Employment Equity in the Office of the Auditor General of Canada—Annual Report 2018–19

Employment Equity in the Office of the Auditor General of Canada—Annual Report 2018–19

Introduction

This annual report on employment equity in the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG) outlines the state of employment equity representation for the 2018–19 fiscal year.

Employment Equity Environment

Enabling legislation

The OAG has a legislative basis in the Auditor General Act, the Financial Administration Act, and a number of other statutes. The Auditor General’s powers are set forth in legislation passed by Parliament.

Independence from government

The OAG differs from most other government departments and agencies through its independence from the government of the day and its reporting relationship to Parliament. Controls are in place to assure the OAG’s independence, including exemptions from certain Treasury Board policy requirements, status as a separate employer, and a 10-year non-renewable term for the Auditor General.

Application of the Employment Equity Act

The OAG is subject to the Employment Equity Act, in accordance with subsection 4(1)(c).

Work

The OAG audits federal government operations and provides Parliament with independent information, advice, and assurance regarding the federal government’s stewardship of public funds.

The OAG is in the business of legislative auditing and conducts

• performance audits of federal departments and agencies
• annual financial audits of the government’s financial statements
• special examinations and annual financial audits of Crown corporations

The OAG also audits the governments of Nunavut, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories, and reports directly to their respective legislative assemblies.

Since 1995, the OAG has also had a specific environment and sustainable development mandate, established through amendments to the Auditor General Act.

The OAG’s audit findings—which include good practices, areas requiring attention, and recommendations for improvement—are reported to Parliament.

Employees

The OAG employs 623 people between its head office in Ottawa and 4 regional offices in Vancouver, Edmonton, Montréal, and Halifax.

The OAG’s audit professionals are highly qualified in their fields and bring a rich mix of academic disciplines and experience to their work. They include accountants, engineers, lawyers, management experts, information technology professionals, environmental specialists, and economists. All financial audit trainees have a bachelor’s degree. The remaining audit staff have a graduate degree, or a bachelor’s degree and Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) designation, with some having additional credentials.

Auditors are organized into teams that are assigned to audits of specific departments, agencies, or Crown corporations, or to audits of Canada’s 3 territories. The auditors are supported in their work by specialists in law, professional practices, international relations, information technology, knowledge management, human resources, financial management, communications, and parliamentary liaison.

Work environment

The OAG is committed to providing a work environment in which all are treated with dignity and respect, and all are supported as they strive toward fulfilling their career potential. The OAG encourages open and honest communication to create a climate of trust and teamwork. It values everyone’s talent and diversity, and supports learning and work-life balance.

OAG employees are expected to demonstrate personal integrity and ethics, and to adhere to OAG values, standards, and codes of conduct. People management competencies and behaviours are evaluated when staffing positions and discussed on an ongoing basis during check-ins between managers and employees. These discussions serve to support employee development and growth.

The most important asset at the OAG is its employees, which is why the OAG is committed to creating a workplace that supports their well-being. Through the development and implementation of its Mental Health Strategy, the OAG has raised awareness about mental health to foster a healthy, safe, supportive, and inclusive workplace. The strategy and implementation plan set out organizational goals, the necessary activities to achieve them, and the measurable outcomes for employees and the OAG, and identify actions to strengthen diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Structure

The Principal, Human Resources, serves as Diversity Champion, and works to raise the profile of employment equity and diversity in the OAG.

In addition, the OAG’s Diversity Committee promotes awareness of equity and diversity activities and decisions.

The Chair of the Diversity Committee reports to the Principal, Human Resources, on employment equity questions arising through the committee. The chair provides input on policies and strategies that may affect diversity. In addition, the committee is mandated to provide, when asked, advice and guidance on general and specific diversity questions that may arise within the OAG.

Employment Equity Implementation

Implementation of legislation

The OAG implements the requirements of the employment equity legislation by administering a voluntary self-identification survey. It then conducts a workforce analysis to determine the degree of representation of members of designated groups in each occupational group. This analysis is conducted annually. The results (as of 31 March 2019) are presented in Appendix B.

Employment equity records

The OAG maintains orderly and accurate employment equity records. All employees are asked to complete a self-identification questionnaire before their first day at the OAG and upon promotion. Employees are also reminded that they can update their employment information at any time.

The OAG’s INTRAnet provides employees with easy access to current employment equity information.

Recruitment

In the 2018–19 fiscal year, 93 employees joined the OAG. Of these employees, 81.7% were members of at least 1 of the following 4 designated groups:

• women
• Indigenous peoples
• persons with disabilities
• persons in a visible minority group

The OAG established a resourcing strategy for 2017–20 to address key challenges as it continues to recruit the resources necessary to fulfill its mandate. Specifically, this strategy reinforces the OAG’s continued focus on maintaining a diverse workforce that reflects Canada’s population.

As part of this focus on diversity, the OAG participated in projects and programs to increase employment equity representation within its workplace and externally. These projects and programs include

• an Indigenous outreach project plan (through Indigenous Link), which was developed to help the OAG increase representation of members of the Indigenous peoples’ group
• the CPA Martin Mentorship Program for Indigenous High School Students, which provides ongoing career mentoring to Indigenous high school students
• LiveWorkPlay, an organization that helps young people with developmental disabilities integrate into society

Activities, training, and communications

In the 2018–19 fiscal year, the OAG carried out 3 activities to promote a corporate environment that supports diversity awareness:

• a Lunar New Year lunch to celebrate New Year’s traditions around the world—organized by the Diversity Committee
• an international dessert festival to celebrate unique culinary creations from various countries—organized by the Diversity Committee
• fundraising for the Iqaluit food bank—organized by employees

The OAG promotes respect in the workplace through its employee onboarding program, as well as through courses from the Canada School of Public Service. Some of the courses offered to all managers and employees are on the following topics:

• respect and inclusion
• prevention of violence, harassment, and discrimination
• values and ethics

The OAG regularly distributes internal corporate communications that celebrate diversity. The following are examples of diversity celebrations that were subjects of communications posted on the OAG’s INTRAnet in the 2018–19 fiscal year:

• Asian Heritage Month
• Black History Month
• International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
• National Indigenous History Month
• International Francophonie Day

Information and consultation

Ongoing communication is a critical factor in the success of the OAG’s employment equity program. The OAG undertakes a number of communication activities to support equity and diversity programs. The OAG

• sends communications to encourage employees to celebrate diversity
• has the information on the Employment Equity Act and related organizational plans and policies available on its INTRAnet
• provides employees with information about the OAG’s progress on achieving representation objectives by publishing updates online and sending internal communications
• encourages employees, management, and employee representative groups to have meaningful dialogues to enhance recruitment practices
• partners and builds bridges with educational institutions, professional associations, and service providers to achieve mutual goals
• creates meaningful consultation opportunities with employee representatives to improve policies and plans, such as the Triennial Employment Equity Plan

Employment Equity Plan

In accordance with the requirements in section 10 of the Employment Equity Act, the OAG maintains an employment equity plan. The plan covers a 3-year period and includes specific goals for improved representation. The Triennial Employment Equity Plan—2017–2020 was finalized and published in December 2017. It presents the OAG’s commitments to enhancing or maintaining representation across occupational groups and levels; highlights the OAG’s efforts to sustain an inclusive, diverse, and respectful workplace; and reports on activities carried out to comply with legislation. Appendix A presents the OAG’s commitments, targets, and results for the 2018–19 fiscal year.

Numerical goals

Employment equity is an important underlying value of the OAG. The OAG is committed to ensuring equal opportunity in its workplace for all employees.

The OAG strives for 100% representation of workforce availability for each of the designated groups. The success of the OAG’s efforts is monitored by the Diversity Champion.

Employment Equity Numbers

The OAG’s employment equity numbers are prepared according to the National Occupational Classification (NOC) developed by Employment and Social Development Canada. This classification comprises 14 employment equity occupational groups (EEOGs)—as defined in Schedule II of the Employment Equity Regulations—and 500 NOC unit groups.

A closer look at this system shows that the OAG has a very specialized workforce:

• The 623 employees fall into 7 of the 14 EEOGs (Exhibit 1).
• Most employees (80.6%) are concentrated in just 2 EEOGs: professionals and middle and other managers (Exhibit 2).

Exhibit 2—Distribution of OAG employees by employment equity occupational group

Exhibit 2—text version

Exhibit 2 is a pie chart showing the distribution of employees in the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, according to major occupational groups.

The chart indicates that 8.0% of the Office’s employees are clerical personnel and 2.1% of employees are senior managers. Middle and other managers make up 23.8%, and 56.8% are professionals. Another 9.3% of employees fall into the “all others” category.

Shaded sections of the pie chart indicate that the majority of the employees—80.6%—are concentrated into two groups, middle and other managers and professionals.

Representation in designated groups—Highlights

The OAG compared its representation in each designated group with the most recent workforce availability figures provided by Employment and Social Development Canada in the department’s 2016 Employment Equity Data Report. The OAG used national figures for this comparison in most areas, with the exception of the administrative and senior clerical personnel category and the clerical personnel category, for which the OAG used data from the National Capital Region.

Women

As of 31 March 2019, women represented 63.6% of the OAG’s workforce, which surpasses the workforce availability of 52.6% (Table 4). Women are well represented in all EEOGs and salary bands (Table 11).

Indigenous peoples

The OAG’s representation of Indigenous employees during the reporting period was 3.7% (23 employees), which surpasses the workforce availability of 3.5% (22 employees) (Table 5).

Persons with disabilities

The OAG’s overall representation of persons with disabilities during the reporting period was 13.0% (81 employees), which surpasses the workforce availability of 8.0% (50 employees) (Table 6).

Persons in a visible minority group

The OAG’s overall representation of persons in a visible minority group was 19.1% (119 employees), which surpasses the workforce availability of 18.1% (113 employees) (Table 7).

Representation in hires, promotions, and separations

This annual report includes an analysis of the number of employees from each designated group who were hired, promoted, or left the OAG.

Hires

In the past year, 93 people joined the OAG (Table 8). Of these new hires, 76 self-identified as being from at least 1 designated group. More specifically,

• 58 of the people hired were women (62.4%)
• 31 were persons in a visible minority group (33.3%)
• 13 were persons with disabilities (14.0%)
• 5 were persons in the Indigenous peoples’ group (5.4%)

Promotions

In the past year, 95 employees were promoted (Table 9). Of these promotions, 76 self-identified as being from at least 1 designated group. More specifically,

• 58 of the people promoted were women (61.1%)
• 24 were persons with disabilities (25.3%)
• 20 were persons in a visible minority group (21.1%)
• 4 were persons in the Indigenous peoples’ group (4.2%)

Separations

During the reporting period, 86 employees left the OAG (Table 10). Of those who left, 64 employees were from at least 1 designated group. More specifically,

• 57 of the people who left were women (66.3%)
• 17 were persons in a visible minority group (19.8%)
• 7 were persons with disabilities (8.1%)
• 2 were persons in the Indigenous peoples’ group (2.3%)

Conclusion

Although the workforce availability of certain designated groups increased in the 2016 Census, the OAG was able to maintain 100% representation across all designated groups.

Maintaining a diverse workforce reflective of Canada’s population is identified as 1 of the 5 key challenges in the OAG’s Resourcing Strategy 2017–2020. The OAG will continue to monitor its representation results and ensure that it develops and updates strategies to achieve a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Appendix A—Employment Equity Action Plan: 2018–19 Commitments, Targets, and Results

Appendix B—Statistics

Report coverage

This report contains information, as of 31 March 2019, on the Office of the Auditor General of Canada’s (OAG’s) indeterminate employees and determinate employees with terms of 6 months or more. Employees who were on secondment to other organizations are also included in the OAG’s numbers.

No information is reported on students or casual workers. Employees on leave without pay (such as those on care and nurturing leave or sick leave) are not included in these tables.

Data on people in the designated groups

All data was obtained through voluntary self-identification.

The completeness and accuracy of employment equity data depend on employees being willing to self-identify and being given the opportunity to do so.

The OAG’s voluntary self-identification process began in April 1997. All employees are asked to complete a questionnaire before their first day at the OAG and upon promotion. In addition, at any time during the year, all employees can complete or resubmit a self-identification questionnaire, available on the OAG’s Human Resources INTRAnet page.

Tables 4 to 7 show the OAG’s representation as a percentage of workforce availability, with comparative figures for the previous year. The OAG believes that this is the best way to measure the current state of representation for each designated group.

The OAG provides information by Employment Equity Occupational Group (EEOG). Tables 4 to 7 include information for the 3 National Occupational Classification (NOC) unit groups that account for the majority of employees—other managers (NOC unit group 0414), financial auditors (NOC unit group 1111), and performance auditors (NOC unit groups 4161 to 4168).

Workforce availability

Workforce availability is the distribution of people in the designated groups as a percentage of the total Canadian workforce. For federal public service purposes, workforce availability is based on Canadian citizens in those occupations in the Canadian workforce corresponding to the occupations in the public service and is derived from 2016 Census data.

List of Tables

Table 1—Representation of designated groups in the Office of the Auditor General of Canada

Table 2—Distribution of employees by designated group and region of work

Table 3—Representation of designated groups by Employment Equity Occupational Group

Table 4—Representation of women by Employment Equity Occupational Group and the 3 largest National Occupational Classification unit groups

Table 5—Representation of Indigenous peoples by Employment Equity Occupational Group and the 3 largest National Occupational Classification unit groups

Table 6—Representation of persons with disabilities by Employment Equity Occupational Group and the 3 largest National Occupational Classification unit groups

Table 7—Representation of persons in a visible minority group by Employment Equity Occupational Group and the 3 largest National Occupational Classification unit groups

Table 8—Hiring by designated group and Employment Equity Occupational Group

Table 9—Promotions by designated group and Employment Equity Occupational Group

Table 10—Separations by designated group and Employment Equity Occupational Group

Table 11—Distribution of employees by designated group and salary band

Table 1—Representation of designated groups in the Office of the Auditor General of Canada

As at 31 March 2019

Totals may not equal the sum of components because of rounding and suppression.

Table 2—Distribution of employees by designated group and region of work

As at 31 March 2019

Totals may not equal the sum of components because of rounding and suppression.

Table 3—Representation of designated groups by Employment Equity Occupational Group

As at 31 March 2019

Totals may not equal the sum of components because of rounding and suppression.

Table 4—Representation of women by Employment Equity Occupational Group and the 3 largest National Occupational Classification unit groups

As at 31 March 2019

Totals may not equal the sum of components because of rounding and suppression.

Table 5—Representation of Indigenous peoples by Employment Equity Occupational Group and the 3 largest National Occupational Classification unit groups

As at 31 March 2019

Totals may not equal the sum of components because of rounding and suppression.

Table 6—Representation of persons with disabilities by Employment Equity Occupational Group and the 3 largest National Occupational Classification unit groups

As at 31 March 2019

Totals may not equal the sum of components because of rounding and suppression.

Table 7—Representation of persons in a visible minority by Employment Equity Occupational Group and the 3 largest National Occupational Classification unit groups

As at 31 March 2019

Totals may not equal the sum of components because of rounding and suppression.

Table 8—Hiring by designated group and Employment Equity Occupational Group

As at 31 March 2019

Data includes employees hired into term positions (6 months or more) and indeterminate positions. Totals may not equal the sum of components because of rounding and suppression.

Table 9—Promotions by designated group and Employment Equity Occupational Group

As at 31 March 2019

Data includes promotions and reclassifications. Totals may not equal the sum of components because of rounding and suppression.

Table 10—Separations by designated group and Employment Equity Occupational Group

As at 31 March 2019

Totals may not equal the sum of components because of rounding and suppression.

Table 11—Distribution of employees by designated group and salary band

As at 31 March 2019

Totals may not equal the sum of components because of rounding and suppression.