The Federal Contractors Program: A Brief Overview

The PSCEE thought it would be appropriate to highlight some of the requirements of the Federal Contractors Program as they relate to the work that was undertaken by the Committee in the past year. As you are aware, the purpose of the Federal Contractors Program is to ensure that Western strives to have a workforce which is representative of designated group members in proportion to their representation in the external workforce.

Collection and Maintenance of Workforce Information

The workforce census is one of the first requirements of the Federal Contractors Program. It allows the University to take a "snap shot" of its workforce at a given point in time to be used for three basic purposes: to allow the University to compare its workforce to the surrounding workforce to assess levels of representation of members of the designated groups; to enable Western to focus its employment equity initiatives in those areas which require improvement; and to provide a baseline from which to monitor the success of employment equity initiatives. The Federal Contractors Program states that it is preferable to collect these data through a self-identification survey as this elicits more reliable information than other methods.

Comparison with External Statistics

Once workforce data are collected, the next step necessitates a comparison of the representation of members of the designated groups in Western's workforce with their representation in the appropriate segment of the Canadian population. This requires the use of comparison data from the Canadian Census of 1996 and the 1991 Health and Activity Limitations Survey. The stated objective of the Federal Contractors Program is to have contractors who do business with the Government of Canada achieve and maintain a fair and representative workforce.

Identifying Areas of Concern and Conducting a Systems Review

Once the comparisons are made between Western's workforce and the external statistics, Western is required to identify those areas where one or more designated groups are under-represented in its workforce. These areas of under-representation form the focus of future employment equity initiatives.

When an area of under-representation is identified, Western is required to conduct a review of the recruitment, hiring, training, promotion and termination processes for that area. The goal is to establish why the under-representation has occurred and to determine what, if any, systemic barriers exist.

In order to facilitate this review, Western is also required to maintain an ongoing record of recruitment, hiring, training, promotion and terminations, so that statistical information can be compiled at any time regarding the "movement" of employees, including designated group members, into and through its workforce.

Developing a Work Plan and Establishing Goals

Western must then use the information collected from its workforce survey, its comparison of the survey results with the census data, and its systems review to create an employment equity work plan. This plan must be designed to address the issues revealed by the systems review and to promote the hiring, retention and promotion of more members of the designated group that has been identified as being under-represented in a given occupational group.

As part of that work plan, Western is required to set achievable numerical and qualitative goals for the future, based on its assessment of its own hiring, training and promotion opportunities for the coming years. These goals must be designed to be achievable and to move Western closer to a representative workforce.

All of these steps are carried out in preparation for a compliance review as carried out by HRDC. In the past, Western has successfully completed two such reviews: in 1993 and 1996.