Gender-based analysis plus

In 2023–24, the Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC) will provide strategic direction on integrating Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) throughout the organization.

The GBA Plus Responsibility Centre will:

• provide frontline employees with applied knowledge and guidance to help them integrate GBA Plus concretely, including
• guidance to support consideration of GBA Plus measures at the early stages of initiatives, and practical examples of past successes 
• development of a consistent internal results framework based upon lessons learned from other organizations 
• the framework will include quantitative and qualitative targets to document the integration of GBA Plus into PSC policies, programs, operations and services in detail

The GBA Plus Champion, will continue to support awareness and further systematic implementation within the organization.

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

The program will continue to offer focused inventories and specialized initiatives for diverse candidates, including:

• the Employment Opportunity for Students with Disabilities and the Indigenous Student Employment Opportunity, Federal Student Work Experience Program initiatives featuring an onboarding process, training, a mentorship program and activities for students and managers/supervisors
• the Virtual Door to Talent with Disabilities, a one-stop-shop for access to all PSC hiring inventories for persons with disabilities

The PSC’s Diversity and Inclusion Centre of Expertise, the Indigenous Centre of Expertise and the Assessment Centre of Expertise will continue to provide evidence-based guidance and advice on inclusive recruitment and ways to remove or mitigate barriers in PSC recruitment products and services.

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 varying thresholds to identify candidate(s) with diversity characteristics, enabling the detection of potential barriers.

In running high-volume personnel assessment and development tests, the program will:

• monitor data on the performance of members of all employment equity groups, to help proactively identify and remove barriers
• fully review assessment tools to enhance inclusiveness and accessibility beyond employment equity objectives
• offer assessment accommodation services to departments for candidates applying to federal public service jobs
• monitor assessment accommodation services using a GBA Plus lens to ensure, equitable and accessible assessments

Through its Oversight and Investigations program, the PSC will continue to conduct surveys that provide a diversity-driven and intersectional perspective of the staffing environment. The program has revised the Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey, which will include new questions in 2023 for equity-seeking groups related to sexual orientation and religion and interactions between gender and other employment equity groups.

The program will also conduct an audit of employment equity representation in acting appointment processes, as well as an audit on potential barriers for diverse groups at the application stage of the appointment process.

The program will share relevant 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 continue to 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.

The program will also:

• conduct investigations into errors, omissions or improper conduct arising from bias and barriers that disadvantage members of equity-seeking groups during processes for appointments to the public service
• report on the nature and findings of these investigations to other areas of the PSC, allowing them to better support departments
• post summaries of these investigations on the PSC website for departments and the public to consult  

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, programs, operations, services and oversight.