McMaster University is committed to equity everywhere

Not long before the pandemic hit, a delegation from McMaster University visited what was then the Immigrant Women’s Centre in Hamilton, Ont., to encourage new arrivals in Canada to consider the university as a place to find a job.

“McMaster is a major top employer in the Hamilton/Niagara region that includes various career paths, from professors to IT to landscaping,” says Melanie Garaffa, associate director, talent, equity and development. “It is our responsibility to help students, new immigrants and our external communities know about opportunities here and understand the process of applying for positions.”

That kind of granular outreach is emblematic of McMaster’s commitment to diversifying its workforce and embedding equity in everything it does. Garaffa, whose portfolio includes employment equity at the university, says building community partnerships with what is now the Immigrants Working Centre, for example, has resulted in many new hires at the university and regular partnership opportunities with this community. McMaster has also partnered with Indigenous Link, Pride at Work Canada and other organizations to share job listings, with more to come.

The result is an increasingly broad-based workforce. “When I came here in 2021, there was much more diversity than I was imagining,” says Saher Fazilat, vice-president, operations and finance, whose responsibilities include human resources. She says she was attracted to the job because the university’s new strategic plan emphasized equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in all areas of operation.

“Being an immigrant myself, EDI is a very close-to-heart topic to me,” says the India-born former civil engineer. “Of the five pillars in the strategic plan, three very deeply touch EDI, including inclusive excellence; operational excellence; and engaging local, national, Indigenous and global communities.”

She notes that in one of her areas, finance, over 60 per cent of McMaster employees are female.

“Finance used to be a very male-driven environment, and often still is,” she says. Moreover, she adds, “if you look at my assistant vice-presidents, all of them are women – the chief technology officer, the chief facilities officer, the chief financial officer and the chief human resources officer.”

Garaffa’s role involves advancing initiatives in employment equity so it is part of McMaster culture.

“Diverse, equitable and inclusive practice is critical in everything we do, whether it’s our programming, our policies and our procedures,” she says.

That includes a deep commitment to fairness in hiring practices. “We are working to ensure that the interview process is a great employee experience,” says Garaffa. That can include ensuring diversity on the interview panel, providing interview questions in advance, making accommodations for disabilities and ensuring transparency throughout. Moreover, “we encourage interviews to include both job-specific and institutional-specific questions to reinforce our university priorities and commitments, so we do ask candidates about how they would advance inclusive excellence.”

The university has also set up a network of more than 300 trained employment equity facilitators operating across the campus, who consult on recruitment practices and point out ways to enhance the process using an equitable, diverse and inclusive lens.

It’s another example of how McMaster continues to build capacity and collaborate, notes Garaffa. “I’ve never been part of an organization that is so collaborative,” she says. “It is critical that we have diverse perspectives at the table. When diversity is embraced, different perspectives are heard, included, and become part of our solutions.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Canada’s Best Diversity Employers winners, published March 7, 2023 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.