biases and develop risk mitigation strategies to address bias in leadership and decision-making.

This module will introduce McMaster leaders to concepts and strategies regarding workplace disability-related accommodation, accessibility, and disability-inclusion best practices. Through a combination of evidence-based pre-work and scenario-focused activities, learners will gain an understanding of how to foster a disability-inclusive work culture. Relevant legislative frameworks (e.g., The Duty to Accommodate [Ontario Human Rights Code], The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 Employment Standard), McMaster’s Strategic Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility Goals, and community-informed best practice will be introduced to frame this learning.

In this module, you will become familiar with fundamental dimensions of anti-racism in the workplace. In particular, you will learn about the core concepts and definitions of anti-racism, along with the basic tools for naming and analyzing streams of racism, such as conceptualizing power, privilege, social location, unconscious bias, and racial microaggressions. You will also consider the important role that workplace supervisors play in maintaining anti-racist practice in the work environment, including how to recognize and respond to racism in the workplace, strategies for implementing anti-racist organizational development and allyship, and additional considerations for recruitment and retention.

This module will provide hiring managers/search committees with the tools, resources, strategies, and foundational knowledge to conduct an equitable recruitment & onboarding experience for new hires.  Components include the following recruitment and onboarding processes and strategies:

• establishing your recruitment need & strategy
• understanding the candidate journey and how to create an engagement strategy
• reviewing resumes (designing your resume screening tool, assessing candidates)
• interviewing (preliminary screenings, panel interviews)
• selection of best candidate
• critical data and metrics
• defining onboarding (who, what, where, when, why)
• the challenges of onboarding
• onboarding plan/agenda (How to create a custom onboarding plan)
• coordinating and executing your onboarding plan

Inclusive leaders are aware of their own biases and preferences, actively seek out and consider different views and perspectives to inform better decision-making. They see diverse talent as a source of competitive advantage and inspire diverse teams to drive organizational and individual performance towards a shared vision. This module seeks to inform, empower, and equip people managers with best practices, tools and resources essential to building a culture of inclusivity. It provides an opportunity for people managers to become more knowledgeable about inclusive leadership practices and how to be successful in cultivating diverse teams. This module will feature reflection activities to examine and advance inclusive leadership practices.

While there may be some overlap in the content of some of the modules with existing one-off EDIA training offerings delivered by the Equity and Inclusion Office, Human Resources Services and other offices across campus, the Inclusive Excellence Leadership Program differs in the following ways:

1. Curriculum is tailored for people leaders (leaders with supervisory responsibility);
2. It is a comprehensive, integrative, and stepped program comprised of six modules that align with McMaster’s EDIA priorities and strategies; and
3. This microcredential recognizes completion of the robust content across the six modules.

No, these courses have been specifically designed as a comprehensive learning program, tailored for people leaders and the curriculum has been approved under the microcredential-provider.

Attending both virtual sessions is a requirement to receive an orientation relative to the program design and key themes, leverage an opportunity to continue reflection, learn from others, collaborate with other people leaders and build your network within McMaster’s leadership community.

Please notify us as soon as possible at WeAreAllLeaders@mcmaster.ca if you need to withdraw from the cohort.  You will receive a priority spot in the next available cohort.

At this time the Social Injustice of Sameness module has been paused to allow for further refinement and alignment with larger work in this space. In the interim, for more resources please refer to https://hr.mcmaster.ca/employees/employment-equity/inclusive-excellence-training-resources/indigenous-education/.