Office of the Procurement Ombudsman

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
  • Black people
  • Racialized people
• Work is underway to set goals.

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?

In 2020, the Office of the Procurement Ombud’s (OPO) Diversity and Inclusion Committee was struck. This Committee has been at the heart of OPO and drives important initiatives for the Office; so important that many of the Committee’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been incorporated in the overarching OPO KPIs.

Some of the work that has been developed with relation to Human Resources (HR) include OPO’s commitment to the 50/30 diversity target to achieve a 50% female and 30% diverse workforce. OPO has been diligently tracking this and has taken steps to ensure the success of this commitment which include:

• Prioritization of Employment Equity (EE) through Human Resources (HR) posters and processes.
• Inclusion of the Accessibility Passport on all posters and processes.
• Requesting and reviewing EE resumes for all new hiring.

OPO’s aware of the impact each HR decision has on the organization especially with an Office comprised of 30 team members. Therefore EE is a main component that is considered for each promotion and each hire.

The Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Committee is currently looking at incorporating promotion goals for Indigenous and underrepresented groups.

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).

OPO’s KPIs and the D&I Committee have established plans that contain goals, commitments and KPIs which are assessed for completion. Some of these include:

• Seeking feedback from staff pertaining to their information technology (IT) accessibility requirements through OPO’s annual employee survey.
• Achieving at least 50% female representation within the office, and at least 30% from underrepresented groups.
• Participating in at least 4 outreach activities (i.e. booths, kiosks and events where an OPO member is a presenter or panelist) geared toward diverse suppliers.
• Allocating 30% of advertising budget/goal to promote OPO’s services to diverse suppliers.
• Identifying diverse industry associations and participate in at least 2 related outreach events.

In addition to the aforementioned, in October of 2023, OPO internally shared the 5 overarching Pillars that form the core of OPO and the work that we do for Canadians – these pillars have since been posted on OPO-boa.gc.ca/piliers-pillars-eng.html OPO’s website:

• Diversity
• Simplification
• Transparency
• Knowledge Deepening and Sharing (KDS)
• Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

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?)?

Yes, OPO developed KPIs that are inline with the goals. These are measured throughout the year.

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.

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

In addition to the Government-Wide Corporate Priorities and the Organizational Commitments, the DPO and Directors all have OPO specific commitments which they are measured against with relation to pursuing D&I along with the implementation.

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.  

OPO is a small office that consists of 30 team members and while we were able to appoint Black and racialized employees in the past, have been diligently working on obtaining resumes that would enable us to deliver on our current commitments.

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 personally endorsed at least one recruitment campaign for:
  • Indigenous employees
  • Black employees
  • Racialized employees

Please provide details.

Since 2021, OPO has been prioritizing its hiring to individuals that self-identify as a member of one of the following employment equity groups: Aboriginal peoples, Persons with disabilities or visible minorities. This information has been added to posters that have been advertised for OPO (examples include: Communications Manager (cfp-psc.gc.ca), Are you at level or qualified in an AS-07 pool? (cfp-psc.gc.ca)).

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?

OPO has offered group training for any team member that expressed interest regardless of their levels or whether they self-identified. Individual part-time and full-time second language training has been offered to employees that have requested/operational requirements.

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

OPO employees enjoy the same access as Public Service and Procurement Canada (PSPC) employees to Canada School of Public Service (CSPS) and the learning system ALTO and has not exclusively offered Indigenous language training.

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.

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

In addition to the D&I Committee, some of OPO team members form part of the Interdepartmental Accessibility Community of Practice (IACoP), the Agents of Change for Accessible Procurement, Interdepartmental Network on Diversity and Employment Equity (IDNDEE), the Government of Canada Workplace Accessibility Passport Team among others.

Since 2018-19, OPO hosted five iterations of its Diversifying the Federal Supply Chain Summit which has seen over 2,000 participants over the years. The Diversifying the Federal Supply Chain Summit was geared towards underrepresented suppliers such as Indigenous Peoples, 2SLGBTQIA+ , racialized people, persons with disabilities, and other minority groups interested in doing business with the federal government.

In an effort to continue the promotion of diversity in the federal supply chain and with its limited staff/budget restrictions, OPO had to pivot and hosted a speed mentoring session with underrepresented businesses in Ottawa in 2024 in order to increase awareness of the office’s services to its stakeholders. This approach was a new outreach activity for the office to continue raising awareness of the various information regarding Federal Government programs and tools that support an understanding of the federal procurement process and help suppliers within these groups obtain federal contracts.

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?

• Work has not yet started to develop this calendar for my organization.

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

A calendar does not currently exists, however, this item has been relayed to the D&I Committee for further consideration.

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.

There is much work to do to advance D&I throughout the Government of Canada and our communities. OPO team members volunteer their time (and often, time outside of work hours) to bring many initiatives to fruition. As OPO has a limited number of resources (due to no increase to its budget since inception) and must deliver on its mandated priorities, additional resources to aid with the work on initiatives is required.

The second barrier is the limitation of baseline data. In 2020-21, OPO conducted a diversity survey of federal departments in hopes of obtaining baseline data on diversity initiatives in federal procurement. We drew attention to the need for data in our knowledge deepening and sharing study on social procurement, which was published in 2019-20. A key factor raised in this study was that data collection is a known challenge and a hurdle for most organizations. Yet data is crucial to establishing baselines, setting meaningful targets and measuring progress against these targets. As well, it helps the federal government understand how racialized communities currently contribute to the federal supply chain, and how procurement processes may negatively and disprOPOrtionately impact these communities. In short, information is the first step to taking meaningful action.

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.

OPO has established many resources for all employees to explore and to report on any barriers that they are facing. In addition to the employee survey which is administered annually, OPO has an anonymous online innovation/suggestion box where employees share any issues that they have been facing or provide any suggestions that can help improve the organization/culture. These suggestions are raised to Senior Management whenever they are entered, they are then discussed at the Senior Management Committee meetings (held weekly) and a recommendation is made that is then communicated at the following all-staff. This is an anonymous mechanism that enables members to share anything if they do not wish to bring it up through their managers.

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. 

1. As of March 31, 2022, 1 year into the 5 year commitment to achieve a 50% female and a 30% diverse workforce, the results of a self-identification survey have showed that OPO had 74% female and 26% diverse workforce.
2. Even though OPO had limited funding and had to pivot from hosting its Diversifying the Federal Supply Chain Summits, we were able to find alternatives to connect with underrepresented suppliers — such as Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQ2+, racialized people, persons with disabilities, and other minority groups interested in doing business with the federal government.
3. Embedded D&I in all of OPO’s practices so that it became second nature when working on any file by increasing the focus on the impact of every decision and action.