Canada School of Public Service
Letter on Implementation of the Call to Action on Anti-Racism, Equity and Inclusion

Summer 2021 update

The Canada School of Public Service (CSPS) is committed to building a diverse, equitable and inclusive public service, to combatting systemic racism in our institutions, and to encouraging public servants to change behaviours and take action.

The CSPS plays a vital role in this change through the development and delivery of curricula to educate public servants about our cultural and institutional history, the impacts of this history, and our collective responsibility for greater accountability.

The CSPS also has a unique opportunity to use its reach across the public service and its platforms to support and amplify the voices of people in racialized and marginalized communities in sharing their lived stories, experiences and advice on how we can move forward as public servants and Canadians.

As an organization, we are taking responsibility for our own learning and are having the difficult, but necessary, conversations with each other to make our workplace more equitable and inclusive. We are using data and evidence to sustainably change our hiring processes to eliminate systemic and attitudinal barriers that prevent qualified people from achieving their career goals.

I am sharing with you the steps we are taking and the progress so far.

Departmental Organizational Structure

In 2019, we established the Respectful and Inclusive Workplace business line to develop and deliver learning for all public servants that is focused on the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies required to support equity, diversity and inclusion, anti- racism and workplace harassment and violence prevention.

In addition, an internal CSPS Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Forum was established in 2019. It is chaired by the Executive and Employee Champions for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and meets four to five times per year to discuss and advance issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the organization. By supporting efforts to reduce and remove barriers, we will continue to make progress as a workplace to become more representative, inclusive and barrier-free.

Mandatory Employee Training at CSPS

• A training session entitled “Combatting Implicit Bias” was provided to all CSPS executives in February 2021, facilitated by Dr. Rachel Zellars, a lawyer and assistant professor in the Department of Social Justice and Community Studies at Saint Mary’s University.
• All CSPS employees and managers are required to take 7 hours of dedicated learning through these CSPS products:
  • Reflecting on Cultural Bias: Indigenous Perspectives (K099)
  • The Uncomfortable Truth: A Brief History of the Relationship Between Indigenous Peoples and the Government of Canada (K100)
  • Understanding Unconscious Bias (W005)
  • Overcoming Your Own Unconscious Biases (W006)
  • Overcoming Unconscious Bias in the Workplace (W007)
  • Inclusive Hiring: Five Tips on Diversifying Your Workforce (video)
  • Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Learning Path (for employees and managers and committee representatives)
  • Disability Inclusion in the Public Service of Canada: An Introduction (video)

Mentorship Through the Federal Black Employee Caucus

In my role as Deputy Minister and as part of the CSPS’s ongoing collaboration with the Federal Black Employee Caucus, I am mentoring three executives to support their career journey in the public service. To date, we have had four meetings as a group and plan on meeting monthly over the coming year. To enrich our discussions, I include other senior executives to listen, learn and share their perspectives. We have had wonderful discussions on the core issues facing government today, and I have learned a great deal about the contributions these executives want to make as leaders in the public service.

Mentorship Plus

The CSPS has accepted to Chair the Mentorship Plus Interdepartmental Working Group for Small Departments and Agencies with 31 participating organizations. Our department will also lead in the creation of a centralized database of mentors and sponsors, and will handle the matching process for participants. The Mentorship Plus initiative aims to support employees in under-represented designated Employment Equity groups or of equity-seeking groups who aspire to develop their careers, including reaching leadership roles or executive positions. The objective is to increase equality – and more importantly equity - in career development opportunities for all public servants.

Employment Systems Review

The CSPS completed an Employment Systems Review in early 2021. The review included a thorough study of the CSPS’s employment policies and practices to identify potential barriers to employment equity. The report’s 32 recommendations informed the CSPS’s Employment Equity Action Plan for 2021 to 2024. This plan of 12 concrete actions, will guide employees and executives on how to achieve a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce by 2024.

Systems and Data

The CSPS also created a new interactive data analytics tool, the CSPS People Management Dashboard to provide managers with accurate and real-time human resources data including demographic data and current representation of employment equity groups. The tool connects information from Peoplesoft, Phoenix and SAP.

Departmental Staffing Plan

Using information from the analytics tool, the CSPS has created a Departmental Staffing Plan 2021–2022 focused on recruitment and promotion of under-represented employment equity groups, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) and Persons with Disabilities. Specific targets are denoted for each branch to address under-representation across specific classification groups.

As illustrated in the plan and in the attached Data Annex, the CSPS meets or exceeds the overall estimated workforce availability for Indigenous recruitment and Visible Minority recruitment. It is however important to note that more must be done to identify and eliminate barriers for Persons with Disabilities for us to meet and exceed the workforce availability. We continue to emphasize that meeting workforce availability is the floor and not the ceiling from which we will measure our growth as an organization.

Dedicated Career Fairs for Employment Equity Groups

In spring 2021, the CSPS led a recruitment initiative, with nine other federal organizations, to build an inventory of talented new recruits who identify as employment equity members and are available for immediate casual contracts across government. Casual opportunities are a great way for candidates to build their CV and gain valuable public service experience that better prepares them for success in a future staffing process. We were able to streamline the process and provide hiring managers an opportunity to meet talented and diverse candidates from outside their usual networks. An inventory of nearly 2,000 applicants has been created, and virtual career fairs focused on BIPOC candidates were held May 25 to 28, 2021. To date, more than 30 candidates have been hired, with many more being considered for future opportunities across various departments and agencies.

CSPS Learning on Anti-Racism and Diversity and Inclusion Available to All Public Servants

The CSPS leads the government’s enterprise-wide approach to learning by providing a common curriculum that supports public servants through key career transitions, ensuring that they are equipped to serve Canadians with excellence and inclusive practices.

Since 2019, there have been over 432,000 registrations and page views for learning in the following areas:

• Diversity and inclusion courses and events
• Anti-Racism Learning Series, which comprises videos on anti-racism and how to be an ally and a discussion guide for managers to support conversations on systemic racism and racial discrimination
• Unconscious Bias Ready-to-use Workshop, a capacity-building tool for federal organizations wishing to offer sessions on unconscious bias
• Leadership Reflection Series and special events for executives

In July 2021, the CSPS initiated a new annual learning event series to discuss the actions and initiatives the federal public service is undertaking to address the harmful impacts of systemic racism, discrimination, and hatred on Black, Indigenous, and other racialized communities. The first event, held on July 8th, brought together public service leaders to reflect on the calls for social change since the murder of George Floyd and the work of the public service. We will continue this event annually to ensure we are learning and working towards an inclusive and diverse workplace.

Additionally, 13 dedicated course offerings were provided to departments on unconscious bias and inclusive leadership practices.

Looking ahead

We continue to be focused on recruitment and inclusion of perspectives and experiences into all working levels of our organization. To ensure we continue to deliver high quality, responsive learning we will maintain an emphasis on an Inclusive by Design approach, designing with the core principle ‘Nothing Without Us’ with collaboration from interdepartmental working groups, learning and advisory committees, subject matter experts and persons with lived experience.

A new workshop entitled “Advancing the Conversation on Racism and Racial Discrimination in the Workplace” is currently in development and its aim will be to provide structure to conversations taking place in organizations around racism, in order to bring greater awareness of systemic racism in the workplace and its impact on racialized employees.

I am also pleased to announce that Dr. Rachel Zellars will be the inaugural member of the Jocelyne Bourgon Visiting Scholar Initiative, starting in September 2021. Dr. Zellars will share her knowledge and expertise with public servants on unconscious bias and anti-Black racism through new curriculum, facilitated courses, and events.

For Canadians to be well served and represented, it is our shared responsibility to be inclusive, to be respectful, to foster multiculturalism, to value human rights, to learn from the past, and to eliminate bias and discrimination of any kind in what we do.

Thank you for the opportunity to share our progress.

Sincerely,

Taki Sarantakis
President
Canada School of Public Service

Call to Action on Anti-Racism, Equity and Inclusion - Data Annex

1. How many Indigenous employees and Black and other racialized employees joined your organization compared to the overall recruitments

	FY 2018-19	FY 2019-20	FY 2020-21	1 YTD 2021-22
Indigenous recruitments	6	6	1	2
Visible Minority recruitments	28	21	12	13
Total Recruitments Indigenous and Visible Minority	34	27	13	15
Overall recruitments	150	148	115	57

• Percentage of Indigenous employees, Black and other racialized employees recruited in FY2018-19 compared to overall recruitments : 22.6%
• Percentage of Indigenous employees, Black and other racialized employees recruited in FY2019-20 compared to overall recruitments : 18.2%
• Percentage of Indigenous employees, Black and other racialized employees recruited in FY2020-21 compared to overall recruitments : 11.3%
• Percentage of Indigenous employees, Black and other racialized employees recruited in FY2021-22 compared to overall recruitments : 26.3%

1.1 Year to date vs Target for FY2021-22

	2YTD	Target
Indigenous recruitments	2	16
Visible Minority recruitments	13	24
Total Recruitments Indigenous and Visible Minority	15	40

• "Recruitments" include the following actions reasons in Peoplesoft : Appointment, DeployInclusive Hiring: Five Tips on Diversifying Your Workforcement Same/Equivalent Level, Promotion, Special Deployment, Pending Transfer-In

2. How many Indigenous employees and Black and other racialized employees left your organization compared to the overall separations

	FY 2018-19	FY 2019-20	FY 2020-21	3 YTD 2021-22
Indigenous separations	6	5	5	2
Visible Minority separations	14	22	32	5
Total Separations Indigenous and Visible Minority	20	27	37	7
Overall separations	139	140	143	47

• Percentage of Indigenous employees, Black and other racialized employee separations in FY2018-19 compared to overall separations : 14.4%
• Percentage of Indigenous employees, Black and other racialized employee separations in FY2019-20 compared to overall separations : 19.3%
• Percentage of Indigenous employees, Black and other racialized employee separations in FY2020-21 compared to overall separations : 25.9%
• Percentage of Indigenous employees, Black and other racialized employee separations in FY2021-22 compared to overall separations : 14.9%
• "Separations" include the following actions reasons in Peoplesoft : Cessation of Employment, Death, End of Specified Term (includes only employees that have not been subsequently rehired), Job Abandonment, Resignations, Retirements, Transfer out of Company, Pending Transfer-Out, Layoff

3. How many Indigenous employees and Black and other racialized employees were appointed to Executive positions compared to the overall appointments to EX positions

	FY 2018-19	FY 2019-20	FY 2020-21	4 YTD 2021-22
Indigenous appointments to EX positions	2	1	0	0
Visible Minority appointments to EX positions	2	0	1	1
Total Appointment to EX positions for Indigenous and Visible Minority	4	1	1	1
Overall appointments to EX positions	22	18	14	6

• Percentage of Indigenous employees, Black and other racialized employees appointed to Executive positions in FY2018-19 compared to overall EX appointments : 18.2%
• Percentage of Indigenous employees, Black and other racialized employees appointed to Executive positions in FY2019-20 compared to overall EX appointments : 5.6%
• Percentage of Indigenous employees, Black and other racialized employees appointed to Executive positions in FY2020-21 compared to overall EX appointments : 7.1%
• Percentage of Indigenous employees, Black and other racialized employees appointed to Executive positions in FY2021-22 compared to overall EX appointments : 16.6%
• "Appointments to Executive positions" include the following actions reasons in Peoplesoft : Appointment, Promotion, Deployment Same/Equivalent Level, Special Deployment, Pending Transfer-In