Employment Equity Annual Report 2023-2024

On this page

1. Introduction
2. Workforce analysis
   • Table 1. Representation of designated groups in the NRC workforce: Progress over FY 2022-2023 and FY 2023-2024
   • Table 2. Representation of designated groups by employment equity (EE) occupational group: FY 2023-2024
   • Table 3. Women: Hires, promotions and terminations by employment equity (EE) occupational group
   • Table 4. Indigenous peoples: Hires, promotions and terminations by employment equity (EE) occupational group
   • Table 5. Persons with disabilities: Hires, promotions and terminations by employment equity (EE) occupational group
   • Table 6. Racialized persons: Hires, promotions and terminations by employment equity (EE) occupational group
   • Table 7. Hires of designated groups by employment equity (EE) occupational group
   • Table 8. Promotions of designated groups by employment equity (EE) occupational group
   • Table 9. Terminations of designated groups by employment equity (EE) occupational group
   • Table 10. Representation of designated groups by geographic region
   • Table 11. Representation of designated groups by salary range
3. Progress implementing employment equity action plans
   • Hire diverse talent
   • Support the career development and advancement of diverse talent
   • Foster an inclusive, accessible and anti-racist culture
   • Address barriers in policies and systems
   • Enable sustained, measurable progress
4. Consultations with employees

1 Introduction

The National Research Council (NRC) reports annually on its progress towards achieving a representative workforce, as required under the Employment Equity Act.

This annual report includes a workforce analysis of employment equity designated groups under the Act. The analysis is by employment equity occupational group, geographic region, salary range as well as proportions of hires, promotions and terminations.

Throughout this report, the words "Indigenous peoples" and "racialized persons" respectively replace the words "Aboriginal peoples" and "members of visible minorities" used in the Act. The employment equity designated groups identified in the Act are women, Aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities.

The workforce data in this report comprise indeterminate employees and employees in employment terms of 3 months or more. The report does not include data on students, employees on secondment from other organizations, employees in term positions of fewer than three months or visiting workers.

The report also outlines the NRC's progress in implementing its Workforce and Workplace Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy as well as mechanisms in place to consult employees on employment equity issues.

In order to adhere to confidentiality requirements related to self‑identification information, all statistics involving 5 or fewer employees are not included in the tables in this report and are instead indicated by "SUPP". Data on women does not come from a self‑identification survey and are not subject to the same restrictions.

Note: At the NRC, data pertaining to the representation of women in our workforce are collected from information provided by new employees at the time of hire and may be updated at any time by Human Resources. Data on the representation of the other designated groups are collected using a voluntary self-identification survey made available to employees hired and every time they change positions within the NRC. Employees are able to update their self-identification information in the employee self-service portal at any time.

2 Workforce analysis

On March 31, 2024, the NRC employed 4,417 individuals in 12 employment equity occupational groups, an increase of 37 employees over the number of employees reported in the previous reporting period (4,380).

Labour market availability (LMA) estimates for fiscal year (FY) 2023-2024 are based on the 2016 National Household Survey and the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability. All percentage calculations in this report are rounded to one decimal place.

Table 1. Representation of designated groups in the NRC workforce: Progress over FY 2022-2023 and FY 2023-2024

Table 1a. Women

Table 1b. Indigenous peoples

Table 1c. Persons with disabilities

Table 1d. Racialized persons

On March 31, 2024, the NRC had representation gaps in 2 of the 4 employment equity designated groups.

The representation for women and racialized persons in the NRC's overall workforce surpassed LMA. The representation of women relative to LMA increased from 103.6% reported in FY 2022-2023 to 106.9% in FY 2023-2024, while the representation of racialized persons relative to LMA increased from 100.4% reported in FY 2022-2023 to 109.7% in FY 2023–2024. Steady progress is also noted in the remaining designated groups. The representation of Indigenous peoples relative to LMA at the end of FY 2023-2024 was 73.5%, an increase from 62.5% in FY 2022-2023. The representation of persons with disabilities relative to LMA increased from 57.4% in FY 2022-2023 to 65.5% in FY 2023-2024.

In terms of employee count, the representation of women at the NRC surpassed LMA estimates by 115 individuals. Representation of Indigenous peoples was below LMA estimates by 25 individuals. Representation of persons with disabilities was below LMA estimates by 130 individuals. Representation of racialized persons at the NRC surpassed LMA estimates by 99 individuals.

Table 2. Representation of designated groups by employment equity (EE) occupational group: FY 2023-2024

As noted in table 2, the professionals group is the largest employment equity occupational group at the NRC, comprising 51.7% of the workforce. This is followed by the semi-professionals and technicians group (22.4%), administrative and senior clerical personnel (11.7%), middle and other managers (6.5%), clerical personnel (3.0%) and skilled crafts and trades workers (2.0%). Other smaller employment equity occupational groups account for the remainder of the NRC population.

The data and supporting narrative in tables 3 through 6 denote the NRC's findings and analysis for each employment equity designated group at the employment equity occupational group level as of March 31, 2024, as well as their respective number of hires, promotions and terminations during FY 2023-2024.

Table 3. Women: Hires, promotions and terminations by employment equity (EE) occupational group

Table 3a. Women: Hires, promotions and terminations in 2023

Table 3b. Women: Hires, promotions and terminations in 2024

• On March 31, 2024, women represented 40.3% of the NRC's workforce, slightly above the LMA estimate of 37.7%, surpassing the availability benchmark by 115 individuals.
• A review of the data by employment equity occupational group shows the representation of women at the NRC met or surpassed LMA estimates in 9 of the 12 occupational groups. Gaps were still present in the supervisors, crafts and trades occupational group (–2 individuals), intermediate sales and service group (–1 individual) and other manual workers group (–1 individual).
• The proportion of women hired increased from 45.9% in FY 2022-2023 to 46.6% in FY 2023-2024 and remained higher than the LMA estimate of 41.2%.
• The proportion of women promoted increased from 45.6% in FY 2022-2023 to 52% in FY 2023-2024, surpassing the LMA estimate of 43.5%.
• In FY 2023-2024, 159 women left the NRC, representing 39% of all terminations, an increase from the 37.7% reported in FY 2023-2024 and lower than the LMA estimate of 40.2%.

Table 4. Indigenous peoples: Hires, promotions and terminations by employment equity (EE) occupational group

Table 4a. Indigenous peoples: Hires, promotions and terminations in 2023

Table 4b. Indigenous peoples: Hires, promotions and terminations in 2024

• On March 31, 2023, Indigenous employees represented 1.6% of the NRC workforce, below the LMA estimate of 2.1%, resulting in a gap of 25 individuals.
• Indigenous employees are under-represented in 8 of the 12 occupational groups with the greatest gap found in the semi-professionals and technicians' group (–11 individuals).
• Compared with FY 2022-2023, the proportion of Indigenous employees hired in FY 2023-2024 remains the same, at 1.4%, which is lower than the LMA estimate of 2.3%. This means that the percentage of Indigenous employees hired by the NRC is lower than the estimated availability of Indigenous peoples in the workforce.
• The proportion of Indigenous employees promoted during the reporting period was 2.1%, an increase from 0.6% in FY 2022-2023, reaching the LMA estimate of 2.1%.
• The proportion of Indigenous employees departing from the NRC in FY 2023-2024 was 0.7%, lower than the 1.0% reported last fiscal, and remained lower than the LMA estimate of 2.3%.

Table 5. Persons with disabilities: Hires, promotions and terminations by employment equity (EE) occupational group

Table 5a. Persons with disabilities: Hires, promotions and terminations in 2023

Table 5b. Persons with disabilities: Hires, promotions and terminations in 2024

• On March 31, 2024, persons with disabilities accounted for 5.6% of the NRC workforce, below the LMA estimate of 8.5%, resulting in a representation gap of 130 individuals.
• Under-representation of persons with disabilities exists in 6 of the 12 employment equity occupational groups, with the largest gaps seen in the professionals group (–92 individuals), followed by the semi-professionals and technicians' group (–37 individuals).
• The proportion of persons with disabilities hired in FY 2023-2024 increased to 6.5%, from the 5.6% reported in FY 2022-2023, remaining below the LMA estimate of 8.6%. This means that the percentage of employees with disabilities hired by the NRC is lower than the estimated availability of persons with disabilities in the workforce
• The proportion of promotions for persons with disabilities increased to 6.9% in FY 2023-2024 from the 5.7% reported in FY 2022-2023, remaining lower than the LMA estimate of 8.7%.
• Persons with disabilities represented 7.1% of all departures in 2023-2024, an increase from the 2.9% reported in FY 2022-2023 and lower than the LMA estimate of 8.5%.

Table 6. Racialized persons: Hires, promotions and terminations by employment equity (EE) occupational group

Table 6a. Racialized persons: Hires, promotions and terminations in 2023

Table 6b. Racialized persons: Hires, promotions and terminations in 2024

• Racialized persons represent 25.5% of the NRC workforce, above the LMA estimate of 23.2%, surpassing the availability benchmark by 99 individuals.
• Racialized groups are under-represented in 4 of the 12 employment equity occupational groups, with the greatest gap seen in the middle and other managers group (–5 individuals).
• The proportion of racialized persons hired in FY 2023-2024 increased to 39.1% from 32.6% reported in FY 2022-2023, remaining higher than the LMA estimate of 22.7%. This means that the percentage of racialized employees hired by the NRC is higher than the estimated availability of racialized persons in the workforce
• The proportion of promotions for racialized persons increased in FY 2023-2024 to 24.8%, from the 21.2% reported in FY 2022-2023, exceeding the LMA estimate of 22.5%.
• The proportion of racialized employees who left the NRC was lower in FY 2023-2024 at 19.6% compared with the 25.1% reported in FY 2022-2023 and below the LMA estimate of 22.7%.

Table 7. Hires of designated groups by employment equity (EE) occupational group

Table 8. Promotions of designated groups by employment equity (EE) occupational group

Table 9. Terminations of designated groups by employment equity (EE) occupational group

Table 10. Representation of designated groups by geographic region

Table 11. Representation of designated groups by salary range

3 Progress implementing employment equity action plans

Over the past 5 years, the NRC has made progress in addressing employment equity representation gaps relative to LMA. From year end 2019-2020 to year end 2023-2024, representation relative to LMA increased from 100.7% to 106.9% for women, from 48.8% to 73.5% for Indigenous peoples, from 35.4% to 65.5% for persons with disabilities and from 86.2% to 109.7% for racialized persons.

Over the course of FY 2023-2024, the NRC continued to implement its 2021-2024 Workforce and Workplace Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and developed its next three‑year EDI strategy and employment equity action plan, which was approved by NRC's Senior Executive Committee (SEC) in the summer of 2024.

Aligned with the Government of Canada's commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion, the strategy was intended to help position the NRC as an inclusive place to work and engage. It focused on the following pillars:

• Hire diverse talent
• Support the career development and advancement of diverse talent
• Foster an inclusive, accessible and anti-racist culture
• Address barriers in policies and systems
• Enable sustained, measurable progress

The NRC's progress in implementing its strategy and action plans for each of the pillars during FY 2023-2024, the final year of the strategy, is outlined below.

Hire diverse talent

During the reporting period, the NRC continued to make steady progress in improving representation for employment equity designated groups through hiring:

• The NRC worked toward the representation and hiring goals set for the period up to 2024, as approved by the NRC Senior Executive Committee in 2021. We successfully met the goals set for women, persons with disabilities and racialized persons. However, we did not meet the goal for Indigenous peoples, achieving 73.5% of LMA against a goal of 75%. The NRC has, nonetheless, made significant progress in recent years and is well positioned to achieve its goal for FY 2024-2025.
• In FY 2023-2024, new representation and hiring goals were established for the upcoming 3 fiscal years (2024-2027). These new goals are aligned with the 2024-2027 EDI strategy.
• The NRC maintained its external hiring goal assigned to NRC management (EX equivalent), that 50% of external hires will be qualified candidates who have self-declared as members of the following employment equity groups: Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and racialized persons. In FY 2023-2024, we achieved a year-end aggregate-level result of 44%, an improvement from the 38% achieved in FY 2022-2023. This goal will carry forward into FY 2024-2025.
• The employment equity goal assigned to management includes actions to achieve this goal, such as use inclusive hiring practices, establish diverse selection boards, increase the use of eligibility lists and recruitment programs that prioritize designated groups, and prioritize employment equity designated groups in posters, screening and assessment.
• Additional tools to support hiring managers were updated or introduced: an inclusive hiring toolkit, a diverse selection board inventory and supervisor training sessions. Hiring managers were encouraged to consider EDI at each stage of the hiring process and when evaluating job requirements such as qualifications, location and potential for alternative work arrangements.
• In FY 2023-2024, we launched 2 EDI-focused recruitment programs: the Indigenous Student Recruitment Program and the persons with disabilities internship pilot. The pilot includes the assistance of a third-party service provider to assess accommodation requirements and employee needs as well as provide coaching to supervisors. These programs offer meaningful work experience to Indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities.
• In FY 2022-2023, the NRC announced the creation of the Luise and Gerhard Herzberg Postdoctoral Fellowship, prioritizing a recent PhD graduate who identifies as a woman who has demonstrated research excellence. The second round of this fellowship was launched in December 2023.
• As part of the annual workforce planning process, business units were asked to consider the NRC's employment equity representation and gaps when identifying staffing needs and when determining hiring strategies. In the workforce planning template, there is a direct link to the NRC's EDI strategy and to various EDI resources to support this work. The workforce planning tools to support hiring forecasts were updated to include built-in flags for positions where representation gaps exist. In addition, a direct question for each planned hiring action asks if an employment equity designated group will be a priority focus for the hiring action along with a follow-up question regarding specific hiring strategies.
• The NRC was present at a number of career fairs and events focused on diverse talent including: the Newcomers Canada expo, the David C. Onley Initiative Career Fair, the Ottawa Indigenous Student Career Fair and an American Indian Science & Engineering Society: Advancing Indigenous People in STEM (AISES) event in Vancouver.
• The NRC continued its partnership with Indigenous Link, a career service provider dedicated to supporting Indigenous job seekers. The NRC also partners with Equitek, a platform that provides a network of employment counsellors and job seekers with access to employment opportunities.

Support the career development and advancement of diverse talent

During FY 2023-2024, the NRC launched a number of initiatives to support employee career development and the advancement of diverse talent:

• In the summer of 2023, the NRC launched a sponsorship pilot program to help high-potential Indigenous and racialized employees prepare for leadership roles. In this program, senior leaders are matched with employee protégés. Currently, 12 NRC vice-presidents and executives are sponsoring a total of 26 protégés. The sponsor's role is to identify appropriate development opportunities and advocate for those they are sponsoring. To date, protégés have given very positive feedback about the program and their experiences working with their sponsors.
• The NRC offers a mentorship program that is open to all employees, facilitating improvements and connections in areas such as leadership skills, career development and advancement. Mentors and mentees can self-declare as members of an employment equity designated group in their profiles. In FY 2023-2024, participation grew by 110% over FY 2022-2023, with 1,136 registered users: 605 mentees, 165 mentors and an additional 366 who were both mentees and mentors. Of the registered users, 75% were from one or more equity groups, with 49% identifying as women, 21% as racialized persons, 4% as persons with disabilities and 2% as Indigenous.
• Sections of the workforce planning template used for identifying high-potential talent and succession planning have been updated to ask management to consider the representation of employment equity designated group members. The workforce planning template also includes links to development resources, such as a supervisor toolkit focused on supporting employee development and submitted nominations for the Canada School of Public Service's Executive Leadership Development Program (EX-01 to EX-03). A callout message was sent to all executives inviting those eligible to express interest and to self-declare as a member of an employment equity designated group as part of the process. The NRC also submitted nominations for the EX-04 and EX-05 program. Members of under-represented groups were prioritized in nomination and selection processes for both programs.
• The NRC regularly communicated learning and development programs available to employees, including those organized across the federal public service, through its employee newsletter and other communication channels.

Foster an inclusive, accessible and anti-racist culture

Throughout the reporting period, a number of actions were taken to enable employees and leaders to foster an inclusive, accessible and anti-racist workplace culture.

• To support the creation and work of communities and networks:
  • The NRC has appointed several co-champions: co-champions for anti-racism, Indigenous engagement, 2SLGBTQ+ inclusion, accessibility and disability inclusion, women, official languages and wellness and mental health. These co-champions mobilize management and employees to drive change and help foster an inclusive work environment.
  • The NRC has 3 employee resource groups and networks: the Black Employee Resource Community (BERC), the Women in Science and Innovation Network (WiSi) and the newly launched Persons with Disabilities Employee Network. This new network connects persons with disabilities and aims to foster an inclusive environment through community initiatives. Its members play a key role in creating this inclusive environment and building a community. In addition, the NRC is looking at establishing other employee resource groups to build additional communities and provide support.
  • Information on employee resource groups was regularly communicated to employees and supervisors through NRC communication channels and in the NRC new employee onboarding sessions. The communication channels also included the NRC's 3 internal employee resource groups as well as a number of federal networks, including the Federal Black Employee Caucus, the Indigenous Federal Employees Network, the Jewish Public Servants' Network, the Muslim Federal Employees Network, the Network of Federal Asian Employees, the Public Service Pride Network (PSPN), Infinity – The Network for Neurodivergent Public Servants the PSP Executive Network and the Racialized Women Belonging Group.
  • The NRC established an inclusive innovation community of practice to raise awareness of ongoing initiatives in the inclusive innovation landscape. This forum allows members to exchange ideas, practices and lessons learned and to advance inclusive innovation in the NRC workplace and within its research and innovation activities. The group currently has 78 members.
• To provide opportunities for learning and dialogue:
  • All new NRC employees completed two mandatory introductory courses as part of their onboarding process: Diversity and Inclusion Fundamentals and Unconscious Bias. New supervisors also completed the Managing Bias in Hiring course, a requirement for hiring delegation at the NRC. These mandatory courses were offered through a partnership with the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion.
  • The NRC communicates EDI learning and training opportunities via internal channels and encourages employees to register for diversity and inclusion courses and events offered through the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS).
  • The NRC provides access and regular updates to a number of employee tools, including an EDI resource portal, an anti-racism portal and library guides for anti-racism and Indigenous engagement.
  • The Black Employee Resource Community celebrated Black History Month with guest speaker. The network aims to increase Black youth participation in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, math and medicine), increase Black Canadian representation in STEMM fields and advocate for equitable practices for funding and awards.
  • The NRC sponsored and attended the 2024 AISES in Canada National Gathering, which provides networking, peer support and mentorship to Indigenous peoples in STEM at all levels of their educational and professional experience.
  • The NRC Women in Science and Innovation (WiSi) network hosts a regular luncheon series and an MS Teams channel for sharing information.
  • The NRC and the Office of the Chief Science Advisor co-hosted the 2024 Celebrating the Success of Women in STEM Symposium, attended by over 1,600 participants. This event emphasized the vital role of women and under-represented groups in addressing climate change and sustainability.
  • As part of the NRC's onboarding sessions, new employees are informed of the NRC's commitment to creating an open, accessible, inclusive and anti-racist work environment, with specific mention of networks and support available at the NRC and within the broader federal public service. Resources on EDI, anti-racism, wellness and respectful workplaces are also shared with new employees via the NRC welcome toolkit.
  • A number of the NRC's divisions, research centres and corporate branches offered training and invited guest speakers on a variety of themes, including anti-racism and Indigenous lived experiences, in addition to the corporate-led training.
• The NRC maintains a calendar of commemorative events to foster a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace. We promote the calendar and its significant dates for employees to learn about and participate in observances. We encourage senior leaders to be aware of upcoming events and share these events with their teams. In addition, we regularly feature information about these events in the weekly NRC employee newsletter and on the NRC intranet to ensure widespread awareness and participation. Throughout FY 2023-2024, the NRC recognized and communicated information about a number of these commemorative events.

Address barriers in policies and systems

Throughout the reporting period, a number of actions were taken to further address and remove barriers to employment, advancement and full participation in the workplace:

• The NRC's actions to advance EDI are guided by a three-year strategy. The strategy was refreshed this year (for 2024-2027), following an employment systems review that identified barriers faced by persons in designated groups. Input from over 150 employees, EDI co-champions and employee resource groups shaped the strategy, informing our efforts to reduce these barriers.
• The NRC developed and published the Accessibility Plan 2023-2025 in December 2022. An update on our progress was published in December 2023. This progress report outlines actions taken or underway to support the foundational areas of focus in the NRC's Accessibility Plan 2023-2025 and the NRC's priority areas of focus from the Accessible Canada Act.
• The NRC continued its work implementing the Pay Equity Act. A pay equity committee was struck and met on several occasions to undertake work required to establish NRC's pay equity plan. The plan is to be posted in September 2024.
• The NRC improved gender inclusivity in its HR management systems in FY 2023-2024 by removing salutations from HR forms and templates.
• The NRC continued its work to integrate Gender-Based Analysis (GBA) Plus into the assessment of the potential impacts of policies, programs and initiatives on equity-deserving groups. During the reporting period, GBA+ was conducted on cabinet and Treasury Board submissions as well as in program design and evaluation, departmental planning and reporting tools and plans for new initiatives and processes.

Enable sustained, measurable progress

During the reporting period, the NRC took a number of steps to renew its commitment to EDI and ensure sustained progress and accountability:

• The NRC continued to implement its monitoring framework to ensure progress against hiring and representation goals, which included quarterly progress reports to senior management along with an annual report on progress toward the implementation of the strategy. Regular annual progress reports are prepared every November.
• All NRC executives were assigned a common commitment to advance EDI and anti-racism during the reporting period that included hiring goals as well as taking action to address barriers, support the professional development of diverse talent, encourage inclusion of diverse voices in decision making and engage in and promote continuous learning about anti-racism, reconciliation, accessibility and allyship.
• An updated executive commitment for FY 2023-2024 was assigned that included specific hiring goals for the year: 50% of external hires will be qualified candidates who have self-declared as members of the Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and racialized persons employment equity designated groups. The NRC will also continue to prioritize hiring women in employment equity occupational groups, positions and business units where the NRC has gaps.
• During the reporting period, the Senior Executive Committee approved the NRC's updated hiring and representation goals through 2027. In addition, an updated EDI strategy was developed during FY 2023-2024. Quarterly progress reports and comprehensive strategy updates will begin in FY 2024-2025.
• The NRC continued to leverage the input of the Committee on EDI. Committee members comprise bargaining agent representatives and employees who reflect the diversity of the NRC's population in terms of identity, role, level, official language and region.

• To contribute toward sustained progress, an internal self-identification campaign was held during the last quarter of FY 2023-2024. The NRC completion rate as of the end of March 2024 was 92%.
• The employment systems review conducted during the reporting period identified EDI data requirements and gaps. Efforts to improve tracking and reporting on EDI indicators will continue as part of the NRC's Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2024-2027.

4 Consultations with employees

The NRC carried out a number of consultations with employees during FY 2023-2024 to better understand their lived experiences and perceptions in key areas:

• Over the fall of 2023 and the winter of 2024, the NRC engaged a third party to conduct an employment systems review to identify barriers for employment equity designated groups in our recruitment, promotion and retention policies and processes.
• Over 150 employees were consulted for input, including members of employee resource groups and the NRC's Committee on EDI, through individual interviews and group consultations. The review identified systemic barriers for diverse groups, provided recommendations to management on how to eliminate identified barriers and incorporated a view to improving the equity, diversity and inclusivity of the NRC.
• Specific actions to help address gaps and eliminate barriers for equity‑deserving groups have been included in the new three‑year EDI strategy (2024-2027). As part of the strategy development, consultations were held with employee resource groups, the NRC's Committee on EDI, bargaining agents and EDI co-champions. Their feedback was very helpful in further shaping and refining the final strategy.
• In FY 2024-2025, NRC employees will participate in the Public Service Employee Survey. Results from the survey will inform EDI initiatives and future consultations.
• The NRC will also undertake ongoing consultations to support the NRC's accessibility plan.