Elections Canada

Goal setting

Question 1

Has your organization set goals (for fiscal year 2023-2024 or future fiscal years) for recruiting and promoting Indigenous peoples and Black and other racialized people?

• My organization has set recruitment goals for:
  • Indigenous peoples
  • Racialized people
• My organization has set promotion goals for:
  • Indigenous employees
  • Racialized employees

Please provide details and/or examples, including what your organization is using to set its goals (e.g., operational priorities, labour market availability [LMA], population data, workforce availability [WFA]), and how these goals are communicated to employees, if applicable. What has been the most helpful in advancing towards the goals you have set? What challenges, if any, have you encountered?

• Elections Canada (EC) has an Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EEDI) strategy that includes:
  • Vision: An equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplace where all feel welcome.
  • Goals:
    • Narrow the representation gaps for employment-equity-seeking groups while increasing the diversity of our workforce:
      1. Entry/middle-management-level gaps by 2025;
      2. Executive-level gaps by 2027;
    • Improve the sense of belonging to the agency among determinate and indeterminate employees and across all employee profiles.
  • Pillars:
    1. Recruit employees from diverse communities at entry-, middle- and upper-level positions.
    2. Develop members of employment-equity-seeking groups by applying an employment-equity lens to leadership development, learning, and talent management plans for employees.
    3. Create an inclusive culture to retain employees from employment-equity-seeking groups through supportive management training for achieving the goals.
• The EC EEDI recruitment strategy is based on workforce data and focuses on filling, namely, Indigenous and racialized representation gaps where present in the organization (per sector). The strategy has been presented to various EEDI working groups within the agency, the HR forum and the Strategic Management Committee. An EEDI recruitment matrix was developed to guide managers in identifying where EEDI gaps exist and how to support filling the gap through appropriate recruitment efforts. In 2024–2025, goals will be added specifically for recruiting and promoting Black employees as part of EEDI recruitment and development strategies to respond to the Call to Action.
• The EC Middle Managers Development Program, launched in April 2024, prioritized EEDI-seeking employees. The Program had a minimum participation target of 30% for EEDI-seeking employees. In 2024–2025, specific targets will be added for Black and other racialized and Indigenous employees.
• EC has a Speaker Series and an information forum. The Speaker Series has three streams designed to highlight information applicable to executives, hiring managers, and all staff. Featuring a variety of speakers sharing their lived experiences on subjects relating to and impacting diversity and inclusion, the series aims to assist us in building an equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplace where all feel welcome. The employee forums are designed to create an opportunity for staff to engage in dialogue with senior officials and champions to ask questions and explore topics further. The forums offer an opportunity for an informal, honest, and respectful exchange of thoughts and ideas around these themes.

Question 2

Has your organization set goals to foster greater inclusion (for fiscal year 2023-2024 or future fiscal years)?

• My organization has set goals to foster greater inclusion.

Please provide details and/or examples, including which metrics or data your organization is using, if applicable (e.g., your Public Service Employee Survey results, pulse surveys, exit interviews, human resources administrative data).

Corporate Commitment

• The Second Corporate Commitment for 2023–2024 of Elections Canada (EC) is the following:
  • Deliver enhanced products and services to increase inclusion and accessibility of equity-seeking groups in the agency and the electoral process.
• The Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy at Elections Canada includes:
  • Vision: An equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplace where all feel welcome.
  • Goals:
    • Narrow the representation gaps for employment-equity-seeking groups while increasing the diversity of our workforce:
      1. entry/middle-management-level gaps by 2025;
      2. executive-level gaps by 2027;
    • Improve the sense of belonging to the agency among determinate and indeterminate employees and across all employee profiles.
  • Pillars:
    1. Recruit employees from diverse communities at entry-, middle- and upper-level positions.
    2. Develop members of employment-equity-seeking groups by applying an employment-equity lens to leadership development, learning, and talent management plans for employees.
    3. Create an inclusive culture to retain employees from employment-equity-seeking groups through supportive management training for achieving the goals.

Measuring progress

Question 3

Has your organization developed an approach for measuring progress towards your established goals? 

How is the approach being implemented within your organization (e.g., how is it communicated to employees? What are the roles of executive team members including the Chief Data Officer and Head of Audit and Evaluation and regional management if applicable? How are you reporting on results and outcomes both internally and externally?)?

Corporate Commitment

Sector leads and branch heads are expected to make significant contributions to the Corporate Commitments. The measurement toward progress of the Second Corporate Commitment (deliver enhanced products and services to increase inclusion and accessibility of equity-seeking groups in the agency and the electoral process) is assessed directly in the performance evaluation of senior management. All Executives and LCs at Elections Canada have the following commitment and performance measure in their performance management agreement:

Commitment

Advancing Reconciliation, Anti-Racism, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility in the Public Service.

Performance Indicator

HR planning is done using the agency’s workforce data to review and reduce gaps in EE representation, and employees have access to accommodation measures as required.

Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

The three pillars of the Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EEDI) Strategy will be supported by an EEDI data strategy that enables decision-making based on sound data and ongoing evaluation against established objectives and refinements to the strategy based on results over time.

• The agency is in the preliminary stages of its EEDI data strategy. However, to support the first pillar of the EEDI Strategy, recruitment of employees from diverse communities, the following steps have been taken to capture sound data on candidates in external or internal advertised staffing processes:
  
  • Modifications have been made to staffing tools (e.g. assessment board reports) to capture candidate EEDI information and track drop-off rates throughout the stages of the advertised process (e.g. screening, written test, interview, and references);
  • Mock interactive dashboards have been developed in Power BI to provide data and digital visualizations related to:
    • Diversity, including geographic location and official language proficiency of candidates who apply to the advertised staffing processes of the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer;
    • Candidate journey, including drop-off rates, throughout the process that can be filtered by demographic characteristic, including employment-equity group membership;
    • Demographic profiles of successful candidates (i.e. those placed in qualified or partially qualified pools, following an advertised process);
    • Search capability (by demographic profile) of candidates in active pools.
  • Within the context of the agency’s Digital Transformation strategy, an human resources-information technology (HR-IT) project team has been created to develop an human resources (HR) data lake which, in the future, will facilitate the direct feed of candidate data from Assessment Board Reports into Power BI dashboards to support HR planning and management decision making.
• To measure success toward the third pillar, the organization collects data via a survey that is administered after each speaker event to measure the transfer of knowledge.

Consequential accountability

Question 4

How is your organization using performance management and/or talent management processes to establish accountability for results?

• Qualitative objectives are in performance management agreements.
• Progress towards representation and inclusion goals is part of the criteria for being considered for talent management.
• Work is underway to develop approaches to establish accountability for results in either of these processes.

Please provide details about how performance management and/or talent management processes are being used to establish accountability for results.

• One of the performance indicators helping the agency measure the engagement of senior management toward the implementation of the Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EEDI) Strategy at Elections Canada (EC) is the following: All performance agreements of senior management contain a specific diversity-related commitment.
• The EC Middle Managers Development Program, launched in April 2024, prioritized EEDI-seeking employees. The Program had a minimum target of 30% for EEDI-seeking participants. In 2024–2025, specific targets will be added for Black and other racialized and Indigenous employees.
• Based on EC’s EX needs analysis, a new approach is currently under way to assess the best way to balance operational needs and leverage the opportunity to increase diversity within EX positions in the organization.

Specific, tangible actions outlined in the forward direction of the Call to Action

Question 5

Have you, as head of your organization, and/or your executive teams sponsored at least two Indigenous employees and Black and other racialized employees to prepare them for leadership roles?

• Neither I nor my executive team have sponsored at least two Indigenous employees and Black and other racialized employees to prepare them for leadership roles.

Please provide details about the nature of sponsorship that you and/or your executive team have provided, along with other programs, such as mentorship or leadership development, if applicable.  

N/A

Question 6

Have you, as head of your organization, personally endorsed at least one recruitment campaign for Indigenous employees and Black and other racialized employees?

• I have not personally endorsed at least one recruitment campaign for Indigenous employees and Black and other racialized employees.

Please provide details.

In 2023–2024, Elections Canada did not have a specific recruitment campaign for Black and other racialized employees, as the agency’s approach focused on filling representation gaps globally at the agency level.

Question 7

Has your organization prioritized official language training for Indigenous employees and Black and other racialized employees who are ready for advancement?

• My organization has prioritized official language training for:
  • Indigenous employees
  • Black employees
  • Racialized employees

How is your organization prioritizing official language training?

Elections Canada currently has an memorandum of understanding (MOU) for second language evaluation (SLE) training with the House of Commons. When registration period opens, sectors are asked to consider equity-seeking employees, particularly Indigenous, Black and other racialized employees who are ready for promotion, when identifying and prioritizing employees needing language training.

Does your organization offer access to Indigenous language training or have plans to offer access? Please provide details. 

No.

Question 8

Has your organization provided support and/or invested resources for organizational employee networks and communities?

• Engagement with employees and employee networks in my organization’s decision-making is meaningful and regular.
• Governance structures are in place to support employee networks and communities (e.g., champions, champions/chairs participate at management tables).

Please provide additional detail about how your organization engages with and supports employee networks and communities.

• The agency has an Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EEDI) Champion, EEDI working group, EEDI employee representative group, and an EEDI core team.
• The agency has an Accessibility Senior Designated Official, a working group and a steering committee with employee representatives.
• The agency is also working on creating an internal employee accessibility working group.
• Being a small organization, Elections Canada encourages its employees to take advantage of the existing communities and networks within the Public Service so that they can benefit from the discussions and sharing that are offered by these larger community and networks.

Question 9

Has anti-racism, equity and inclusion work been embedded in your organization’s integrated business plan and/or mental health plan?

• Anti-racism, equity and inclusion work has been embedded in the organizational plan.

Question 10

Does your organization have a calendar to avoid holding major meetings and events during significant religious, spiritual, and cultural periods?

• My organization currently has a calendar for this purpose.

If the calendar already exists, please provide additional details on how this calendar is communicated or promoted within your organization.  

Elections Canada (EC) has a calendar that does respect significant religious, spiritual, and cultural periods to avoid holding electoral events during those periods. Moreover, internally, EC follows a multicultural calendar for department-wide meeting and strategic communications planning.

Additional information about your organization’s ongoing initiatives 

Question 11

What are two or three specific barriers that you have faced in advancing work on the Call to Action?

Please provide two or three examples.

The fact that Elections Canada is a small agency that relies heavily (50% to 75%) on (1) a term/temporary workforce that (2) has a high turnover rate constitutes a significant challenge when trying to attract new talent—including Employment-Equity, Diversity-and-Inclusion-seeking group members—and makes it difficult to achieve representation goals.

Question 12

Recognizing that employees often have multiple identities, what actions is your organization undertaking to support Indigenous employees and Black and other racialized employees who are also members of other communities, such as persons with disabilities, 2SLGBTQIA+ communities and religious minorities who face compounding barriers of discrimination?

Please provide details.

Elections Canada (EC) is currently putting in place a Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) policy and strategy to ensure that programs and services are delivered and assessed from an intersectional perspective. The GBA Plus secretariat is supporting programs in the development of methodologies for the collection of disaggregated data by gender to in turn ensure that programs are inclusive. Moreover, the EC Speaker Series looks at issues through an intersectional lens to create a more inclusive environment for EEDI-seeking employees who identify as belonging to more than one group.

Question 13

In your first year of implementing the forward direction of the Call to Action, what impact has this work had on the culture of your organization?

Please provide the two or three most important impacts. 

Elections Canada is experiencing a collective awareness and heightened sensitivity to issues of inclusion, diversity, and equity. This awareness can be observed in internal and external communications, in internal and external recruitment processes, and in the implementation of the agency's programs and services.