Parole Board of 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?

According to employment equity (EE) data provided by the Treasury Board of Canada (TBS) as of March 31, 2023, the Parole Board of Canada (The PBC or the Board) has no global gap in representation for Indigenous peoples and racialized groups when compared to the Canadian workforce. However, the analysis of disaggregated data by professional groups shows that no Indigenous employee holds a senior management position. Also, the analysis of equity data taken from the Human Resources Management System (HRMS) for the same date shows that no racialized person occupies an EX minus 2 position. Both the 2023-2024 PBC Strategic Plan and the PBC's Employment Equity Plan 2022-2025 include objectives aimed at ensuring better representation of equity groups in underrepresented occupational categories and feeder positions.

EE Plan objective:

• Encourage targeted staffing processes for the EE groups in underrepresented occupational categories and feeder positions (i.e., EX minus 1 and minus 2).

Executives’(EX) performance agreements for 2023-2024 also include an objective to advance Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Public Service.

• Executives demonstrate leadership in implementing measures and/or recommendations to address systemic barriers that are included in the PBC EE Plan, Moving Towards Diversity, Equity and inclusion: PBC Action Plan, the PBC’s Accessibility Plan and the 2023-2024 PBC Strategic Plan.
• Ensuring that staffing activities are targeted when gaps exist.

In terms of corporate communications, the PBC Employment Equity Plan was first presented to the PBC’s Senior Management Committee (i.e., all executives) and labor partners, following which a corporate message to announce the Plan was sent to all employees from the PBC’s Chairperson (i.e. deputy head).

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).

One of the PBC’s five corporate priorities for 2023-24 and 2024-25 is the following:

• Cultivate a people management and training approach that fosters diversity, equity and inclusion, recognizes the benefits of flexible work arrangements, and promotes a healthy, respectful, productive, and safe work environment.

The 2023–2024 PBC Strategic Plan includes the following action item:

• Monitor the completion rate of all Human Resources (HR) employees to complete up-to-date training on EE, Diversity and Inclusion, including H205 (i.e. “Inclusive Hiring Practices for a Diverse Workforce”) in order
• to offer adequate advice to clients by using Canada School of Public Service (CSPS ) data.

The 2024–2025 PBC Strategic Plan includes the following action items:

• Validating that the employee onboarding and orientation guide is inclusive and contains relevant and useful information for new employees from an equity group.
• Continue to implement the PBC’s Action Plan for Moving Towards Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, inclusive of enhanced culturally appropriate victim services and culturally responsive hearing processes for Black parole applicants.

The 2022-25 PBC Employment Equity Plan includes the following activities and objectives to foster greater inclusion:

• Since 2023, the course “Inclusive Hiring Practices for a Diverse Workforce” is mandatory for senior executives, managers with subdelegated staffing authority and human resources employees.
• Several courses have been included in PBC’s Learning Roadmaps for employees, supervisors and executives aimed at making the PBC more inclusive (e.g.: “Moving From Bias to Inclusion”; “Reflecting on Cultural Bias: Indigenous Perspectives,” etc.) and each employee has an objective within their performance agreement to commit to personally learn about racism, reconciliation, accessibility, equity, diversity and inclusion, and promoting a safe and positive environment.  As of this submission, 90% of employees must have completed the courses according to the planned deadline.
• Establishment of an inventory of diverse and equity-seeking employees to participate in staffing selection committees, thereby lending valuable cross-cultural insight. The PBC will further establish a process to provide feedback and monitor the participation of inventory employees in various staffing activities.
• The PBC is currently developing training materials on harassment, violence prevention and bullying specific for the PBC, inclusive of available remedies which will be available to all employees and Board members. This objective also responds to an issue linked to harassment and intimidation experienced more significantly by people belonging to a racialized group and Indigenous peoples, according to Public Service Employee Survey (PSES) 2022 data.
• PBC plans to conduct further work in 2024-2025 to identify needs specific to Indigenous and racialized employees. Specifically, a survey will be conducted among these employees, the results of which will help inform further workplace and program development.

The PBC action plan “Moving Towards Diversity, Equity and Inclusion”) includes the following objective:

• Integrate consideration of systemic and background factors for Black people in decision-making including updating the decision-making policy manual and further integration of this notion for PBC’s Board Member training. Corresponding updates have now been incorporated into the PBC’s policy framework and decision-making manual for Board members.

The goal of greater inclusion has also been reflected in the PBC Talent Management Framework, which facilitates annual conversations with employees about fostering growth and career development opportunities.

Finally, the PBC conducts voluntary exit surveys for employees and an End of Mandate Questionnaire for Board members. Results of these two distinct surveys are analyzed across numerous domains and are shared with select PBC staff/ Board members, including the PBC Chairperson, the Executive Vice-Chairperson, Vice-Chairpersons and/or the PBC’s Senior Management Committee (SMC).

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?)?

The PBC Strategic Plan provides senior managers, Board members and staff with high-level direction and information to achieve the PBC goals. Its intent is to focus the PBC’s efforts by highlighting corporate priorities and risks and identifying specific action items of importance. Action items are monitored through the PBC’s Strategic Operations Committee, chaired by the Deputy Chairperson, as well as other reporting mechanisms such as the PBC’s Mid-Year and Year-End internal reports, the Departmental Plan, Departmental Results Report, and Departmental Results Framework. These internal and external reports are communicated to senior managers, Board members and staff.

As well, the PBC’s Employment Equity Plan 2022-2025 includes performance indicators to measure the progress and success of each identified activity. Those performance indicators include qualitative and quantitative measurements. In 2023, the PBC conducted an Employment System Review (ESR) to explore potential barriers within hiring practices, and which yielded numerous recommendations including:

• Incorporate goals and numerical performance indicators into the EE Plan to close gaps in underrepresentation and to respond to the PSES results.
• Integrate goals and performance indicators into the business and human resources planning process.

Since the completion of the ESR, an EE Plan Progress Report has been produced and allowed PBC to outline various achievements realized since the original publication of the 2022-25 Plan. The remaining activities of the EE Plan have been reviewed based on the ESR recommendations and new performance indicators have been added. The data used for reporting comes, as the case may be, from the TBS, the PSES, the Human Resources Management System (HRMS), the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS ) Learning Management System, etc. The data are shared with senior management, with unions and also with employees via an all-staff message and posted on the iNet Equity, Diversity and Inclusion page.

Similarly, the PBC’s internal report on diversity, equity and inclusion “Moving Towards Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Parole Board of Canada Action Plan”, has been regularly monitored with updates provided periodically to PBC Senior Management and updates via offices of primary interest.  

For PBC’s Performance and Talent Management Program, an annual performance dashboard is produced with relevant data cross-referenced with EE data, allowing for the measurement of progress for EE and equity-seeking groups.

The PBC does not have a Chief Data Officer nor a Head of Audit and Evaluation due its organizational size. However, the PBC was recently audited by the Office of the Comptroller General under the Employment Equity Act. The PBC expects a report to be finalized in the coming months.

Consequential accountability

Question 4

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

• Quantitative goals are part of performance management agreements. 
• 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.

For 2023-2024, PBC had four Executive (EX) Performance Objectives related to EE , Diversity and Inclusion:

• Executives demonstrate leadership in implementing measures and/or recommendations to address systemic barriers that are included into the Parole Board of Canada’s (PBC) EE Plan, Moving Towards Diversity, Equity and inclusion: PBC Action Plan, the PBC’s Accessibility Plan and the 2023-2024 PBC Strategic Plan.
• Executives endeavour to close EE gaps using inclusive hiring practices based on their most recent respective regional/divisional EE data.
• Executives create a work environment that is inclusive, accepting, and respectful of individual differences; promote an accessible and barrier-free work environment; encourage self-identification; enable employee participation in employee networks and communities and/or offer language training to employees from equity-seeking communities.
• Executives encourage continuous learning, development and career advancement for employment-equity seeking groups using talent management, mentoring and sponsorship programs.

These performance indicators are evaluated by managers of executives throughout the year. To establish the executives’ yearly performance ratings, the PBC’s Chairperson presides over a review committee each spring to assess the achieved results by each executive. Executive results achieved are also reviewed by HR to identify tangible activities. 

Progress reports on PBC’s plans are reported on annually and provide direct accountability from an organizational perspective. Moving forward, as part of its planning exercise PBC will be matching position vacancies with employment equity gaps which will give us direct accountability toward filling gaps. 

PBC employees also had the following indicator in their 2023-2024 performance agreements:

• Participate in at least one event or training during the financial year, about racism, reconciliation, accessibility, equity, diversity and inclusion, and/or fostering a safe, positive environment.

Messaging to managers regarding the performance indicator included the following:

• As the PBC moves toward a more inclusive workplace, programs such as Talent Management will play a key role in supporting employees in their growth. Managers are encouraged to engage with employees regarding their talent, and offer talent management plans to employees who are eligible as per PBC’s Talent Management Framework. Employees with a talent management plan are encouraged to Self-Declare their employment equity information.

The PBC has also incorporated the use of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s (TBS) Mosaic Leadership Development program to annually select EE-borne promising employees and offer them opportunities for professional development through training, mentoring and . To date, the PBC has had two aspiring executives selected to participate in the Mosaic program.

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?

• My executive team has 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.  

To date, two Black PBC employees have participated in the Mosaic Leadership Development program, one in 2022-2023 and another in 2023-2024. As per the program requirements, these employees were provided with a sponsor, an experience-building component, a learning component offered by the Ivey School of Business and an assessment against the qualification standard for EX-01 (Key Leadership Competencies). 

In 2022-2023, the Mosaic participant was sponsored by the Deputy Chairperson (EX-04), who is also the Senior Designated Official for Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EEDI).

Currently, the PBC Mosaic participant is being sponsored by the Director General, Policy, Planning and Operations (EX-02) at the PBC.

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?

• Work is underway so that I will personally endorse at least one recruitment campaign for Indigenous employees and Black and other racialized employees.

Please provide details.

In 2024-2025 Directors General and Directors across the organization will be required, should a new staffing need arise, to launch targeted staffing processes according to EE data and gaps.

EE Plan objective:

• When a staffing need arises for occupational categories and feeder positions (EX, EX minus 1 and 2) requiring the use of an advertised process, hiring managers commit to limiting or expanding the area of selection to include underrepresented EE groups.

Performance indicators:

• Subject to a vacancy, PBC launched at least one advertised process to fill an executive position with an area of selection (limited or expanded) opened to members of the following EE groups: women and/or Indigenous peoples.
• At least one racialized employee will be hired into an EX minus 2 positions at the PBC by March 31, 2025 (subject to a vacancy).

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?

In its 2022-2023 Official Languages Review, the PBC committed to offering language training to all its employees as a priority for upcoming years. As such, the PBC implemented a central training fund intended for the training of its employees, including language training. All employees can access group language training through a call letter sent twice per year. In the case of employees with a talent management plan or part of a development program (e.g., the PE occupational group), individual training can also be considered from a career development perspective. In its desire to be inclusive, the PBC does not distinguish between employees from different equity or equity-seeking groups. Fair, equitable and transparent accessibility criteria are identified through a decision-making tool.

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

No. No need justifies it. The PBC uses Indigenous or other foreign language interpreters during hearings for offenders who do not master English or French.

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).
• Material supports are provided for employee networks and communities (e.g., dedicated funding, FTE support, allowing time to engage in activities).
• Work is underway for my organization to further engage with or to provide support for and/or invest resources in departmental employee networks and communities.

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

Network for Persons with Disabilities

At present, the PBC has one formal employee-led network, the Network for Persons with Disabilities, which is led by two employee Co-Chairs and is actively supported by a network-appointed EX Champion. The Champion is an intermediary between the network, the PBC’s Accessibility Champion and the Deputy Chairperson. The PBC’s Accessibility Champion (the Director General, Corporate Services) provides financial support to the network for human or material resources, for example, the hiring of a part-time student with a disability to provide additional administrative support.

The network has been critical to advancing accessibility at the PBC: the members participated in consultations for the 2023–2025 Accessibility Plan and the 2023 Progress Report; one of its members sits on the PBC’s Accessibility Steering Committee as a liaison between the two groups; and, by its own initiative, the network organizes speakers’ events for the National AccessAbility Week and the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The network has also been supported by HR and Public Affairs in various ways. Management allows employees of the network the necessary time away from their regular duties to participate in network-related activities.

Other Employee Networks and Communities

Following the recent PSES results, which indicated some negative disparity between employees who identified as being part of an EE groups and employees who did not, the PBC is planning consultations with employees to gain more insight into the needs of employees in these groups. One of the objectives of these consultations is to determine if there is interest from employees in Indigenous, Black or racialized groups to create or join an employee-led network that would be supported in ways similar to the Network for Persons with Disabilities.

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.  

Under the leadership of our Head of Communications, we highlight most major international theme days and religious celebrations through the use of internal communications, Twitter (X) message campaigns and all staff messages sent from senior executives of the PBC.  e.g. emails from the PBC’s Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson to all Board Members and staff, posts on the PBC’s intranet regarding important cultural dates, and promotion of the CSPS Events announcements.

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.

1. The PBC is a small organization and does not have the same human or financial resources as a large organization to be able to effectively manage all the current government and central agency requirements for new initiatives, including the development of strategies, concrete action plans, monitoring of deliverables and progress, and reporting. 
2. Being a small organization, the PBC has less representation gaps to fill. It also does not typically have high turnover rates in senior and middle manager-level positions.
3. The PBC is lacking disaggregated representation data regarding Black employees which would support recruitment and promotion strategy for this group.

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.

The PBC has a Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) Framework which serves as the Board's statement of intent and seeks to build and sustain the practice of GBA+ through several streams, including intersectionality. The PBC utilize GBA+ to assess the different impacts of business decisions on diverse groups. The PBC operationalizes this commitment through federal legislation (such as the Employment Equity Act, the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, the Official Languages Act) and internal policies (such as Prevention of Harassment in the Workplace).

The Parole Board of Canada's Annual Training on Risk Assessment (ATRA) for Board members provides both large-group plenary sessions as well as small group workshops. ATRA focuses specifically on risk assessment skills, decision writing, and hearing management among other topics, and provides Board members with the opportunity for hands-on, practical training. While the subject matter varies year to year based on the current needs of Board members, the focus is on improving risk assessment skills and knowledge.

At the ATRA 2023, a session on Interviewing Practices that Align and Comply with the Structured Decision-Making Framework (SDMF)​ was offered to Board members. This included interviewing techniques that are sensitive to an individual’s intersectionality, while also assisting in the ranking of key factors and adapting to new information learned during the interviewing process. The ATRA 2023 also included a workshop on applying equality, diversity and inclusion concepts in PBC adjudicative practice.  This workshop helped support Board members in understanding and applying these concepts and human rights obligations in their work. It also had an objective of ensuring that in managing hearing rooms, Board members intentionally consider how to be inclusive, accommodating, and free from implicit bias and racism. In 2022, the theme of the ATRA revolved around intersectionality in assessing risk and the PBC’s responsiveness to Indigenous Peoples. This spoke to the Board’s commitment to continue to work towards addressing systemic barriers and discriminatory practices in the criminal justice system, particularly pertaining to the disproportionate representation of Indigenous offenders.

The PBC is raising awareness on the concept of intersectionality via its mandatory learning for all employees.  For example, the PBC’s mandatory learning roadmap includes the following CSPS courses:

• Introduction to Gender-based analysis Plus (GBA+)
• Moving from Bias to Inclusion
• Preventing Harassment and Violence in the Workplace for Employees (WMT101)
• Values and Ethic Foundations for Managers (FON 302)
• Inclusive Hiring Practices for a Diverse Workforce (COR120)

In addition, the PBC Accessibility Plan has made the following course mandatory for positions which require communication with the public:

• Addressing Disability Inclusion and Barriers to Accessiblity (INC 115).

A challenge the PBC is facing is the lack of access to up-to-date and reliable disaggregated data regarding intersectionality. The PBC anticipates that the self-identification questionnaire that the TBS is working on will provide access to the necessary data to put appropriate measures in place to support employees.

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. 

The PBC’s 2022-23 PSES results for the following areas are not only quite positive, but on par or higher than those of the rest of the Public Service: Diversity and inclusion, Anti-racism, Ethical workplace, Safe and healthy workplace, and psychologically healthy workplace. That said, since the Call to Action was launched in January 2021, it is difficult to know whether or not these results can be directly attributed to the launch because the PBC has been working for many years on continuously improving the culture of the PBC with organizational objectives related to employment equity, diversity and inclusion.

Forty-eight percent of PBC respondents replied in the affirmative to the following PSES 2022-23 question: “I feel that the Call to Action on Anti-Racism, Equity and Inclusion has had a positive impact in my department or agency, since it launched in January 2021.”

The PBC will not only continue its efforts to improve employment equity, diversity and inclusion, but raise awareness of the Clerk’s Call to Action within the organization and make links to what is being done in response. This will allow the PBC to compare the responses to the above-noted question over time.