FAQ – Employment Equity

A. To address and deepen our understanding of barriers experienced by marginalized groups of employees as part of our efforts to build an inclusive college:

This personal information collection is one of many efforts to continue to build an inclusive College. We recognize that there are many groups which have historically been discriminated against in society in ways that limit their full and active participation in the workforce. Barriers continue for women, Indigenous peoples, people who are racialized (visible minorities), people with disabilities, and the 2SLGBT+ community amongst others.

B. To measure, and track progress and develop goals toward improving diverse representation at all levels so that the diversity of our workforce is equally representative of our communities:

When we understand who we are, we can better determine what actions will remove workplace barriers and foster an inclusive environment. We began collecting data to answer this question with the 2021 Inclusive Climate Survey, and are seeking to deepen that understanding. This is articulated as a College wide goal in the 2022-2025 Strategic plan to “Create an equitable, diverse and inclusive work environment.”

C. To be compliant with the equity provisions in the Federal Contractors Program through the provision of detailed workforce demographics as a participant in the Program:

To be compliant with the Federal Contractors Program (FCP) (the Act), Algonquin College must be able to provide detailed workforce demographics to the Labour program of the Government of Canada, and our definitions reflect the Program. The FCP ensures that organizations that do business with the Government of Canada achieve and maintain a workforce that is representative of the Canadian workforce population. Under the terms of the FCP, companies or institutions seeking contracts for goods and services from the federal government are required to be committed to employment equity and to have a plan in place that contains specific initiatives through which employment equity will be accomplished. The Employment Equity data collection is a response to the need of the College to better support and design an inclusive workplace and our requirement to determine to what extent our current workforce is representative of our communities. The snapshot taken through this activity will serve as the foundation allowing Algonquin College to measure our progress on the journey towards inclusion. By gaining an informed understanding of the diversity in our workforce we will be able to strengthen the representativeness and inclusiveness of our workplaces. 

A. The information you provide is kept separate from your employee file, and can only be used for employment equity purposes unless you permit otherwise  

The information you provide is considered as personal information and is managed in accordance with by the College’s Information Security Policy as well as provincial privacy legislation. As such, it is our responsibility to ensure it is kept confidential. Note, however, while the data is confidential, it is not anonymous. In accordance with privacy legislation and the program’s requirements, the self-identification information can only be used for employment equity purposes, unless you permit otherwise. Your information is also kept separate from your employee file.

B. We use the information gathered, sort it by job type and compare it against data from Statistics Canada 

The information is confidential but not anonymous to ensure validity of the responses for reporting purposes (for example, that there is no duplicate information), as well as to link your response to job type your role falls under.  With Employment Equity efforts the College is aiming to ensure our workforce is representative of the labour markets we draw from. To do so we compare our employee demographic representation by individual job type in your confidential response to data from Statistics Canada.

C. A very limited number of designated employees will have access to the disaggregated data  

Confidentiality of data is key to the success of Employment Equity Self-identification. Only the two Equity, Diversity and Inclusion employees in Human Resources, and two Data Architects from the Information Technology team will have access to the disaggregated data. No one else can view your individual responses, not your manager, not the leadership team, not other employees in Human Resources unless you otherwise consent to the sharing of your information. 

D. You maintain rights with respect to your data   

Please note that you have rights with respect to your data. The information you provide in this self-identification questionnaire is collected to enable Algonquin College to collect workforce data, comply with the employment equity component of the Federal Contractors Program and implement equity workplace programming. This de-identified data (the government cannot identify you without asking the College) will be grouped with other employees’ data and shared with the Labour Program of Employment and Social Development Canada for the purpose of complying with employment equity provisions under the Federal Contractors Program.  

Personal information collected in the Federal Contractors Program annual reports (reports containing only aggregated data) may be shared with the Canadian Human Rights Commission as well as other entities established by the Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Development Canada, or the Labour Program for research purposes. This aggregated and de-identified information may also be used and made publicly available upon request for policy analysis, research and evaluation purposes.  

The personal information you submit is administered in accordance with Algonquin College’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Policy, the Employment Equity Act, the Department of Employment and Social Development Act, and the Privacy Act.  You have the right to file a complaint with Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario regarding Algonquin College’s handling of your personal information.  

If you have any additional questions about how the College or the Federal Government might use your information, please contact The Equity, Diversity & Inclusion team at diversity@algonquincollege.com  

Additional Security features built into workday itself can be found here: https://www.algonquincollege.com/workday/files/2018/06/datasheet-workday-security.pdfhttps://www.workday.com/content/dam/web/en-us/documents/datasheets/datasheet-workday-security.pdf  

Equity means treating everyone with fairness, considering people’s differences. Sometimes employment equity means treating people the same despite their differences and sometimes it means treating them as equals by accommodating their differences. 

The provisions of the federal Employment Equity Act that is used by the Federal Contractors Program has identified four designated groups: 

‘Women’: are a designated group under the Employment Equity Act. The Act does not define the term ‘woman’.  

Indigenous (Aboriginal) Peoples: According to the Employment Equity Act, “Aboriginal peoples means persons who are Indians, Inuit or Métis.” ‘Indigenous peoples’ and ‘First Nations’ are more appropriately and respectfully used than ‘Aboriginal peoples’ and ‘Indians.’ Context requires the use of the term Aboriginal peoples as it appears in the Employment Equity Act.  

Members of racialized (visible) minorities  

According to the Employment Equity Act, “members of visible minorities means persons, other than Indigenous (Aboriginal) peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.”  

A person may be a member of a racialized (visible minority) group regardless of their place of birth or citizenship.  

Examples, according to Statistics Canada, of racialized (visible) minorities include, but are not limited to:  

• South Asian (e.g., East Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, etc.)  
• Chinese  
• Black  
• Filipino  
• Latin American  
• Arab  
• Southeast Asian (e.g., Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Thai, etc.)  
• West Asian (e.g., Afghan, Iranian, etc.)  
• Korean  
• Japanese 
• People of mixed race, ethnicity, or origin [e.g., with one parent that is a member of a racialized (visible minority) group] 

Persons with Disabilities  

According to the Employment Equity Act, “persons with disabilities means 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 an 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.”  

Workplace accommodations can include the use of technical aids, changes to equipment or alternative working arrangements.  

Impairment refers to any difficulty that lasts for six months or more and that limits your daily activities. Examples of impairment include, but are not limited to difficulties:  

• seeing (even when wearing glasses or contact lenses)  
• hearing (even using a hearing aid)  
• walking, using stairs, using your hands or fingers or doing other physical activities  
• learning, remembering or concentrating  
• emotional, psychological or mental health conditions  

We have chosen to also include questions on sexual orientation and gender identity to demonstrate our commitment to a workplace characterized by inclusion and recognition of the marginalization people from these groups face.  

Person of a minority sexual orientation or a gender identity:

a person who does not identify as cis-gender or heterosexual (these may include but are not limited to people who identify as gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, two-spirited, queer, trans-gender, gender fluid, non-binary, etc.)  For the purposes of this survey, a minority gender identity refers to a person’s internal and individual experience of gender or gendered expression when it does not match the gender assigned at birth and/or is not in the fixed binary or man or woman. Language, particularly in relation to sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, involves social constructs which evolve over time. The terminology above is not meant to label individuals but are meant to be helpful functional descriptors. They are not standardized and may be used differently by different people.  

Francophone:

This is a person who belongs to a population using French as its first or sometimes second language. In the OPSEU Algonquin College Faculty Collective Agreement, Francophones are identified as an equity deserving group.  

All  Algonquin College employees whether Administrative, Support and Academic including all employment types e.g. full-time, part-time, fixed-term, partial load, will receive an email with a link to complete the Employment Equity self-identification via a survey in Workday. 

You are able to select “prefer not to disclose” for any question. Completing the survey is  voluntary and confidential. Members of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion team will follow up by phone and/or email with employees who do not complete to the survey to answer any questions and encourage submission.  

The more people that respond with disclosure of their identity information the better; if we have representative data we are able to make sound decisions here at the College, so your participation is an important step and helps to inform our path moving forward. 

We know your personal identifying information and responses to this survey may change over time. For example, someone may develop a disability at any time during their employment with the College. We welcome you to update your responses to the survey anytime. Please email diversity@algonquincollege.com to request us to send you a new survey.  

This information will continually be refreshed as new employees join the College and share their demographic data. We will aim to resurvey employees on a three-year cycle. Employees are welcome to update responses to the survey anytime.

Please email diversity@algonquincollege.com to request a new survey.  

The results of the demographics of our workforce for each of the equity groups will be aggregated, summarized and made available to all Algonquin College employees for their information on an annual basis. There will be no personal or identifiable results shared with management or your direct manager.  Analysis will be conducted on aggregate results only and carefully considered by the Inclusion and Diversity Circle (IDC), the HR team and the Leadership Team to inform programming. 

Our equity report will describe who we are today (with your help in self-identification), help us think intelligently about where we can do better based on empirical data (by comparing our demographic profile with our communities) help us decide how to create a more inclusive workplace (our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Blueprint). Our decisions and actions will be founded on data and used as planning and evaluation tools. 

However, compliance with the Federal Contractors Program of  the Employment Equity Act does require the College, in collaboration with designated group members and Union representatives (through the Inclusion & Diversity Circle) to set goals, not quotas.  This means we can establish our own informed and realistic targets and timetables to increase the representation of members of underrepresented groups. It also means we are held accountable for making progress toward those goals.  

Equity, diversity, and seniority share a common goal: to make sure that employment opportunities are fair, and without favouritism or discrimination. Seniority rights acquired as a result of provisions in a collective agreement are protected. 

In fact, the OPSEU collective agreements (Academic and Support Staff) both specifically state that the College and union “recognize a shared commitment to achieving employment equity within the college system.”  

If you require an alternate format, or support to complete the survey, we are here to help. Please email diversity@algonquincollege.com or call 613-727-4723, ext. 7660 and we will be sure you can participate.  

The full procedure for reporting an incident can be found in policy HR22: Respectful Workplace.  

Your survey response will be kept in the highly confidential system for a three year period after your employment with the College ends. This will allow the analysis and consideration of aggregated termination data for the designated groups, in order to identify any trends.

If you would like to change your response to the survey anytime after submission, or wish your data to be deleted before the end of this 3-year period, please email diversity@algonquincollege.com to request us to send you a new survey.

If you have questions that weren’t answered here please email diversity@algonquincollege.com or call 613-727-4723, ext. 7660 and we are happy to answer your question. We will keep these FAQ’s updated as we get more questions from the employee community.