Employment Equity Program - Annual Report to Treasury Board - 2009-10

Presented to the Treasury Board of Canada - October 2010

PDF version [490kb]

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Historical Data
• Program Highlights
  • Overall Presentation
  • Triennial Employment Equity Plan
  • Self-identification
  • Work Force Analysis
  • Review of New Employment Policies and Practices
  • Accommodation Measures
  • Recruitment
  • Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business
  • Employment Equity Awareness Activities
  • Diversity Training
  • Internal Communication
  • Communication with the Public
• Representation
  • Table 1 - CSIS Representation of designated groups by professional category for last 2 fiscal years
  • Table 2 - CSIS Representation of designated groups by salary grades for last 2 fiscal years
  • Table 3 - CSIS Representation of designated groups based on staffing operations for last 2 fiscal years
• Conclusion

 

OVERVIEW

As the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) continues to grow and increase its capabilities, the Service recognizes that diversity and inclusion are at the forefront of what makes this organization what it is today: an equal opportunity employer and an employer of choice.

As a federal government agency, CSIS is sensitive to Canada's multicultural society. In fact, cultural diversity is an essential component of CSIS' operational effectiveness. As demonstrated in this report, the Service is committed to building and nurturing a diversified and supportive work environment that incorporates the best qualified workforce, capable of igniting creativity and innovation by harnessing the difference in others and promoting inclusion.

As a part of the Assistant Director Human Resources 2009-2010 Directional Statement, diversity is one of the Service's top priorities and this commitment to diversity, equity and inclusiveness contributed to the Service winning one of the coveted spots as Canada's Top 100 Employers in 2009 and again in 2010.

HISTORICAL DATA

The following data pertains to the Service's Employment Equity Program:

• The Service's Employment Equity Program was established in September 1988;
• The automated Self-Identification Program was implemented in 1995;
• A workforce analysis was conducted in 1998 (a consultant was hired for this purpose).
• The review was completed in 2000;
• A five-year Employment Equity Plan came into effect on April 1, 2002;
• Regulations adapting the Employment Equity Act in respect of the Service were passed by the House of Commons on November 21, 2002 and were published in Part II of the Canada Gazette in December 2002;
• Compliance Audit:
  • In March 2005, the Canadian Human Rights Commission advised that it would be conducting a compliance audit of the Service's employment equity program;
  • The first step of the audit process (survey questionnaire) was undertaken in September 2005;
  • In June 2007, the Service was advised that a security cleared Compliance Officer had been assigned to conduct the Service's audit; -In 2008, the Compliance Officer reviewed the 2005 information, requested further information (Workforce Analysis, etc.) and conducted interviews;
  • On May 22, 2009, CSIS provided to the Canadian Human Rights Commission the responses to the recommendations, the steps taken, the Employment Systems Review questionnaire, findings and a draft of the CSIS Triennial Employment Equity Plan for 2009-2012.
• A Diversity Advisory Committee was established in May 2006. Their mandate is to be the voice of CSIS employees and to provide guidance/recommendations to management in order to establish an inclusive work environment free of barriers and discrimination;
• A Triennial Employment Equity Plan came into effect on June 24, 2009.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Overall Representation

As of March 31, 2010, the Service was comprised of 3029 FTEs (full-time employees) across Canada. The Service's overall representation rate for 2009-2010 is as follows:

 

Triennial Employment Equity Plan

The 2009-2012 Employment Equity (EE) Plan is the Service's Action Plan. Its purpose is to focus on the areas that need to be improved upon in order to meet the objectives that have been identified through the Employment Systems Review process, as well as the gaps identified in the Service's Workforce Analysis. The EE Plan includes measures/objectives that need to be implemented/achieved, the time frames allotted to implement/achieve these objectives and the process for assessment.

Self-identification

The yearly electronic self-identification survey was active during the month of March 2010. Given that this process is voluntary, the data may not accurately reflect the level of representation or actual progress.

As of March 31, 2010, the survey generated a response rate of 89.2% (a decrease of 2.3% in the response rate from last year's survey). The majority of employees who have not yet responded (10.8 %) are either on maternity leave, sick leave, or posted overseas. The Self-ID screen will continue to be active for these employees until such time as they access the Human Resources Management System (HRMIS) and acknowledge having reviewed their profile. This on-going practice also allows new employees the opportunity to self-identify.

Workforce Analysis

As part of our annual progress reporting obligations, a comprehensive review was completed of the workforce representation for each of the designated groups by National Occupational Group (NOC) compared to the Canadian workforce availability (2006 census). There continues to be an increase in the rate of representation of visible minorities within the Service, however, a slight decrease in the representation of Women. The representation of Aboriginals slightly increased this year while the representation of Persons with Disabilities remained the same as last year.

Review of New Employments Policies and Practices

This past year, the Service:

• Hired a diversity consultant to conduct a needs assessment of the organization as a whole, which included reviewing our programs, policies and processes with respect to employment equity and diversity and to assist us in preparing a five year Diversity Blueprint/Roadmap. The roadmap includes strategic goals, objectives, action plans and performance measures to ensure that diversity is at the forefront of our objectives;
• Reevaluated the Leadership Development Program in order to provide all employees with advancement opportunities into the Management Level stream. This will result in increased representation for Visible Minorities and Persons with Disabilities in the Program;
• Reviewed and analysed exit interviews relative to the four designated groups in order to ensure we are maintaining an inclusive and supportive work environment;
• Hired a consultant to conduct an extensive review of the Service's existing conflict resolution procedures, and to complete an organizational needs assessment. The Executive showed strong support for the implementation of an Informal Conflict Management System (ICMS) which would complement, not replace, the existing mechanisms currently in place for employees to resolve conflicts in the workplace;
• Conducted an employee survey which included more in-depth questions regarding harassment in the workplace;
• Developed a mechanism to track why designated group members are rejected or withdraw during each stage of the application process to ensure there are no barriers. This also includes tracking the number of designated group members which are hired and in which occupational group;
• Created task force teams through the Advisory Committee on Diversity to assist the Service to continue to search for a formula to create and sustain a visibly diverse and inclusive workplace. The four task forces are: Business Case for Diversity, Retention of employees, Formalizing the Mentoring Program and the Sensitization of Supervisors;
• Realigned all recruiting functions to create a "one team" approach to Service recruitment in order to meet its employment equity and diversity goals and ensure the Service is reflective of the society it represents;
• Offered a half day mandatory harassment prevention training for all Service employees;
• Compared our best practices with the ones that were reported in the Globe and Mail article on March 23, 2010 entitled "Top 45 Diversity-Focussed Employers" in order to determine what we have already accomplished, what is relevant to our organization and where we need to improve and concentrate our efforts;
• Hosted a diversity conference which brought together diversity champions from various federal departments to share best practices.

Accommodation Measures

Managers recognize and respect their duty to accommodate employees and the Service's policies and procedures clearly outline the internal process for handling these requests. Employees who require special support or accommodation are encouraged to discuss their requirements in order to ensure their needs are met. A dedicated resource within the Health Services Branch is responsible for these requests and for handling related confidential medical information.

During the past year, 246 ergonomic assessments were conducted Service-wide. Ergonomic awareness presentations were given to approximately one hundred and 172 new employees and 15 Health Reviews were undertaken in order to accommodate employees so that they could continue to be members of the Service's workforce.

The Service's fire alarm system includes a hearing-impaired evacuation system which operates on a pager system that is activated by the fire alarm.

Recruitment

For the period of 2009/2010, the Recruiting and Staffing Branch:

• Concentrated on targeted recruiting to increase the number of employees of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds to lower the gaps which have been identified in our workforce analysis. They also attended various activities with the specific mandate to recruit from various communities (i.e. Hindu Mandir, ODAWA career fair, Black Canadian Scholarship Fund Gala, and a career fair at the Tungasuvvingat Inuit Employment and Learning Centre);
• Hosted a presentation on Canada's First Nations peoples, to inform and sensitize Human Resources Officers when recruiting from this designated group;
• Published recruitment ads for the North American student magazine JobPostings, which were published in issues specific to Aboriginals and Persons with Disabilities;
• Continued with last year's goal to recruit 25% of all new Intelligence Officers from three of the four designated groups: Visible Minorities, Persons with Disabilities and Aboriginals;
• Maintained our contract with Equitek, a company that manages job postings by broadcasting the Service's job opportunities on a daily basis through an established diversity portal network of agencies specializing in employment equity hiring;
• Participated in the Cross Cultural Roundtable on Security (CCRS) Newcomers outreach event in St-John's, Newfoundland.

Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business

The Service continued to participate in the government's Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business. In 2009, the total value of contracts awarded to these businesses was $326,337.

Employment Equity Awareness Activities

Over the past year, the Service organized many events and used various means to promote awareness activities and inclusiveness amongst our employees, as follows:

• Black History Month: The Diversity Management Unit invited the Vice-President of the Black Canadian Scholarship Fund to give a presentation entitled "Contributions of Black Canadians". Biographies of Black Canadians who have contributed to the foundation and growth of Canada were posted on the Service's intranet. As well, a casual Friday was hosted with proceeds going to the Black Canadian Scholarship Fund.
• International Women's Day: A message was published on the Service's intranet which gave a description and history of this event.
• Asian Heritage Month: The Diversity Management Unit invited Brian Buckley, author of the book "Gift of Freedom: How Ottawa Welcomed the Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian Refugees", to give a presentation to employees. Biographies of Asians who have contributed to the foundation and growth of Canada were posted on the Service's intranet. As well, a casual Friday was hosted with proceeds going to the "Vietnamese Boat People Museum".
• Aboriginal Awareness Week: A message was published on the Service's intranet which gave a description and history of this event. Native spirituality guides, four Aboriginal prints, an eagle feather and an Aboriginal necklace were placed on display in a common area. The Diversity Management Unit invited two Inuit performers to speak about their history and culture which also included throat-singing and drumming.
• National Access Awareness Week: Messages were published on the Service's intranet which indicated ways employees could create a welcoming place for employees with disabilities.
• International Day for Disabled Persons: Fingerspelling cards were distributed to employees, a casual Friday was also hosted with the proceeds going to the Canadian Hearing Society.
• National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women: A message was published on the Service's intranet which gave a description and history of this event. Also, the Diversity Management Unit invited a representative of the Neighbour, Friends and Families campaign to give a lunchtime presentation which explored topics such as warning signs of woman abuse, risk factors, how to talk to abusive men and how to respond to disclosures from women.
• Interfaith Calendar: This year, the Diversity Management Unit procured an electronic version of the 2010 Multicultural Calendar which celebrates the diversity of religions and cultural festivals. The calendar includes special features such as National History months, summaries of religious holidays, scheduling considerations, brief descriptions of each observance, as well as art work created by artists around the world. The calendar is available on each employee's desktop, as well, paper copies were purchased.

Diversity Training

The Service continues to provide new employees with training on diversity at work, cross-cultural awareness, communication strategies, and information sessions on employment equity where they are informed about the purpose of the Act and of their rights and obligations.

At the mandatory Orientation course for all new indeterminate employees, participants receive a half day session on Diversity. This includes increasing awareness of cultural, religious, gender, age, etc. issues that may arise in the workplace. This session is also provided during the Intelligence Officer training and is complemented by diverse internal resources who provide information on various cultures. In addition, our Intelligence Officers continue to receive training courses specifically aimed at enabling them to better understand and relate to the various communities that they will be dealing with.

The publication entitled "Religions in Canada" published by the Department of National Defence was posted on the Service's intranet, which assists supervisors and employees to understand and deal with cultural differences.

Internal Communication

Competitions are posted Service-wide on our Intranet and are open to all employees who have completed at least one year of service. The competition posters indicate that the Service is committed to Employment Equity and encourages the equitable participation of all employees.

The Service's Intranet is continuously updated, providing employees with constant access to current or planned measures for implementation of the Employment Equity Program. This site includes our annual reports, the Employment Equity Plan, the Employment Equity Act, the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, the Interfaith Calendar, minutes of the Diversity Committee meetings, to name but a few.

Communications initiatives, such as reports, photographic services, presentations and corporate videos all reflect the multitude of cultures and groups represented within the Service as well as in Canada.

The Service has a Dragonfly speech recognition application. It allows the user to interact with the computer and is designed for visually impaired persons, as well as for users who do not have the use of their hands. The user can have the screen read out loud and can give voice commands to control whatever software is being used.

Lunchtime Theatre Presentations are organized in an effort to expose Service employees to a variety of cross-cultural themes of operational and general interest.

Communication with the Public

Branches involved with international affairs benefit from the contribution of employees from varied ethnic, social and cultural backgrounds as this reflects the professional image of the Service with respect to international communities. This is due in part to the language skills of which the Service's workforce has capabilities in 105 languages or dialects.

The Communications Branch strives to enhance understanding and respect for Canadian diversity by ensuring that its communication products (publications and CSIS website) contain accurate information and culturally neutral language.

In partnership with Recruiting and Staffing, the Production Unit created a recruitment video for the careers section of the CSIS external website. While reflecting the diversity of the workforce at the Service, the informative clip presents the mandate, career opportunities, values and benefits of joining the organization. The recruitment video is also provided in closed captioning.

Communications Branch provided unclassified information about the Service to the public in both official languages as well as in several foreign languages including Arabic, Farsi, Chinese, Spanish and Punjabi.

Through the use of CLF 2.0 Web standards, our entire external website is set up for visually impaired persons. We have scalable text, all graphics/bitmaps have associated "alt" text where applicable, reader friendly tables and all pages are set up to be accessible to screen readers such as Jaws and Dragon.

Representation

Since last fiscal year, there has been an increase in the representation of Aboriginals and Visible Minorities. The Service continues its efforts to increase the overall rate of representation.

• Women: The Service continues to hire an equitable number of women in the "Professional" category. Recruitment efforts need to focus on increasing the representation in the "Middle and Other Managers" and "Other Sales and Services Personnel" categories.
• Aboriginal: The Service's overall representation has increased by 0.2 % from last year. Continued efforts are underway to recruit with particular focus in the "Professionals" and in the "Intermediate Sales and Service Personnel" categories.
• Persons with Disabilities: The Service's overall representation has remained the same since last year. The Service will need to focus on increasing the representation in the "Semi-Professionals & Technicians", "Intermediate Sales & Service Personnel" and "Professionals" categories.
• Visible Minorities: The Service's overall representation has increased by 0.9 % from last year. That said, the Service needs to concentrate on hiring in the "Middle and Other Managers", "Professionals", "Semi-Professionals & Technicians", "Clerical" "Administrative and Senior Clerical Personnel" and "Other Sales and Service Personnel" categories.
  

Advancement:

In 2009-2010, all of the four designated groups received opportunities for advancement with Women receiving 48.1% of them, followed by Visible Minorities at 9.4%, Aboriginals at 2.4% and Persons with Disabilities at 2%.

Recruiting:

In 2009-2010, our recruiting initiatives and rates for designated groups were similar to last year's report.

Termination:

The Service's overall termination rate for employees is at 1.6%. Of all the designated groups, women have the highest resignation rate at 37.7%, a decrease of 6% from last year. Departure rates for Visible Minorities accounted for 7.4%, a decrease of 2.4% from last report. Departure rates among Aboriginals decreased from 2.9% to 1.9% and Persons with Disabilities from 5.7% to 3.7%.

In accordance with the provisions of subsection 21(6) of the Employment Equity Act, the following tables provide statistics on the state of employment equity in the Service as of March 31, 2010.

Table 1: CSIS Representation of designated groups by professional category for last 2 fiscal years

 

Table 2: CSIS Representation of designated groups by salary grades for last 2 fiscal years

 

Table 3: CSIS Representation of designated groups based on staffing operations for last 2 fiscal years

 

CONCLUSION

This year the Service has made great strides for designated group members with regards to retention. Overall, the majority of our departures in the last year were due to retirements. Our departure rate for Women has decreased from 43.7% to 37.7%, a decrease of 6%, with retirements accounting for 47.5% of these departures. Departure rates for Persons with Disabilities decreased from 5.7% to 3.7%, with retirement accounting for 83.3%. For Aboriginals, there was also a decrease from 2.9% to 1.9%, with retirements accounting for 100% of departures. In last year's report, we had identified higher than usual departure rates for visible minorities, due to specific term assignments not being renewed and resignations for personal reasons. This year however, the departure rates for Visible Minorities also decreased from 9.8% to 7.4%.

Initiatives this year will focus on increasing our recruitment of the four designated groups with action plans outlined in the Diversity Roadmap.