Employment Equity in the Office of the Auditor General of Canada — Annual Report 2001-02

• Introduction
• The Office of the Auditor General of Canada
• Our Employment Equity Environment
• Implementing Employment Equity
• Our Employment Equity Plan
• The Employment Equity Numbers
• Designated Groups Representation—Highlights
• Representation in Hirings, Promotions and Separations
• Appendix—Statistics

Introduction

This Annual Report on Employment Equity in the Office of the Auditor General of Canada highlights employment equity activities during the period 1 April 2001 to 31 March 2002.

It also presents information on the representation of designated groups as at 31 March 2002.

The Office of the Auditor General of Canada

Enabling Legislation

The Auditor General Act, the Financial Administration Act and a variety of other acts and orders-in-council set out the duties of the Auditor General as they relate to legislative auditing and monitoring of federal departments and agencies, Crown corporations and other national and internal organizations.

Independence from Government

We differ from government departments and agencies through our independence from the government of the day and our reporting relationship to Parliament. Our independence is assured by a broad legislative mandate, freedom from certain controls over our budget and staff, and a ten-year term for the Auditor General.

Application of the Employment Equity Act to the Office of the Auditor General of Canada

The office of the Auditor General of Canada falls under the Employment Equity Act, section 4.(1)(c) as a portion of the Public Service of Canada-set out in Part II of Schedule I to the Public Service Staff Relations Act — employing 100 or more employees.

Our Work

The principal activity of the Office is legislative auditing — providing reliable, relevant and timely assurances and other information on financial and program performance to help legislators hold government accountable.

Our Organization

The Office is organized into three branches-Audit Practices, Audit Services and Executive — along with the Office of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development. Most of the staff work from the head office in Ottawa. Regional offices are located in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal and Halifax.

We have a specialized workforce, with roughly two thirds of our 559 employees at the middle management and audit professional levels.

Our Employment Equity Environment

Our Values

Employment equity is one of the underlying values of the Office of the Auditor General. Our Strategic Framework includes six principles that guide our behaviours.

One of these principles focuses on having a Respectful Workplace.

“We are committed to providing a working environment in which all individuals are treated with dignity and respect, and which is supportive of their personal aspirations and growth. We encourage open and honest communication to create a climate of trust. We value each individual's talent and diversity, and challenge their capabilities, while supporting their learning and quality-of-life endeavours.”

Our Structure

In January 1998, we introduced our first employment equity plan — to identify underrepresented groups and take action to meet Office goals. This plan was incorporated into our Human Resources Corporate Plan. Later that year, we created a new senior committee — the Human Resources Committee — to monitor the implementation of both our Human Resources Corporate Plan and our Employment Equity Plan.

In addition to the above, our Employment Equity Committee, through the sub-committees which represent the four designated groups, continues to promote awareness and understanding of employment equity and diversity issues in the workplace.

Implementing Employment Equity

Implementation of the Legislation

Our first step in implementing the requirements of the legislation was to organize and complete a self-identification survey in April 1997. We then completed a workforce analysis to determine the degree of under-representation of members of designated groups in each occupational group.

This analysis is updated each year. The results at 31 March 2002 are presented in this report.

Employment Equity Records

We have implemented procedures for the maintenance of orderly and accurate employment equity records. We have also developed information vehicles and practices to keep our employees up-to-date on employment equity matters. For example, our INTRAnet provides all employees with easy access to current employment equity information. Periodic notices are sent to remind all employees of their right to self-identify at any time. All new employees are requested to complete a self-identification questionnaire even before their first day with the Office.

Activities and Events

To promote a corporate environment that supports employment equity values and ideals, the Office participated in several activities throughout the year. These included:

• International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
• International Women's Day
• Women's History Month
• International Day for Persons with Disabilities — Information Fair
• Aboriginal Awareness Week
• National Aboriginal Day
• National Council for Visible Minorities — Symposium 2001

In addition, the Office actively supported awareness and fundraising campaigns for causes that touch specific populations within the designated groups. These are listed below:

• CNIB — Crocus Sale
• Breast Cancer Research — Denim Day
• National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

Recruitment Strategy

The Human Resources Group has developed a recruitment strategy to meet the immediate and future staffing needs of the Office.

Since the shortage of skills for our particular requirements is expected to continue unabated over the next several years, our turnover rate will likely remain high and the supply of qualified candidates will most likely remain low. Our challenge therefore is to identify potential employees, attract them to the Office, develop their skills and work to retain them.

Our recruitment strategy includes specific outreach programs directed at university campuses across Canada for our Audit Professional Training Programs. Over time, it is expected that the closer relationships established with associations representing designated groups on campuses will allow the Office to recruit and develop audit professionals from the groups currently under represented.

Succession Planning

In anticipation of the number of retirements expected to occur between 2003 and 2008, a succession planning process was put in place in September 1999 to ensure younger employees were being prepared to assume greater responsibilities when these retirements occurred.

Although the number of forecasted retirements has been modified and is somewhat lower than originally identified, the Office continues its commitment to this development initiative and ensures through its annual rotation and promotion processes that due consideration is given to all designated group members.

Over time, these sustained efforts should result in higher numbers of designated group members being promoted.

Our Employment Equity Plan

Historically, our Employment Equity Committee developed an employment equity plan that outlined activities and initiatives intended to increase awareness of equity and diversity issues and to improve opportunities in the workplace for all employees.

In 1997-98, a new Employment Equity Plan was prepared to meet the specific requirements of the Employment Equity Act, section 10. Our Plan covered an initial three-year period, 1998-99 to 2000-01. It included short-term numerical goals to reduce under-representation of the designated groups over that period. The Office's Executive Committee has endorsed these short-term numerical goals.

In the winter of 2000-01, we updated the Plan and prepared Version III, which was approved by our Human Resources Committee.

In the spring of 2002, the Canadian Human Rights Commission began an audit of our employment equity performance and practices. This work will continue into the winter of 2002. The results of this audit will serve to inform and guide us in the preparation of our next three year plan scheduled for completion in the Spring of 2003.

Communication and consultation

Since communication was identified as a critical factor for success in the implementation of the first Employment Equity Plan, the new three-year plan will be supported by a Communications Plan to ensure employees and managers are not only kept informed of progress that has been made but, perhaps more importantly, engaged in meeting the challenges that remain.

Challenges and special efforts

In setting the numerical goals for our next Employment Equity Plan, we will take into account the action plan proposed by the Task Force on the Participation of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service in its March 2000 report “Embracing Change”. In particular, we will consider the recommendation that visible minorities represent a one-in-five share of external recruitment hires.

In our second Plan, we will also attempt to improve the representation of Aboriginal Peoples in our professional and manager groups. This effort will focus around our recruitment and succession planning programs described earlier. We will review our initiatives aimed at improving our outreach to Aboriginal Peoples and communities with a view to achieving representation equal to workforce availability at the end of the next Plan period.

Numerical goals

Our second Employment Equity Plan will establish short-term numerical goals for each occupational group in which under-representation has been identified. Goals will be expressed in terms of our representation as a percentage of the workforce availability and number of additional employees required in each designated group.

The new short-term numerical goals will be approved by our Human Resources Committee.

We will make every effort to ensure that our consultation initiatives are meaningful and appropriate in terms of the Employment Equity Act. The Office of the Auditor General of Canada is committed to employment equity ideals. Our challenge is to reflect these ideals in both our workforce and workplace.

The Employment Equity Numbers

The data in this report are as at 31 March 2002.

Tables 1 through 3 show the representation of designated groups in the Office.

Tables 4 through 7 show comparative numbers as at 31 March 2001. Tables 8 through 10 show the numbers of people hired, promoted and who left during 2001-2002.

Our employment equity numbers have been prepared on the basis of the National Occupational Classification (NOC) system, developed by Human Resources Development Canada. This system comprises 14 Employment Equity Occupational Groups (EEOGs) — as defined in Schedule II of the Employment Equity Regulations — and 522 NOC unit groups.

Figure 1

Classification of OAG Employees under the National Occupational Classification System

Classifying our employees under this system shows that we have a very specialized workforce:

• The 559 employees in our Office fall into 6 of the 14 Employment Equity Occupational Groups (EEOGs). Within these EEOGs, 488 employees (87.3 percent) fall into 5 of the 522 National Occupational Classification (NOC) unit groups (see Figures 1 and 2).
• Most of our employees (64.9 percent) are concentrated in 2 NOC unit groups — Middle Managers (NOC unit 0414) and Auditors (NOC unit 1111).

Figure 2

Distribution of Employees by Major NOC Unit Groups

The comments which follow highlight the data in the Appendix.

Designated Groups Representation — Highlights

We have compared our representation in each designated group to the most recent workforce availability figures provided by Human Resources Development Canada — the 1996 Employment Equity Data Report. We have used national figures for this comparison.

Representation in Hirings, Promotions, Separations

This annual report includes an analysis of the numbers of employees hired, promoted and terminated and the degree of representation in those numbers, of persons who are members of each designated group.

Appendix— Statistics

Technical Notes

Report Coverage

This report contains information on our indeterminate employees and term employees of three months or more as at 31 March 2002. Employees who were on secondment to other organizations are also included in our numbers.

Employees who were on leave without pay from our Office at 31 March 2002 are not included in the population. Because of the rapid turnover of students and casual employees, no information is reported on them.

Data on People in the Designated Groups

All data, other than those for women, were obtained through self-identification, the process by which people identify themselves as being from one of the other three designated groups. The data on women were obtained from other human resources information.

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

Our self-identification process, including the questionnaire completed on a voluntary basis, began in April 1997. Employees who joined the Office since then were provided with the questionnaire when they began working.

At any time during the year, any employee may complete or revise a self-identification questionnaire, available from our Human Resources Group.

In tables 4 to 7, we show our representation as a percentage of the workforce availability, with comparative figures for the prior year. We believe this is the best single statistic to show how well we are doing in achieving a representative workforce.

We provide information by Employment Equity Occupational Group (EEOG). In tables 4 through 7, we also provide information for the two National Occupational Classification (NOC) unit groups that comprise the majority of our employees — Middle Managers (NOC Unit 0414), which is part of EEOG 2 (Middle and Other Managers) and Auditors (NOC Unit 1111), included in EEOG 3 (Professionals).

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

As at 31 March 2002

Table 3

Representation of Designated Groups by Employment Equity Occupational Group

As at 31 March 2002

Table 4

Representation of Women by Employment Equity Occupational Group and Two Largest National Occupational Classification Unit Groups

As at 31 March 2002

Table 5

Representation of Aboriginal Peoples by Employment Equity Occupational Group and Two Largest National Occupational Classification Unit Groups

As at 31 March 2002

Table 6

Representation of Persons with Disabilities by Employment Equity Occupational Group and Two Largest National Occupational Classification Unit Groups

As at 31 March 2002

Table 7

Representation of Persons in a Visible Minority by Employment Equity Occupational Group and Two Largest National Occupational Classification Unit Groups

As at 31 March 2002

Table 8

Hirings by Designated Group and Employment Equity Occupational Group

1 April 2001 to 31 March 2002

Includes employees hired into term positions (three months or more) and indeterminate positions.

Table 9

Promotions by Designated Group and Occupational Category

1 April 2001 to 31 March 2002

Includes promotions and reclassifications.

Table 10

Separations by Designated Group and Employment Equity Occupational Group

1 April 2001 to 31 March 2002