Gender-based analysis plus

Section 1: institutional GBA Plus governance and capacity

Governance

The Gender-Based Analysis (GBA) Plus Centre of Expertise at the Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC) provides input on policies, programs and services to achieve a representative public service. It also ensures that GBA Plus is integrated into decision-making processes, by ensuring that every Treasury Board submission assesses the potential implications of our policies and programs on diverse populations of Canadians.

In 2023-24, we continued to integrate GBA Plus across key activities and business processes, ensuring that a GBA Plus lens is used, with a focus on the intersectional diversity characteristics, including gender-based differences, of employees and applicants. We continued to implement the changes to our enabling legislation, the Public Service Employment Act, by working with federal departments and providing them with the necessary tools and guidance.

As well, our GBA Plus Champion engaged with the interdepartmental GBA Plus champion network and created opportunities to raise awareness on GBA Plus implementation. The GBA Plus Centre of Expertise took on the role of focal points and participated in interdepartmental discussions to ensure that the PSC learned from best practices and had enabling tools and guidance to continue to integrate GBA Plus within the PSC.

Capacity

The following initiatives highlight the broad work carried out by the PSC with respect to GBA Plus.

Recruitment and Assessment Services

• Enhancing the PSC’s assessment tools and services, and reviewing its recruitment programs.
• We evaluated our assessment tools and our recruitment programs to identify and mitigate biases and barriers that disadvantage people in equity-seeking groups.
• We also enhanced the diversity of our roster of coaches and assessors.
• Guidance and awareness
• We launched the Inclusive Recruitment Toolkit (available only a Government of Canada network).
• The toolkit equips hiring managers and human resources professionals with practical tips, tools and resources on inclusive strategies to recruit a diverse workforce.
• We promoted guidance on recruitment through tailored presentations and by offering resources including the manager’s toolkit for hiring persons with disabilities and Indigenous recruitment toolbox (available only on a Government of Canada network).
• We collaborated with international public service partners to share how Canada’s hiring practices integrate GBA Plus and an intersectionality lens.
• Federal Internship Program for Canadians with Disabilities
• This national program supporting the Government of Canada’s accessibility strategy offers 2-year internship opportunities in the federal public service.
• Launched in 2018-19, it provides opportunities to persons with disabilities across Canada to increase their options for long-term employment.
• 126 internships were created over 4 cohorts
• 90% of interns from cohort 1 and 70% of interns from cohort 2 secured post-internship employment.
• Cohorts 3 and 4 are still ongoing as part of the 2-year internship program.
• The program employs a collaborative approach with partners in federal departments to support hiring managers, human resources professionals and people with disabilities with tools and support in recruiting, onboarding, integrating, developing and retaining at the conclusion of the internship.
• Through a learn-and-grow approach, the program has benefited from the shared knowledge of people with lived experiences.
• Employment Opportunity for Students with Disabilities and Indigenous Students
• We continued to provide onboarding support, training, activities, mentorship and other support services to students with disabilities, Indigenous students and hiring managers.
• Virtual Door to Talent with Disabilities
• We continued to promote inventories of candidates with disabilities to federal departments to help them hire an inclusive and diverse workforce that is representative of the Canadian population.
• We developed tools and resources on Virtual Door to Talent with Disabilities (shared with federal departments on GCpedia, an internal website to the Government of Canada).
• Indigenous Career Pathways
• We continued to promote lists of Indigenous candidates (including candidates in hiring pools and new graduates) to federal departments, to increase the representation of Indigenous Peoples in the federal public service.

Oversight and Investigations

• Conducting audits
  • To review their hiring strategies and address representation gaps, our partners from across the public service can consult the results of our concluded Audit of Employment Equity Representation in Acting Appointments.
• Continued the Audit of biases and barriers in the pre-assessment process.
• Enhancing data collection and tools that contribute to GBA Plus
• We built new data visualization tools, created a diversity and inclusion compass, and added new components to our macrosimulation model to make more targeted projections on employment equity representation.
• Assessing allegations related to the PSC’s new authorities to investigate errors, omissions or improper conduct resulting from a bias and barrier that disadvantages members of any equity-seeking group in an external appointment process.
• All cases were closed at jurisdiction and did not lead to an investigation.
•  2023 Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey
  • The survey began collecting information on the perceptions of equity-seeking groups; results are yet to be published.

Policy Direction and Support

• Implementing the changes to the Public Service Employment Regulations and of the Public Service Employment Act.
• We continued to implement changes to the Public Service Employment Act regulations, including conducting consultations on evaluating biases and barriers in assessments.
• We implemented changes to the Appointment Framework, which guides deputy heads in building their own staffing systems, to support the legislative amendments.
• Data collection on equity-seeking groups.
  • We prepared for the implementation of expanded data collection, particularly on equity-seeking groups, to measure progress and identify and address gaps.

Human resources (full-time equivalents) dedicated to GBA Plus

The PSC had 1.7 full-time equivalents dedicated to GBA Plus in 2023 to 2024.

Section 2: gender and diversity impacts, by program

Core Responsibility: Public Service Hiring and Non-partisanship

Program Name: Oversight and Monitoring

Program Goals: Effective organizational oversight of staffing, data and information are accessible to Canadians and there is an efficient approach to oversight.

Target Population: Federal departments and agencies; public servants; the general public.

Distribution of benefits

Specific demographic group outcomes

Groups that may benefit directly or indirectly: All Canadians and members of equity-seeking groups.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity

Not available

GBA Plus data collection plan

The Oversight and Monitoring Program will seek to identify avenues for extracting and using disaggregated data on employment equity and other sociodemographic groups in its 2023 to 2025 research plan, to support stronger policy, program and service development and implementation. When possible, variables relating to intersectionality, such as region and citizenship, will be analyzed along with employment equity information. The GBA Plus Centre of Expertise will be consulted and will have an opportunity to suggest variables of interest at the planning phases of each research project.

We integrated GBA Plus considerations into our information-gathering processes, including the 2023 Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey, which was conducted between September 20 and November 17, 2023. The survey included a third gender option for respondents and collects data on key sociodemographic factors, such as employment equity group membership, level of education, region and first official language. The data collected in the 2023 Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey will allow for detailed analysis of disaggregated employment equity and equity-seeking groups’ perceptions of merit and fairness in hiring, to detect potential differences in perception and gaps. The Survey’s Report on the Results for the Federal Public Service (published in June 2024) and its upcoming report on perceptions of employment equity and equity-seeking groups (coming in Fall 2024) will allow for a detailed analysis of interactions between gender and other employment equity groups, such as intersectionality in perceptions of merit and fairness in hiring, to detect potential differences in perception and gaps. The PSC continues to include GBA Plus considerations in its reports and initiatives. In ongoing and planned audits, the PSC will seek to obtain and analyze disaggregated data, including for employment equity subgroups and equity-seeking groups, whenever the audit methodology allows. It will include the GBA Plus lens in audit planning activities, as well as other oversight activities, where feasible.

Core Responsibility: Public Service Hiring and Non-partisanship

Program name: Policy Direction and Support

Program goals: Confidence in the staffing system and a diverse public service. The Government of Canada retains skilled employees through efficient public service hiring, and the public service is seen to be non-partisan.

Target population: Federal departments and agencies; public servants; the general public.

Distribution of benefits

Specific demographic group outcomes

Groups that may benefit directly or indirectly: All Canadians and members of equity-seeking groups.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity

Our continued efforts have contributed to further advancing gender and diversity-related goals. Evidence and details are provided in the following key program impact statistics, outlining how our results have progressed throughout the fiscal year.

Key program impact statistics

Notes

*The results are the most recent information available

^a: There could be a slight difference between the employment equity group representation rates reported by the Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC), which reports on employees under the Public Service Employment Act, and those reported by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, which reports on the core public administration.

^b: The goal for each designated group is to meet or exceed workforce availability. For 3 of the groups, workforce availability is based on 2016 Census data. Workforce availability for persons with disabilities is derived from data, also collected by Statistics Canada, in the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability. The targets represent the most current available information on workforce availability for 2022-2023.

Other key program impacts

Several performance indicators in the PSC’s Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports focus on measuring progress in the representation and hiring of members of employment equity-groups.

GBA Plus data collection plan

The data collection plan for the PSC is managed within the Oversight and Monitoring program. The data collection plan is reported under this program.

Core responsibility: Public Service Hiring and Non-partisanship

Program name: Recruitment and Assessment Services

Program goals: The strategic recruitment priorities of the Government of Canada and the renewal of the public service are achieved. There are reduced barriers for Canadians to have access to public service jobs and qualified individuals are hired to deliver results for Canadians.

Target population: Federal departments and agencies; public servants; the general public.

Distribution of benefits

Specific demographic group outcomes

Groups that may benefit directly or indirectly: All Canadians and members of equity-seeking groups.

Key program impacts on gender and diversity

Our continued efforts have contributed to further advancing gender and diversity-related goals. Evidence and details are provided in the following key program impact statistics, outlining how our results have progressed throughout the fiscal year.

Key program impact statistics

* The results are the most recent information available

Other key program impacts

As per the metrics above, the PSC’s continued efforts have contributed to further advancing the representation and hiring of members of employment equity-groups.

GBA Plus data collection plan

The data collection plan for the PSC is managed within the Oversight and Monitoring program. The data collection plan is reported under this program.

United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals

Public Service Commission of Canada

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development can be found in the PSC’s 2023 to 2024 Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy Report.