Working to improve hiring within the federal government

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Hiring of Aboriginal employees within the federal public service should see an increase in the future, with the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) keeping a watchful eye on the government's employment equity initiatives.

Up until 1996, the federal government was tasked with regulating itself when it came to employment equity, with government departments reporting to Treasury Board on progress towards creating a workforce more representative of the Canadian population. That changed, however, in 1996, when a new employment equity act came into being, expanding to cover the federal government.

According to Joan Bishop, chief of the statistical analysis unit with the CHRC's employment equity branch, only about 10 per cent of the total Canadian workforce is covered by the Employment Equity Act. In addition to the federal public service, the act also covers Crown corporations, banks, transportation companies that cross provincial borders, communications, and other federally regulated organizations.

Another change to the act in 1996, Bishop explained, was the inclusion of a method for enforcement, giving that role to the CHRC.

The first employment equity act came into being in 1987, Bishop said, but until 1996, there were no enforcement mechanisms in place.

"I think the thinking at the time was that if they had employers basically report on employment equity and people could see their bad record, there would be public pressure and things would change that way," Bishop said.

"So, with the change in the act in 1996, they basically included the public sector, and for the first time, there is actually an audit process that goes on," Bishop said, adding that the commission is currently in the process of trying to audit all the federal government departments and private sector employers covered under the new act.

"Ultimately, at the end of the day, they're obliged to put in place hiring goals, assuming that they don't have as many Aboriginal people as they should have working for them . . . and we evaluate them, and then we are going to be monitoring, over the next two or three years, to see if they are meeting their goals, and if they're not, then the commission would have the right to go back in and . . . begin a new audit to see what's gone wrong," Bishop said.

With the CHRC audits still underway, it's still too early to say whether the changes to the employment equity act will actually translate into more jobs for Aboriginal people within the federal public service or within the federally regulated private sector, but Bishop is hopeful.

"It's going to take a while, I think, before we see whether this actually results in changes in practice. It'll be harder, I think, for the public service, it will be harder for them to avoid action than it was before, because there are very clear goals . . . they actually have to have a plan . . . they have to look at their systems to see, are there obstacles there to people, and to remove them, and all that is information that is going to be much more available to employees or to unions or others who want to look at it. So, I think, in that way, it will be much harder for them than it was in the past when things were very vague. It was kind of a hopeful thing. They were hoping to do better, but they hadn't actually said how they were going to get there. And now there are going to be specific plans and . . . if they don't meet their hiring goals, then the commission will be able to go back in and look."

In order to meet the requirements of the revised Employment Equity Act, Bishop explained, each department will have to do an analysis of its workforce, then set reasonable goals for hiring of Aboriginal employees. Work will also have to be done to eliminate any obstacles to hiring, looking at everything from ensuring that tests aren't discriminatory, to looking at the attitudes of members of management.

"They're also supposed to put in place very positive, special kinds of masures, because it's recognized you can clean your system up, but it might take a long, long time before that translates," Bishop said.

Some of those special measures will likely include targeted recruiting, with departments working with Aboriginal organizations to reach potential candidates. Departments will also have to look at developing initiatives designed to help retain Aboriginal employees once they are hired, Bishop added, such as mentoring programs and other support systems.

"I think that's been a problem all along, is that even when they've been successful in hiring people, the public service isn't the friendliest place, and people get in and find themselves feeling very isolated or very lost, and they tend to leave quicker," Bishop said.