Far from being a feel-good exercise, cultural
competency training is helping businesses and
professional service providers close previously
unrecognized gaps in operations, sales, and
fulfillment.-By Donna Chan
As the concept of Indigenous reconciliation has gained significant traction in Canada, organizations are recognizing the importance of building respectful and meaningful relationships with Indigenous peoples. Cultural competency training has emerged as a crucial tool for public servants, educators, and employees to improve understanding and relationships with Indigenous communities – and then take things a step further.
After all, understanding is a great first step. The next step is making changes to operations after critical gaps and missed opportunities become obvious. This helps solve real-world business problems in addition to making cultural inclusiveness a part of daily operations instead of a special, isolated, or rare event. Toward that end, examples of some of the key gaps that cultural competency training has eliminated will be examined, with an eye to inspiring further action.
Financial integration possible only after competency training highlighted the gap
Small business owners and entrepreneurs are a major economic force in Indigenous communities, even more so than they may be in other areas of Canada. However, First Nations governments have key revenue system differences from how tax law is applied in other communities, and entrepreneurs trying to operate in multiple markets were frequently frustrated with little real guidance on navigating things. Professor Doug Stuart of the Gustavson School of Business discovered this when he participated in the Indigenous Advancement of Cultural Entrepreneurship (IACE) program, a collaborative educational venture between Tribal Resources Investment Corporation (TRICORP) and the business school where he taught.
He quickly realized that indigenous tax matters weren’t being discussed in academic circles, which meant that he as a teacher wasn’t able to pass on appropriate knowledge and guidance to either his students or community members seeking mentorship. As a result, with help from First Nations partners, he overhauled his fourth-year tax course to include material on First Nations governments and their revenue systems, and how Canadian and provincial government tax rules apply when an Indigenous business owner operates on or off reserve. This served to fill a major gap that was frustrating business growth, and which will enable the estimated $100 billion in revenues that Indigenous businesses contribute to Canada’s economy each year to be taxed at appropriate levels and in appropriate and understandable ways.
Further, rather than being an initiative launched at the Indigenous community without including them, Professor Stuart is launching it with the community’s input and reactions top of mind. After the initial sessions of the class are completed, he hopes to partner with elders to assess how the coursework further integrated key businesses into the financial system and identify where gaps remain in understanding and execution of tax law issues.
Customer Retention Rises Once Cultural Competency Training Highlights Shortfalls
TELUS has long been an advocate for First Nations communities. Of Canada’s telecommunication companies, it was an early contributor to reconciliation funds and as of 2023, has committed to doubling its contributions through 2028. The company is also one of Canada’s most diverse and inclusive employers, winning awards across multiple years. Thus, one might think that the firm had little to learn from additional or ongoing cultural competency training.
However, the firm noticed that customer satisfaction levels and retention rates were lower among Indigenous groups than other customers. It was a shortfall that wouldn’t have been noticed without focusing specifically on the Indigenous community and the relationship. To improve against this shortfall, the company sponsored additional cultural competency training and education on key touch points for Indigenous customers. As a result, TELUS has seen improvements in customer satisfaction and loyalty among Indigenous customers, leading to increased sales and revenue growth. These increased sales and revenues will continue to support reconciliation fund contributions as well as provide a bottom-line reinforcement to TELUS for doing the right thing.
Educators Balance Facts, Context, and Content Better After Cultural Competency Training.
Many teachers study Indigenous issues in school, but are hesitant to bring their knowledge into the classroom. Others sharing their experiences may wish to do more, yet hold back due to fear or a lack of confidence. As a result, students are not being appropriately educated and there are many missed opportunities for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students alike. To try and find a solution that would unlock better educational outcomes, researchers tested out including more cultural competency training for teachers.
What they found was that by including additional cultural competency training, educators felt more confident about including broader perspectives and Indigenous experiences in their classrooms. This, in turn, helped Indigenous students feel more comfortable in the classroom and exposed non-Indigenous students to the kinds of perspectives they would need to move forward as allies. Indeed, it wasn’t so much a lack of factual knowledge that caused problems, but a lack of confidence and courage in talking about the subject in a way that balanced context, content, and historical truths. By identifying where there was a gap and filling it, researchers and educators now have a way to do better work in the future.
Concluding Thoughts
Cultural competency training is gaining in popularity across Canada, and with good reason. From education to service delivery to financial integration, cultural competency training can help both Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants achieve better outcomes for themselves and their communities. Further, these better outcomes are not vague touch points but bottom-line and far-reaching real world impacts.
The broad impact also makes the case for extending cultural competency training to new sectors. It’s not just something to happen in classrooms or certain companies. The more Canadians who go through it, the more unified and allied the country will be in understanding what needs to happen for everyone to thrive and coexist in a state of peaceful understanding, meaningful relationships, and sustainable economic success.