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Embracing Change in the Federal Public Service - Task Force on the Participation of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service



Cover Letter

March 2000

The Honourable Lucienne Robillard, P.C., M.P.
President of the Treasury Board

Dear Minister:

On behalf of the members of the Task Force on the Participation of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service, I hereby submit our action plan. We believe that it will enable the government to bring about the changes necessary to create a representative federal public service that inspires the confidence and trust of all Canadians.

We look forward to an early public release and expeditious implementation of the action plan. The tools are available to managers; the workforce is ready; the benchmarks are attainable. Now is the time for action.

We wish to thank you for the opportunity and the privilege of serving our country in this way and hope that our efforts will assist you in moving forward on this agenda.

Yours sincerely,

Lewis Perinbam, O.C.
(Chairperson)

(Members)
J.C. Best
Denise Chong
Marjorie M. David
Shawna Hoyte
Alain Jean-Bart
Audrey Kobayashi
Earl A. Miller
Henry K. Pau

Embracing Change

As Canada enters a new century of potential and promise, it faces an urgent imperative to shape a federal public service that is representative of its citizenry. The public service has met this challenge before; it must do so again. Just as the greater presence of francophones and women enriches and enhances the public service, so too do visible minorities bring new dimensions and vitality to it.

The public service must be regarded by its citizenry as its own, not as the preserve of any particular group. It must be driven by the principle that what an individual can do on the job must matter more than his or her race or colour.

These considerations, together with the government's commitment to eliminating all forms of discrimination and to fairness and equity in the federal public service, prompted the former President of the Treasury Board, the Honourable Marcel Massé, to establish the Task Force on the Participation of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service. Mr. Massé's successor, the Honourable Lucienne Robillard, was quick to affirm her commitment to this initiative and to give it her wholehearted support.

The Task Force sought to develop an action plan to transform the public service into an institution that reflects all Canada's citizens and attracts them to its service to play a part in shaping the Canada of tomorrow. The plan is designed to harness the talents of all Canadians for the federal public service, not only to serve Canada's domestic needs, but also to meet the demands and opportunities of globalization. In a world of many cultures, Canada is particularly fortunate to have a population that is, in many ways, a microcosm of that world. It is a source of strength of the sort possessed by few other countries.

The action plan is realistic, pragmatic and attainable. It will require exemplary leadership and skill on the part of managers and employees at all levels; their goal should be to foster a federal public service whose members are assured of respect and fairness. The plan issues a call for leadership to embrace change, so that the public service can win the confidence and trust of all Canadians, become truly representative and become an employer of choice for a new generation of Canadians. The Task Force believes that the year 2000 can be a turning point in the history of the federal public service, when it takes up these challenges.

A Call for Leadership

Embracing change requires taking risk and managing it. The Task Force, asked to consider the participation of visible minorities in the federal public service, recognized that it faced a daunting task. Despite much effort on the part of the federal public service to address issues of employment equity, the problem of under-representation of visible minorities in the federal workforce has persisted. There is opportunity now, however, to make faster progress. The Task Force, after reflecting on the past, shifted its focus to the future. The following conclusions underpin the action plan and are a call for leadership:

  1. The federal public service does not reflect the diversity of the public it serves. Visible minorities remain under-represented while demographic trends indicate their number will grow in the Canadian population. Faster progress in changing the face of the public service is vital; at stake is the integrity of services and the respect the federal government needs to govern.
  2. As an employer, the federal government is not harnessing and nurturing talent as it should to compete in a new global environment. It must invest in human resources innovatively and be competitive with the private sector as an employer of choice in all its staffing activities, from outreach and recruitment to training and development and career advancement.
  3. The federal government has not achieved its legislated employment equity objectives and goals for visible minorities. With few exceptions, departments have not achieved an equitable workforce representation (i.e., representation is short of labour market availability). For visible minorities already in the public service, advancement to management and executive levels has virtually stalled.
  4. The slow progress has engendered frustration, discontent and cynicism about the future. Further delay -- or worse, inaction -- could result in complaints of discrimination and grievances that could revisit the lengthy and acrimonious arena of tribunal investigations and directives.
  5. A lack of government-wide commitment and leadership, and consequently, accountability at the top, has hampered progress. Commitment from deputy heads would motivate managers and others responsible for hiring and managing people to achieve the objective of modernizing the face of government as a whole.
  6. Changing the corporate culture so that it is hospitable to diversity is as essential as getting the numbers up. Both must move in concert. Diversity training must be available to all employees and translated into expected behaviour and attitudes in the workplace. Increasing the number of visible minorities in the workplace can create a "critical mass" to effect and sustain cultural change; the experience of francophones and women demonstrated this.
  7. The government has an opportunity in its recruitment drives to change the face of the public service. Downsizing has given way to recruitment to renew and rejuvenate an ageing public service. In recruiting from an increasingly diverse talent pool, the federal government cannot afford to lose more ground to the private sector.
  8. The time has come to focus on results. The federal government should establish a benchmark that, if achieved, would help make up ground in the representation of visible minorities. The purpose of setting a benchmark is to seize the opportunity to make progress over a short period. In proposing this approach, the Task Force does not seek quotas for visible minorities, nor does it wish to see them become entrenched as an employment equity group. The driving principle must be that what an individual can do on the job must matter more than his or her race or colour.

The Action Plan

The Task Force considered the issues surrounding participation of visible minorities in a context of changing the federal public service to improve it for all Canadians. In seeking to provide the federal government with a strategic instrument of change, it concentrated on action that, in addressing under-representation of visible minorities, would produce results within the next three to five years. Such quick results would have the effect both of making faster progress and of stimulating change for the longer term to enhance the quality of the federal workplace for all. The Task Force emphasizes that real progress comes only if visible minorities are present in occupations and at levels where they have previously been under-represented and excluded; tokenism and ghettoism must be avoided.

I. Set a Benchmark

The Task Force shares the federal government's view that progress has been unacceptably slow in improving the representation and advancement of visible minorities, so that it now lags behind the private and federally regulated sectors. The gaps between actual representation and labour market availability (LMA) have, for most departments, been persistent and widening. The problem of advancement is two-fold: (a) representation in the executive feeder group has shown little or no growth for a number of years; and (b) the appointment rate into the executive category falls disproportionately short compared to the feeder pool.

The federal public service has an opportunity now to make up ground in the representation of visible minorities in ways that will help to create an exemplary workplace. The imperative to renew and rejuvenate the public service is matched with the reality of a labour market that is diverse and becoming more so. The Task Force believes the time has come to step up efforts, namely, to pursue with determination, for a limited time, a benchmark for the recruitment and advancement of visible minorities.

A benchmark emphasizes results, and results generate the necessary momentum to sustain change. A benchmark should be achieved in the overall performance of the federal public service. Some departments will have further to go than others. Some leaders, however, challenge themselves and their organization to overachieve a target. Wanting to be at the forefront of change, they take risk, manage it and reap the concomitant rewards.

The Task Force sees Health Canada's response to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision as a demonstration that targets work when given the force of law. In that decision, the remedial measure called for a hiring rate of double the labour market availability. This was the same measure applied in a similar ruling, upheld by the Supreme Court, in the case of Action Travail des Femmes v. Canadian International Railway et al. (1987). The Task Force believes that departments do not want to find themselves being similarly overtaken by events and having to comply with legal directives. It observed that some departments, led by their deputy heads, have taken the initiative and made progress. Revenue Canada and the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) made dramatic progress in the representation of, respectively, visible minorities in the workforce and Aboriginal peoples at executive levels. Such progress has made it easier for them to achieve further change while at the same time, improving service to their clientele.

The Task Force is convinced that, among deputy heads, there is a determination to take an approach that is results-driven. Given a mandate to determine benchmarks, the Task Force focussed on setting the benchmark low enough to be realistic and attainable for the government as a whole, but high enough to call forth creative and innovative responses from individual departments. It sought a benchmark that was simple and easily understood, and that had breadth, in that it would apply to all departments, and depth, in that it would embrace all activities from entry to executive levels.

Set a benchmark of 1 in 5 for visible minority participation government-wide:

  1. A 1 in 5 share of external recruitment for term (in excess of three months) and indeterminate appointments, to be attained as an annual rate by 2003;
  2. A 1 in 5 share of acting appointments at the levels of executive feeder groups, to be attained as an annual rate by 2005;
  3. A 1 in 5 share of entry into executive feeder groups and executive levels to be attained as an annual rate by 2005.
 The Task Force believes that a benchmark of 1 in 5 is achievable for recruitment into the public service as a whole. A rate of 1 in 5 matches the rate in 1998 of visible minority applicants in general recruitment (20.6 per cent) and is well within the rate in 1998 of visible minority applicants in post-secondary recruitment (30.2 per cent). Because the federal public service makes appointments into executive levels overwhelmingly by internal promotion, recruitment does not address the acute under-representation at those levels. The 1 in 5 benchmark is applied, therefore, over a longer period of five years to acting appointments and to entry into executive feeder groups and executive levels. The former is a critical proving ground; the latter will be achieved by a combination of external recruitment and internal training and promotion.

II. Help Departments and Managers Achieve the Benchmark

In accordance with their legislated obligation to implement employment equity, departments regard representation as a matter of bringing their visible minority population to the level of LMA relevant to the occupational categories and locales of their department. The Task Force emphasizes that "closing the gap" is chasing a historical figure; the LMA represents how the federal workforce should have looked in 1996. Some departments mistakenly see the LMA as a ceiling; it was intended as a floor to measure performance. Other departments have exceeded the LMA in certain occupational categories but have not stopped recruiting. Achieving employment equity, therefore, requires striving for greater than the LMA to account for the historical lag in the measure and to take advantage of the larger recruitment pool available if hiring were expanded beyond local markets.

The benchmark of 1 in 5 has flexibility in two important ways: (1) departments have time, in the three- and five-year horizons, to achieve that annual rate of performance; and (2) departments can devise strategies and set targets to achieve the benchmark that are adapted to their particular corporate situation. Departments can determine where and how they can best make faster progress and direct their managers accordingly.

Managers, burdened by their day to day workloads, may resist yet another approach to employment equity. Some may question whether "enough" qualified visible minority applicants exist. Some may not know how to tap into wider recruitment pools. Others may need training in interview and selection techniques in order to recruit from a diverse candidate pool. The Task Force believes that, with education, managers will see opportunity rather than obstacles. It will require human resources specialists to work in step with managers and to advise them on employment equity policy, including whether or not their practices conform. Managers, assisted by human resources practitioners, should do more outreach and recruitment and do so innovatively. Recruitment pools must be larger, and referral, interview and appointment processes must work to the same objective, namely, allowing more qualified visible minorities to be appointed.

Help departments and managers make progress toward and achieve the benchmark:

1. Share the experience and approaches of other departments and of federally regulated and private sector companies and organizations. Individual departments to adapt such experiences and approaches to their corporate environments and requirements. Departments can learn much from each other and from federally regulated and private sector companies and organizations that report to the Labour Standards and Workplace Equity Directorate at Human Resources Development Canada. Research can also be shared. For example, Transport Canada is undertaking diagnostic studies to probe reasons for low application and appointment rates for particular occupations and positions. These experiences and approaches may need to be adapted; what works for one department may not fit another's corporate environment or needs
2. Educate managers about:
  1. human resources policy and practices and, within that context, employment equity policy and practices;
  2. labour markets and equip them to do labour market analysis;
  3. the existing array of Public Service Commission tools for targeted recruitment and appointment.
 Some managers are unfamiliar with existing federal human resources policy and programs and, within that context, employment equity. They may not be apprised of demographic and labour market trends. They will have to be confident that they have the policy and program tools at hand to help them attract and appoint more visible minorities. The Task Force concluded the issue is not that there are not enough tools or that they are ineffective; rather, managers are often either unaware of them or do not know how to use them. (For a list of existing PSC tools, see Appendix V.)
3. Widen the applicant pool by:
  1. expanding the geographic area of selection to reach larger recruitment pools;
  2. making use of Public Service Commission inventories of visible minority applicants;
  3. making financial provision to assist managers to meet increased relocation costs.
 Widening the applicant pool has been shown to improve the appointment rate of visible minorities. Managers may have to expand the area of selection. Besides opening a competition to residents of a local area (typically within a certain radius), they would expand it to invite visible minority applicants from another urban centre or a wider region, including province-wide, or broader, to the national level.

Some regional offices of the Public Service Commission maintain inventories of qualified visible minority applicants. The Task Force believes every regional office should maintain and encourage use of such inventories.

Managers often cite the non-payment of relocation expenses as a reason for limiting the geographic area of selection. While some candidates will be willing to move at their own expense, some will not or cannot. Financial provision should be made to pay such expenses for successful candidates.
4. Ensure qualified visible minority applicants are referred rather than screened out:


  1. review the criteria for selected positions;








  2. hire for competencies, including new competencies, rather than for position alone.
 In analyzing under-representation, the Public Service Commission noted the dramatic difference between application and appointment rates of visible minorities. In 1998, against an application rate for general recruitment of 20.6 per cent, the appointment rate was 4.1 per cent. Such a dramatic fall-off calls into question the practical application of the merit principle.

There is a pressing need to review criteria particularly where there is a dearth of applicants or of referred visible minority candidates. Some criteria may be outdated or not bona fide, serving a purpose for which they were not intended, that is, to manage the volume of applicants. In less senior positions in regions where the federal government is one of the largest employers, as in Halifax, the designation of positions as bilingual imperative should be reviewed. Generally, with respect to such positions, departments should regard language training as an investment in an otherwise qualified candidate. For example, in Quebec, accent should not be a consideration in evaluating language level related to linguistic proficiency and, thus, suitability for the job.

Departments should consider the example of the private sector, where, to respond to the increasingly global nature of work, companies are hiring for new competencies rather than for position alone. Hiring for competencies may overcome historical biases toward certain credentials or qualifications.
5. Ensure the integrity of the selection process:
  1. establish corporate inventories of visible minorities available for selection board duties; those inventories to include members from the private sector;
  2. provide training for visible minorities within the public service for selection board duties.
 Corporate inventories should be established of visible minorities for selection board duties, and more should be trained for such duties. Those inventories should include members from the private sector. Outside members would help compensate for the internal shortage until visible minorities have a greater presence in management. More important, a third-party presence will introduce a perspective distinct from existing management.
6. Use innovative recruitment and outreach approaches:
  1. establish corporate inventories of visible minority employees who could participate in recruitment drives and outreach activities;
  2. establish partnerships with other departments or with the private sector in recruitment and outreach activities.
 The Task Force notes few departments are involved in outreach; many more should be to prepare for the coming recruitment drives and because of expected exits alone (the average age of all employees in the public service is 42.5 years, and that of executives is 49.3 years).

Departments should send on outreach activities the same kinds of employees as those they are seeking. For example, if a department wishes to attract energetic, motivated visible minority youth, those it sends out on outreach should reflect those same qualities.

III. Change the Corporate Culture

The Task Force grappled with which comes first, changing the culture or changing the numbers. It concluded that they should move in concert. The federal government must make this happen by staking out ground as an employer of choice and as a workplace of choice. This approach will speed the end of temporary corrective measures.

Signal that the federal government is striving to be an employer of choice and to create an exemplary workplace:

1. Reinforce a positive brand image of the public service as a competitive employer. Many potential recruits have a negative perception of the federal public service as a place to work. The federal government must counter that by identifying advantageous aspects of public service employment and promoting them in recruitment practices.
2. Articulate the objectives of human resources policy, and within that, employment equity and diversity, as critical to the mission of the federal government. Departments have begun the process of integrating diversity into human resources planning and human resources planning into departmental business plans. It should be in place, quickly, government-wide. The federal government must do what the private and federally regulated sectors do well: integrate diversity into the way business is done and have human resources personnel working alongside front-line managers. Like the private sector, the federal government should regard a diverse workforce as an asset, not as an accommodation.
3. Integrate diversity into the employee curriculum:
  1. deputy heads to be the champions;




  2. establish managing diversity as a core competency of management;


  3. extend diversity training to all employees, and relate training to workplace operations.
 Changing the face of the federal public service is not only about external marketing; the public service must believe it internally.

The Task Force noted examples in the private sector where the chief executive officer is championing diversity. Some head a corporate committee on diversity. Others personally pick up the telephone to call a potential university recruit. The Task Force urges deputy heads to reflect on their own leadership: Is there a visible minority presence on their senior management committees?

Several private sector companies have established a leadership competency related to diversity. The federal government should train managers so that they acquire knowledge and develop skills associated with managing a diverse workforce. Leadership development programs should be designed to support managers in this respect.

Training to combat stereotyped attitudes toward differences must be translated into operational terms; the objective should be to motivate managers and employees to be self-policing in the workplace.
4. Establish interdepartmental programs for career and leadership development for promising new recruits and existing employees. Such programs to provide for:
  1. mentoring;
  2. rotational assignments;
  3. training;
  4. appointment to level rather than position.
 The competitive advantage of the federal public service over the private sector is that it offers recruits a breadth of opportunity and experience of the sort not readily available in the private sector. Since departments are concerned narrowly with their own workforces, that strength is not realized. The federal public service should offer a career-path program for recruits and existing employees of promise. Greater use should be made of models where appointments are to level rather than position, such as the foreign service officer classification and the accelerated economist program. In creating similar talent pools, departments could collaborate by location or by "communities" of occupations (e.g., the Public Service Commission's recent regrouping of occupations) and provide candidates with rotational assignments, training and mentoring. To quote a slogan from a large private sector accounting and consulting firm: "Work where you're going to grow".
5. Establish short-term (one to two years) youth internships to offer exposure to the executive levels of the public service, as well as international assignments. The federal government should offer innovative internship programs, which would also help it compete head to head with the private sector.
6. Apply the benchmark of 1 in 5, to be attained by 2003, for visible minority participation in management development programs from entry to executive levels, program activity at the Canadian Centre for Management Development, and any new career path programs and internships. Where a shortfall exists, provision to be made for external recruitment. The 1 in 5 benchmark should apply to visible minority participation in management developmental programs, both corporate-wide and internal to departments (e.g., the Management Trainee Program, Interchange Canada, and the Career Assignment Program) and be achieved within three years. These programs rely on self-nomination and selection by merit. Provision should be made and resources provided to recruit externally for those programs where internal processes do not generate a 1 in 5 rate of participation.
7. Intensify efforts to attract a new generation of visible minority Canadian youth to the federal public service. Today's college and university graduates have a wide range of career choices and opportunities, notably in the private sector. The federal public service must intensify its campus recruitment, including targeting specific faculties, and must offer attractive work and career development options. It is unlikely to persuade this new generation to enter the public service if it does not do so.

IV. Provide for Implementation and Accountability

The action plan can be integrated readily into the existing framework for employment equity under the aegis of the Treasury Board Secretariat. Within this context, the Treasury Board Secretariat consults with the bargaining agents, and departments develop employment equity plans, track their own performance on training and development, annually forward data on representation and report progress to the Treasury Board Secretariat for inclusion in the President's annual report to Parliament. In addition, the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) undertakes audits of legislative obligations.

The Task Force envisages that departments would incorporate the action plan in their annual employment equity planning and formulate human resources strategies and objectives accordingly. It recognizes that departments will have varying ability to recruit from areas with higher concentrations of visible minorities. Depending on their occupational profiles, some may be able to make rapid progress recruiting for certain occupational groups, which would compensate for slower progress in other groups. Some may have greater success in recruiting externally at the managerial level, which will have the effect of expanding networks and creating a dynamo effect in later years.

The Task Force focussed on how to ensure progress is made. Each department must strive for year-over-year progress. The federal government should strive, overall, not only to attain, but to surpass the benchmark. The action plan envisages heightened roles for the Clerk of the Privy Council, the Secretary of the Treasury Board and the President of the Public Service Commission to: (a) identify where strategic progress can be made; (b) encourage and monitor progress; and, (c) where progress is not achieved, guide departments accordingly.

Strengthen the existing implementation and accountability framework:

1. Make the action plan top-driven. Formulate the objective of achieving a representative public service into annual goals and include those goals as a key commitment in the performance accords struck between the Clerk of the Privy Council and deputy heads. These goals must be measurable and form part of pay-at-risk compensation. Leadership and accountability must rest with the deputy head community. In turn, deputies can translate this commitment to their own managers. In formulating their objectives, they may also wish to set targets, so that those responsible for managing and hiring receive clear results-oriented objectives, against which their own performance will be judged.
2. Provide for the Committee of Senior Officials (COSO), a committee of deputy heads chaired by the Clerk of the Privy Council, to oversee implementation of the action plan. COSO should be responsible for identifying where strategic progress can be made within the government. This work should be supported by an existing unit within the Privy Council Office and coincide with COSO's ongoing work to give meaning to the concepts of employer of choice and workplace of choice.
3. The Public Service Commission to assist departments to achieve progress. The Commission to be responsible also for developing and administering an annual national awards program related to the action plan for the next five years to recognize individuals who make exemplary effort and achieve exemplary progress. The Public Service Commission can assist in practical ways: help managers to understand the goals of the action plan; use the flexibility that exists; and make maximum use of tools and innovative recruitment practices. Success depends on individual effort and innovative approaches and should be recognized and rewarded. The Task Force sees the Commission, with its regional offices, as well placed to administer an annual national awards program tied to the goals of the action plan. The jury could include a representative from the newly constituted National Council of Visible Minorities and a representative from the private sector.
4. The Treasury Board Secretariat to provide strategic advice and assist departments to collaborate with each other and to evaluate annual progress by departments. If no progress is made, the Treasury Board Secretariat to work alongside those departments to establish agreed-upon targets. The Treasury Board Secretariat can also assist departments to draw upon the expertise of other departments and agencies. The Treasury Board Secretariat Advisory Committee (TBSAC), a committee of deputy heads chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury Board, should also monitor and evaluate annual progress by departments.
5. In their annual employment equity reporting to the Treasury Board Secretariat, departments also to include reporting on progress on elements in the action plan. Such progress to be included in the President's annual report to Parliament on employment equity. The Treasury Board Secretariat should make provision for concurrent feedback by affected groups. The more transparent the reporting on the action plan, the stronger the signal the public service sends of its determination to achieve progress. Each department's annual report, as measured against the goals of the action plan, should coincide with its annual reporting on employment equity in the report to Parliament by the President of the Treasury Board. The National Council of Visible Minorities may wish to comment annually on progress to the President of the Treasury Board. The public service unions may wish to do the same.

V. External Advice and Independent Review

The Task Force believes that external advice is essential to sustain momentum for change. Because the objectives of the action plan are not legislated, they do not necessarily fall within the mandate of CHRC in its annual departmental audits. The Task Force believes that an independent review should be conducted after three years. Such a review also gives the public an opportunity to comment on the federal government's progress in changing the face of government.

Provide for external advice and independent review:

1. The Secretary of the Treasury Board to appoint a three-member external advisory group for five years. This group would advise the Secretary of the Treasury Board on implementation and ways for the federal public service to keep pace with progress in the private and other sectors. The group should include a member from the private sector in a position of management.
2. At the end of three years, the President of the Treasury Board to provide for an independent review of progress either by appointing an external body or by requesting a special audit by the Auditor General.

VI. Provide for Incremental Financial Resources

The Task Force believes that the action plan can achieve progress toward a representative public service only if its employment equity measures are integrated into mainstream human resources programs and activities. This will require some shifting of priorities and resources within and between existing programs and activities. Treasury Board should set aside an annual reserve to assist in funding programs and activities in the action plan that are either less easily accommodated within existing budgetary allocations for human resources, or are outside the mandates of existing programs and activities.

Provide a reserve to assist in implementation of the action plan:

1. The additional activity generated by the action plan to be accommodated under the existing funding authority of mainstream human resources programs and activities. The Treasury Board to set aside a reserve of ten million dollars annually for the next five years to assist in implementing the action plan. The Task Force foresees that additional financial resources may be needed to fund start-up activities under the action plan. It considers, however, that neither the management nor the costs of such programs are onerous. The Treasury Board Secretariat should manage a reserve to assist in implementation. This would fund, for example, new interdepartmental programs for career and leadership development, new youth internships and new management programs offered by the Canadian Centre for Management Development within the context of the action plan.





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