Removing Barriers to Members of Visible Minorities and Aboriginal People

The face of Canada is rapidly changing. According to the 2001 Census, since 1996 there has been a 25% increase in the number of visible minorities and a 22% increase in the Aboriginal population.

As the largest employer in Canada, the federal Public Service is committed to building an inclusive workplace whose composition reflects the diversity of the population it serves. We want to attract all citizens to careers in the federal Public Service, not only to draw on their talents, but also to ensure their varied perspectives are taken into account in creating programs and policies to serve the diverse Canadian population.

In such a context, it is imperative that managers, who in the modernized human resources management regime have considerably more responsibility for resourcing, equip themselves to meet the challenge of assessing candidates from a wide range of backgrounds and experience.

To support hiring managers, the Public Service Commission's (PSC) Personnel Psychology Centre has produced this document, Guidelines for Fair Assessment in a Diverse Workplace: Removing Barriers to Members of Visible Minorities and Aboriginal Peoples, as well as an earlier companion piece, Guidelines for Assessing Persons with Disabilities (September 2002); both can be found on the Personnel Psychology Centre Web site. Hiring managers and human resources specialists will find them to be essential tools to help build and maintain a diverse federal workplace.

The PSC, as an independent agency responsible to Parliament for ensuring that the merit principle is applied in resourcing for the Public Service, will be closely monitoring departments' assessment and selection practices. These Guidelines for Fair Assessment in a Diverse Workplace are not just "recommended reading," they are an indispensable tool for human resources specialists and hiring managers, who are key players in improving representativeness.

It is to our nation's advantage that we are able to draw on the many talents, backgrounds and experiences of Canadians living from coast to coast to coast. In doing so, we benefit from a wide range of perspectives that nourish creativity, foster innovation and represent the views of an increasingly diverse society.

Scott Serson
President/Président

Nurjehan Mawani
Commissioner/Commissaire