Gender-based analysis plus

In 2022–23, the Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC) will build on the success of the GBA+ Action Plan (2019–21) to provide renewed strategic direction in integrating GBA Plus throughout the organization.

Planned initiatives will continue to align with the following pillars, identified when the GBA Plus Responsibility Centre was created:

1. Governance and capacity
2. Awareness and training
3. Integration and impact
4. Data and research
5. Monitoring and reporting

The responsibility centre will report internally on progress in implementing GBA Plus activities linked to these pillars. It will draw from lessons learned through research, internal consultations and engagement with other organizations to define a consistent internal results framework. This framework will include quantitative and qualitative targets to document the integration of GBA Plus into PSC policies, programs and services in detail.

The responsibility centre will also continue to equip frontline employees with applied knowledge to help them integrate GBA Plus concretely in their daily work. For example, the Information Technology Services Directorate will, in collaboration with the responsibility centre, provide practical information to its employees to ensure that GBA Plus elements are integrated during the inception, planning and design phases of new systems, technology intake and operational activities. This guidance may include providing relevant questions to ask in the early stages of IM/IT initiatives, as well as additional information and practical examples of past successes. Results of this initiative will be shared with other departments and linked to public service-wide frameworks such as the GC Digital Principles.

The GBA Plus Champion, at the director level, will remain informed of ongoing and planned initiatives, and will continue to support GBA Plus awareness and further systematic implementation within the organization. Governance structures will also continue to monitor GBA Plus integration across the organization.

The Recruitment and Assessment Services program will collect disaggregated data, allowing the PSC to monitor program impact as a function of diversity.

As part of the GC Jobs Transformation project, the PSC will continue to test digital solutions with an inclusive group of users, defining the usability of its platform through diverse outcomes and performance targets, which include inclusiveness and accessibility considerations. The new platform will also allow differentiated drop-off rates or “pressure points” to be captured for groups of candidates as a function of diversity characteristics, enabling the detection of potential barriers.

The program will also continue to offer targeted inventories and specialized recruitment initiatives for candidates with diversity characteristics. This includes preparing the launch of a new cohort of the Federal Internship Program for Canadians with Disabilities, with a focus on persons with disabilities and additional intersecting vulnerability characteristics. This initiative aims to increase its participants’ economic participation and to provide them with valuable work experience, while allowing public service employers to benefit from the participants’ skills and strengths.

In running high volume personnel assessment and development tests, the program will monitor aggregated data on the performance of members of all employment equity groups, to help proactively identify and remove barriers. A new unit within the organization will fully review assessment tools to enhance inclusiveness and accessibility beyond employment equity objectives.

In addition, the PSC’s Diversity & Inclusion Centre of Expertise will provide evidence-based advice on avenues to remove or mitigate barriers which may be found in PSC recruitment products and services.

Through its Oversight and Investigations program, the PSC will continue to conduct surveys providing a diversity-driven and intersectional perspective of the staffing environment. The program is analyzing the 2021 Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey as a function of employment equity group membership, level of education, region and first official language, and considering interactions between gender and other employment equity groups. Following the 2021 Audit of Employment Equity Representation in Recruitment, the program will also conduct an audit of employment equity representation in staffing processes, to pinpoint potential barriers to full access to employment for diversity groups.

The program will share staffing-related data for each department and agency on the Open Government portal, while respecting privacy standards. This will allow departments to conduct their own analyses and draw their own conclusions from the data, facilitating empirically based decision-making across the public service.

The program will also conduct research on public service hiring and will monitor government-wide staffing systems, such as the Public Service Resourcing System. It will analyze ongoing and emerging trends in recruitment from a diversity lens, considering employment equity group membership, educational level, language of use, area of residence and other diversity factors where it is possible to collect them.

As part of the Policy Direction and Support program, the PSC will continue to oversee and monitor data linked to the priority entitlements system, including population demographics such as employment equity status.

The program will also continue to apply a GBA Plus lens in regulatory work, including the modernization of the Public Service Employment Regulations. The regulatory proposals will explicitly consider barriers to the full participation of employment equity and equity-seeking groups.

A GBA Plus lens will also be applied to the implementation of amendments to the Public Service Employment Act, with impacts across policy, products and services and oversight.