Employment Equity Act – Employment Equity Plan – IPG-114

Subject

Employment equity plan under the Legislated Employment Equity Program (LEEP).

Issue

This guideline clarifies how employers should prepare, implement and revise their employment equity plan, in compliance with the Employment Equity Act (the Act). It includes guidance and tools for the:

positive policies and practices
goals
monitoring and review procedures

Background

LEEP covers federally regulated private-sector employers, including Crown corporations and other federal organizations, that are subject to the Act.

Employers must prepare, implement and revise an employment equity plan.

The employment equity plan must:

use the results of the employment systems review, and
feature prominently in the employer’s communication, consultation and collaboration with employees

Definitions

Designated groups

Designated groups are “women, Aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities.”

Women

The Act does not define women. Guidance is available for collecting data on women (see Collection of Workforce Information).

Aboriginal peoples

Aboriginal peoples are “persons who are Indians, Inuit or Métis.” Indigenous peoples’ and ‘First Nations’ are more commonly used than ‘Aboriginal peoples’ and ‘Indians.’

Persons with disabilities

Persons with disabilities are “persons who have a long-term or recurring physical, mental, sensory, psychiatric or learning impairment and who

consider themselves to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of that impairment, or
believe that a [sic] employer or potential employer is likely to consider them to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of that impairment,

and includes persons whose functional limitations owing to their impairment have been accommodated in their current job or workplace.”

Members of visible minorities

Members of visible minorities are “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.”

Positive policies and practices

Positive policies and practices are measures that create an environment that supports a diverse workforce and the removal of employment barriers. They include general measures that may not explicitly target designated group members, as well as special measures and accommodations.

Employment barriers

An employment barrier is an employment policy or practice that has a disproportionately negative impact on 1 or more members of designated groups (impact) and that:

does not comply with human rights or employment legislation (legality)
is not consistently applied across the organization (consistency)
is not necessary for the safe and efficient operation of the organization (validity), or
may be accommodated to reduce or eliminate the negative impact (accommodative nature)

Special measures

Special measures aim explicitly at attracting, promoting and retaining members of the designated groups to address the ongoing effects of underrepresentation.

Accommodations

Accommodations are flexible initiatives, adjustments and supports to policies, practices and tools that must be provided to a designated group or individual within the group. This allows designated groups or individuals within the groups to participate fully and equally in the workplace — up to the point of undue hardship on the employer, considering health, safety and cost.

Short term

In relation to employment equity plan goals, ‘short term’ means “a period of not less than one year and not more than three years.”

Longer term

In relation to employment equity plan goals, ‘longer term’ means “a period of more than three years.”

Workforce analysis

Workforce analysis determines the underrepresentation of members of designated groups within an employer’s workforce. It does so by comparing the representation of members of designated groups within the employer’s workforce with their representation within the broader Canadian workforce. It includes a flow data analysis, the identification of pay gaps and can involve a clustering analysis.

Canadian workforce

The Canadian workforce refers to “all persons in Canada of working age who are willing and able to work”. It can also refer to parts of that population “identifiable by qualification, eligibility or geography and from which the employer may reasonably be expected to draw employees”. The Minister of Labour provides information on the Canadian workforce to employers. It is based on data from Statistics Canada and is only updated when new data is available.

Flow data analysis

Flow data analysis focuses on occupational movement: hires, promotions, and terminations. It seeks to determine if members of designated groups are over- or under-represented in these movements.

Clustering analysis

A clustering analysis determines if designated group members are in a disproportionately high ratio in:

an Employment Equity Occupational Group (EEOG), or
lower salary quartiles of an EEOG

Employee

Employee means a “person who is employed by the employer, but does not include a person employed on a temporary or casual basis for fewer than 12 weeks in a calendar year.”

Hired

Hired means an employee has been “engaged by the employer.”

Promoted

Promoted means an employee has “permanently moved from one position or job in the employer’s organization to another position or job that

has a higher salary or higher salary range than the salary or salary range of the position or job previously held by the employee, and
ranks higher in the organizational hierarchy of the employer.”

Terminated

Terminated means “retired, resigned, laid off, dismissed or otherwise having ceased to be an employee, but does not include laid off temporarily or absent by reason of illness, injury or a labour dispute.”

Employment Equity Occupational Groups

There are 14 Employment Equity Occupational Groups (EEOGs):

Senior Managers
Middle and Other Managers
Professionals
Semi-Professionals and Technicians
Supervisors
Supervisors: Crafts and Trades
Administrative and Senior Clerical Personnel
Skilled Sales and Service Personnel
Skilled Crafts and Trades Workers
Clerical Personnel
Intermediate Sales and Service Personnel
Semi-Skilled Manual Workers
Other Sales and Service Personnel
Other Manual Workers

Employment systems review

The employment systems review is a review of the employer’s employment systems, policies and practices to identify employment barriers to persons in designated groups.

Employment systems, policies and practices

Employment systems, policies and practices include all of an organization’s formal and informal policies and practices. Formal policies and practices are official and written rules of conduct in the workplace. Informal policies and practices are not official and not written, but they are the norms that employees actually follow and practice in the workplace.

Policy

Employers must prepare, implement and revise an employment equity plan.

The plan must specify activities that employers will establish in the short term, including:

positive policies and practices to hire, train, promote and retain persons in designated groups to correct the underrepresentation identified in the organization’s workforce analysis
accommodations to correct the underrepresentation identified in the workforce analysis
measures to eliminate any employment barriers identified during the employment systems review

Employers must set a timetable for implementing the positive policies and practices, accommodations and measures to eliminate employment barriers in their employment equity plan.

For each Employment Equity Occupational Group where the workforce analysis has found underrepresentation, employers must set:

short term numerical goals for hiring and promoting persons in designated groups in order to increase their representation
measures employers will take in each year to meet those goals

When setting these short term numerical goals, employers must consider:

the degree of underrepresentation of persons in each designated group in each occupational group
the availability of qualified persons in designated groups within their workforce and in the Canadian workforce
the anticipated growth or reduction of their workforce during the period covered by the goals
the anticipated turnover of employees within their workforce during the period covered by the goals

Employers must also set:

longer term goals to increase the representation of persons in designated groups
a strategy to achieve those goals

Employers must ensure that their employment equity plan would, if implemented, show reasonable progress toward implementing employment equity as required by the Act.

Employers must:

make all reasonable efforts to implement their employment equity plan
monitor implementation of their plan on a regular basis to assess whether they are making reasonable progress toward implementing employment equity

At least once during the period covered by the short term numerical goals, employers must also:

review their employment equity plan
revise it by:

updating the numerical goals, taking into account the factors mentioned above
making any other necessary changes that may result from monitoring implementation or as a result of changing circumstances

Employers must establish and maintain the following records:

their employment equity plan
the monitoring of the implementation of their plan

Interpretations

How to write an employment equity plan

The employment equity plan should be a thorough summary of:

the efforts taken to analyze the workforce and review employment policies and practices
the goals set and measures planned to eliminate employment barriers and correct under-representation of members of the designated groups

The Create, Implement, and Sustain an Employment Equity Plan task (Employment Equity Task 5) provides an employment equity plan template. It includes employment equity plan tables where employers can document the workforce analysis and employment systems review, as well as set the goals and plan the measures.

Positive policies and practices, and accommodations

Employers should have, at a minimum, three formal written policies:

an employment equity policy
an accommodation policy (the Canadian Human Rights Commission provides a template for such a policy)
an anti-harassment policy (see the Canada Labour Code requirements for such a policy)

Employers should also make the employment equity information available in alternative formats, when an employee makes a request.

Employment Equity Task 5 provides examples of positive policies and practices, including special measures and accommodations.

Setting short and longer term goals

Goals should be sufficient to ensure reasonable progress towards closing each representation gap. This means being above or, at a minimum, equal to availability, as identified in the workforce analysis.

When establishing longer term goals, employers should consider:

the elements taken into account when setting the short term numerical goals
the effects of the short term goals
the expected efforts to implement the measures contained in their employment equity plan

Employers should create appropriate mechanisms to:

demonstrate their commitment to implement employment equity, and
to show the accountability of managers and other staff with responsibilities to implement the employment equity program and achieve employment equity goals

Employment Equity Task 5 provides additional guidance on setting goals.

Reasonable progress

Employers have made reasonable progress toward implementing employment equity if:

they set their goals at a level at least equal to relevant availability rates
they achieve their short term goals at an 80% level or more, after the period covered by these goals

Employers should consider additional elements in specific circumstances:

if there are no more gaps, employers should consider:

the ongoing employment equity requirements
the outstanding requirements (if required)

if employers meet their goals but gaps remain, they should consider:

the ongoing employment equity requirements
the outstanding requirements (if required)
their updated employment equity plan to ensure that it meets the requirements

if employers do not meet their goals and do not sufficiently close their gaps, they should consider:

the ongoing employment equity requirements
the outstanding requirements (if required)
their updated employment equity plan to ensure that it meets the requirements
their reasonable efforts

Reasonable efforts

Employers have made all reasonable efforts toward implementing their employment equity plan if:

there is ongoing senior-level support for employment equity and its implementation:

the organization devotes adequate resources (financial and human) for implementing each measure in the plan, and
the organization is doing their utmost to effectively implement its plan, taking into account resources and constraints

employers make efforts to implement each measure in the organization’s employment equity plan within the specified timeline
they provide a good reason for each measure that they have not implemented within the timeline indicated in the plan

Monitoring procedures

Employers should set timeframes and processes to:

annually review and update their workforce analysis, and
monitor the implementation of their employment equity plan to assess whether they have made reasonable progress

Employment Equity Task 5 provides additional guidance on monitoring.

Review and revision of an Employment Equity Plan

When reviewing and revising their employment equity plan, employers should:

verify that they use all elements of their accountability, communication, consultation, collaboration and record-keeping and contribute to a positive workplace environment
review and address all remaining representation gaps and any new ones
review the measures that they have implemented to eliminate employment barriers to determine their effectiveness and adjust, if needed
assess all positive policies and practices, including special measures and accommodations, as well as the monitoring mechanism to ensure that they are achieving set goals

Employers should assess additional elements in specific circumstances:

if they have made reasonable efforts and subsequently reviewed and revised the plan, employers should assess ongoing employment equity requirements
if they have made reasonable efforts but have not reviewed and/or revised the plan, employers should provide a good reason
if they have not made reasonable efforts, have not reviewed and/or revised the plan and the onsite visit confirms these findings, employers will be non-compliant until they can demonstrate that they have made reasonable efforts to comply

Further guidance

Further guidance on the employment equity plan is provided here.

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2022-04-01