1. APPROVAL
OF A POLICY FOR DIVERSIFIED ADVERTISING OF VOLUNTEER AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES AT THE CITY OF
OTTAWA
APPROBATION D’UNE
POLITIQUE DE DIVERSIFICATION DANS LES ANNONCES D’OFFRES
D’EMPLOIS ET DE BÉNÉVOLAT À LA VILLE D’OTTAWA
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION
The Council approve a policy to diversify City of Ottawa advertising
for notices of employment and recruitment of volunteers for Advisory Committees
and Boards to include local community publications that attempt to target
readers in the Designated Groups (women, aboriginal persons, persons with
disabilities, members of visible minority groups, and gay, lesbian, bi-sexual,
and transgender [GLBT]) in the hopes of obtaining better representation of the
City residents in all competitions and recruitment initiatives.
RECOMMANDATION DU RAPPORT
Que le Conseil approuve une
politique visant à diversifier la publication des annonces de la Ville d’Ottawa
visant à engager du personnel ou à recruter des bénévoles pour siéger aux
comités consultatifs et aux commissions, afin que ces annonces soient insérées
dans des journaux communautaires locaux qui s’adressent à des lecteurs
appartenant aux groupes désignés (femmes, Autochtones, personnes handicapées,
membres de minorités visibles et gais, lesbiennes, bisexuels et transexuels
[GLBT]), et ce, dans l’espoir d’obtenir un échantillon représentatif de la
population d’Ottawa pour tous les concours et les projets de recrutement.
DOCUMENTATION
1. Equity
and Diversity Advisory Committee’s report dated 19 February 2010 (ACS2010-CCV-EQD-0001).
2. Extract of Draft Minute, 6
Apil 2010.
Report
to/Rapport au:
Corporate Services and Economic Development
Committee /
Comité des services organisationnels et du
développement économique
and Council/et au Conseil
19 February 2010 / le 19 février 2010
Submitted by/Soumis par: Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee/
Comité consultatif sur l’équité et la diversité
Contact/Personne-ressource: Marlène Barré,
Committee Coordinator/coordonnatrice du comité
consultatif
|
City Wide/à l'échelle de la Ville |
Ref N°: ACS2010-CCV-EQD-0001 |
SUBJECT: APPROVAL
OF A POLICY FOR DIVERSIFIED ADVERTISING OF VOLUNTEER AND EMPLOYMENT
OPPORTUNITIES AT THE CITY OF OTTAWA
OBJET: APPROBATION D’UNE POLITIQUE DE
DIVERSIFICATION DANS LES ANNONCES D’OFFRES D’EMPLOIS ET DE BÉNÉVOLAT À LA VILLE
D’OTTAWA
REPORT RECOMMENDATION
The Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee recommends that the
Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee recommend Council approve
a policy to diversify City of Ottawa advertising for notices of employment and
recruitment of volunteers for Advisory Committees and Boards to include local
community publications that attempt to target readers in the Designated Groups
(women, aboriginal persons, persons with disabilities, members of visible
minority groups, and gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender [GLBT]) in the
hopes of obtaining better representation of the City residents in all
competitions and recruitment initiatives.
Le Comité consultatif sur l’équité
et la diversité recommande que le Comité des services organisationnels et du
développement économique recommande au Conseil d’approuver une politique visant
à diversifier la publication des annonces de la Ville d’Ottawa visant à engager
du personnel ou à recruter des bénévoles pour siéger aux comités consultatifs
et aux commissions, afin que ces annonces soient insérées dans des journaux
communautaires locaux qui s’adressent à des lecteurs appartenant aux groupes
désignés (femmes, Autochtones, personnes handicapées, membres de minorités
visibles et gais, lesbiennes, bisexuels et transexuels [GLBT]), et ce, dans
l’espoir d’obtenir un échantillon représentatif de la population d’Ottawa pour
tous les concours et les projets de recrutement.
The mandate of the Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee is to work towards the elimination of discrimination within the City of Ottawa.
At its 21 September 2009 meeting, the Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee met with Councillor El-Chantiry; Catherine Frederick, Director, Human Resources; and Lois Emburg, Program Manager, Employment Equity and Diversity to discuss the City of Ottawa initiatives and practices as they relate to equitable and diversified employee representation. The Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee approved the following motion:
“That the Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee recommends that
the Corporate Services and Economic Development Committee recommends that
Council approves a policy to diversify its advertising for employment
opportunities and volunteers for Advisory Committees and Boards to include
local community publications that attempt to target readers in the Designated
Groups (women, aboriginal persons, persons with disabilities, members of
visible minority groups and gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender [GLBT]) in
the hopes of obtaining better representation of the City residents in all
competitions and recruitment initiatives.”
DISCUSSION
Many citizens of the targeted Designated
Groups may not read the traditional daily publications in which the City of
Ottawa currently advertises its notices of employment or recruitment campaigns.
Additionally,
advertising in community publications would provide to prospective applicants,
as well as all readers of community papers, a view to the City of Ottawa’s
active outreach to the diverse communities in the city. This practice would also make the City of Ottawa
more inclusive in its recruitment efforts.
Below are some statistics and highlights
provided by Community Media Canada (www.communitymedia.ca) in
conjunction with their French counterparts Hebdos du Québec (www.hebdos.com) and the
Ontario Community Newspapers Association (www.ocna.org):
In 2008 HR/Recruiting launched a campaign to reach community newspapers and attended some targeted career
fairs. As well, further outreach was
undertaken by working with Hire Immigrants Ottawa (HIO) and partners in the
Public Sector.
Increased advertisement of both employment opportunities and volunteer
positions in community publications would provide prospective applicants, as
well as all readers of community papers, a view to the City of Ottawa’s active
outreach to the diverse communities in the city. This strategy would supplement the current
use of the City’s website as a means to broadcast employment opportunities.
Additionally, the City is currently in the process of
entering into a contract with Equitek Employment Equity Solutions to assist us in determining
methods/strategies to augment our recruitment initiatives with the objective of
increasing the diversity of qualified candidates that apply to the City.
The Council-approved Appointment Policy for Advisory Committees and Boards states that “as much as possible, the membership should reflect the diversity and demographics of the City of Ottawa in such areas as: gender, official language, geographical representation, race and disability”. During the 2009 recruitment process for volunteer members on Advisory Committees and Boards, the City Clerk’s office took a number of additional steps to meet the policy’s objective. These included:
Ÿ Looking at where there was currently under-representation across the Committees;
Ÿ Developing a simpler, more accessible application form with input from City for All Women Initiative (CAWI);
Ÿ Including a question on the application form to invite candidates to share information that would help the Selection Panel identify those with diversity experience;
Ÿ Sending outreach letters to 229 community organizations asking for their assistance in distributing information about the City’s volunteer opportunities to their membership and/or networks;
Ÿ Distributing the outreach letter and recruitment information through the City’s Master Contact list;
Ÿ Making presentations to CAWI and Local Agencies Serving Immigrants (LASI) World Skills to explain the City’s governance structure, answer questions about the recruitment process and encourage participation on the City’s Advisory Committees and Boards;
Ÿ Distributing bilingual flyers and application forms more widely, taking care to include places that serve under-represented populations;
Ÿ Advertising in a range of community publications in addition to the dailies; and
Ÿ Lengthening the application period.
Further, City Clerk’s staff intends to evaluate the outcome of this expanded outreach to assess whether these changes resulted in a more diverse membership and to determine what additional measures could be taken in subsequent years.
Specifically, advertisements for membership on various City of Ottawa advisory committees and boards were placed in the Ottawa Citizen, the Ottawa Sun, Le Droit, as well as all EMC community newspapers, Access Now, L’Express, the Kanata Kourier Standard, the Stittsville News, the Weekly Journal (East Ottawa Star), the West Carleton Weekender, the Manotick Messenger and the Rideau Packet. In addition, the ads were posted on the City website, at all City facilities, and sent to all organizations and associations with a potential interest.
The City Clerk’s and Legal Services department has a limited budget for advertising associated with its annual recruitment process for volunteer members of Advisory Committees and Boards. The advertising plan outline above was carefully prepared to maximize these resources while reaching as many potential candidates as possible. Any additional advertising would likely result in additional costs.
As stated previously, rural communities typically have a larger readership of community papers than in urban communities.
There are no
financial implications to this report.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION
Document 1 – Extract of Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee Minutes – 21 September 2009
Staff in all affected departments to comply with Council’s decision on this matter.
DOCUMENT 1
2. UPDATE
FROM THE PROGRAM MANAGER, HUMAN RIGHTS AND EMPLOYMENT EQUITY
MISE-À-JOUR DE LA
GESTIONNAIRE DE PROGRAMME ,DROITS DE LA PERSONNE ET ÉQUITÉ EN MATIÈRE D’EMPLOI
Lois Emburg,
Program Manager of Human Rights and Employment Equity / gestionnaire de
programme, Droits de la personne et Équité en matière d’emploi
Catherine Frederick, Director, Human
Resources / Directrice, Ressources humaines
Ms.
Frederick spoke to a handout that outlines Municipal, Provincial, and Federal
employee representation. A Copy of the
handout is kept on file in the City Clerk’s office pursuant to the City of
Ottawa’s Records Retention and Disposition By-law.
Ms. Emburg
spoke to the progress made on equity and diversity initiatives at the City of
Ottawa with regard to attitudinal shifts at the Senior Management level.
Upon
questions from members regarding the impact or results stemming from the City’s
equity and diversity initiatives, Ms. Emburg reminded EDAC that the City
collected its baseline data last year, and is only now in a position to begin
year-over-year analysis and track changes.
Such data analysis will determine successes and gaps, and will fuel the
creation of a workplan moving forward.
Similarly, programs and initiatives geared at cultivating current
employees are only in their infancy, and while a maturation of measurements is
in place, outcomes have not yet been measured.
There was
a brief discussion on the Voluntary Equity Survey, which had a 70% response
rate. Members reiterated the need for
EDAC to meet with the City Manager to address the creation of a robust Equity
and Diversity Recruitment Policy.
Members
stated their questions and concerns on the following issues:
§
How
does the City of Ottawa rank in its employee representation among
municipalities in Ontario?
§
Does
the data collected in the equity voluntary survey break down to show type of
employment?
§
The
City’s lack of advertisement in community papers for job postings and
recruitment is problematic in regard to the City’s outreach initiatives.
§ Does the City of Ottawa currently run any development programs for current employees? And if so, EDAC requests to obtain statistical information on employees who are benefiting from these programs.
§ There are concerns with the City’s ability to communicate its initiatives and polices to the various community groups and individuals. There is a need for greater outreach, more inclusive language City Correspondence, and attitudinal shifts at the senior management level.
§ There was a request for benchmarking to determine the effectiveness of the Equity and Diversity Policy at the City of Ottawa.
Councillor
El-Chantiry urged members to continue working with staff, and Chair Loubani
reinforced the role of EDAC to make recommendations to Council to push the file
and close the equity gap at the City of Ottawa, so that the City can begin to
represent the residents it serves.
Chelby Marie Daigle asked staff if job postings from the City of Ottawa have a statement of inclusion. Staff responded that it does, and that EDAC provided feedback on its wording.
That
the Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee recommends that the Corporate
Services and Economic Development Committee recommends that Council approves a
policy to diversify its advertising for employment opportunities and volunteers
for Advisory Committees and Boards to include local community publications that
attempt to target readers in the Designated Groups (women, aboriginal persons,
persons with disabilities, members of visible minority groups and gay, lesbian,
bi-sexual, and transgender [GLBT]) in the hopes of obtaining better
representation of the City residents in all competitions and recruitment
initiatives.
CARRIED
ACTION: Coordinator to relay recommendation
to appropriate staff and to work with Member Hatt to prepare a draft report.
ACTION: Coordinator to finalize the report
and submit it to the Human Resources and Human Rights and Employment Equity for
final department and financial comment before transmitting it to the Corporate
Services and Economic Development Committee and Council for consideration
(anticipated dates of consideration are unknown at this time).
APPROVAL OF A POLICY
FOR DIVERSIFIED ADVERTISING OF VOLUNTEER AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES AT THE
CITY OF OTTAWA
APPROBATION
D’UNE POLITIQUE DE DIVERSIFICATION DANS LES ANNONCES D’OFFRES D’EMPLOIS ET DE
BÉNÉVOLAT À LA VILLE D’OTTAWA
ACS2010-CCV-EQD-0001 CITY WIDE/À L'ÉCHELLE DE LA VILLE
Wayne Spragge,
Vice-Chair of the Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee (EDAC) explained that the motion before the
Committee from the EDAC seeks to diversify the kind of advertisement and
communication that the City of Ottawa uses in the areas of employment notices
and advisory committee recruitment. The
EDAC finds that the reliance on traditional methods, such as the Citizen or the
internet, exclusively, does not reach many of the people that EDAC would like
to see contacted who could provide greater diversity in the City.
Vice-Chair
Desroches expressed support for the motion, suggesting it is possible to take
an approach that focuses on specific communities not reached through other
channels, but he also felt that low turnout or volunteer levels can be
attributed to the fact that people are just too busy to make those
commitments. He asked whether the
delegation would agree with that. Mr.
Spragge suggested those are two separate issues. He said the first issue is advertising and
marketing to make people aware and the second part is whether people are prepared
to make the commitment. He said that in
the research and consultation conducted by EDAC, they have found many groups
that are not even aware of opportunities available with the City. He acknowledged that EDAC has a high
resignation rate of members because of the commitment required, but added that
the recommendation is aimed at improving the ability to inform people about the
opportunities in the first place.
Councillor
Wilkinson appreciated the recommendation in terms of advisory committee recruitment. She noted that advertising for the most
recent recruitment was done in a broader way and questioned whether Mr. Spragge
thought it improved the numbers over previous years. Mr. Spragge replied there was a greater
representation of different populations, some of which had not been noted
before. The EDAC would like to see the
process continue in that direction, to access more ethnic and culturally
grouped avenues.
Councillor
Wilkinson was somewhat concerned about the recommendation with respect to
employment notices because the frequency of such notices would equate to
extensive costs, were this practice followed.
She commented that if individuals looking for jobs will seek out
notices. She questioned why the EDAC
feels this approach is necessary for employment notices when there are
resources to inform those looking for work where to apply. Mr. Spragge replied that, with all reverence
to the Councillor and Council, this line of thinking is mildly delusional. He followed that the City of Ottawa has a
very strong statement on hiring equity-wise, which includes all different
groups in the protected areas. He said
the City has successfully missed four opportunities to be included, both in the
Citizen and the Globe and Mail, on advertising specifically to GLBT
populations. He stated the City was
informed by EDAC of those upcoming advertising opportunities and could have
been part of a targeted movement involving a large number of major corporations
and municipalities. He suggested this
would not have changed their advertising budget but the City neglected the
opportunity. He also added that although
the City posts its employment notices, not everyone is fluent in internet and
communications, or has access to a personal computer and/or high speed internet. Councillor Wilkinson countered that everyone
has free access to those things at City libraries.
Councillor Bloess
referred to the City’s Appointment Policy for Advisory Committees and Boards,
which states that membership should reflect the diversity and demographics of
the City of Ottawa, suggesting that EDAC and the City are both heading in the
same direction. Referring to the report
and noting the staff response to the motion, the Councillor noted that the City
Clerk’s Office has taken measures in this regard. For instance, he noted that last year some
229+ community associations / organizations were notified of the upcoming
recruitment and the City for All Women Initiative (CAWI), among others, was
consulted. He noted that Councillors
also conducted outreach in their wards.
He questioned what other measures the EDAC thinks are necessary. Mr. Spragge replied that perhaps it’s not
that the City has to go so much further than it is now but it’s more the
process of what the City shares. He said
EDAC still liaises with a significant number of people that fall within
identified groups who feel there is no point in submitting an application to
the City because they believe it won’t work for them. He added there has been positive feedback
about the extra community consultation and advertising done in the most recent
recruitment, but he remarked it is very important to build on providing the
sense of real opportunity for ethnic groups, new arrivals and the GLBT
community. He was not sure how the City
should go about this but offered that EDAC would like to work with the City in
that regard.
Councillor Bloess
recalled Mr. Spragge’s earlier comment about the City neglecting a targeted
advertising opportunity in the Globe and Mail and questioned whether that was
with respect to City employment opportunities or recruitment for advisory
committees. Either way, he felt that the
City should be most focused on advertising to the local community. Mr. Spragge replied the same opportunity was
missed with respect to the Citizen.
Councillor Bloess replied that the Citizen is just a small portion of
the local advertisement market, noting that the City made a persistent effort
to advertise in numerous community papers.
He reiterated Vice-Chair Desroches sentiments that decreasing numbers of
volunteers are not necessarily due to lack of consultation but are due to
individuals inabilities to commit.
Speaking to
staff, Councillor Wilkinson expressed concern about the recommendation with
respect to costs for advertising employment notices; she asked for a comment on
what the impact would be. Steve
Kanellakos, Deputy City Manager, City Operations remarked that the staff
comment from Human Resources was that basically it would be a diversification
of the City’s existing budget. He said
the City is doing a lot right now, noting that it won the award from Hire
Immigrants Ottawa two weeks ago for excellence in diversity and hiring. He added that the City is working with CAWI,
has created an Equity Inclusion Lens to be used by staff, have conducted
surveys and so on. He stated that the
funding currently used for advertising would be diversified so that there would
be probably less for advertising in some of the main stream publications and
more in some of the outreach publications.
With respect to the latter he noted that staff is already making a
considerable effort but acquiesced they could possibly do more.
Councillor
Wilkinson inquired whether there would be a report back to Committee with
respect to the implementation status of this new policy. Mr. Kanellakos indicated that had not been
his intention, noting, however, there is an annual review of how the City is
doing in terms of employment equity, part of which involves a survey, and that
report would come to Committee.
The Councillor
asked whether that report would state the impact of the new policy. Mr. Kanellakos did not think so,
commenting that the advertising would be more a reflection of the results on
how the City is doing in terms of increasing the numbers for hirings, which
would be part of the report.
Councillor
El-Chantiry thought the report was a positive step in the right direction. He commended staff for having increased
advertising to community papers recently but recalled previous discussion that
there was also to be advertising in papers that use other languages, such as
Chinese, Arabic and etcetera. He noted
that suggestion did not appear in this report.
Mr. Kanellakos explained the City has hired a firm that specializes in
recruitment to diverse communities and will be receiving recommendations from
them on how to best access those communities.
The Councillor
commended both staff and the EDAC for their efforts to improve the process.
The Committee
then approved the report recommendation as presented.
The Equity and
Diversity Advisory Committee recommends that the Corporate Services and
Economic Development Committee recommend Council approve a policy to diversify
City of Ottawa advertising for notices of employment and recruitment of volunteers
for Advisory Committees and Boards to include local community publications that
attempt to target readers in the Designated Groups (women, aboriginal persons,
persons with disabilities, members of visible minority groups, and gay,
lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender [GLBT]) in the hopes of obtaining better
representation of the City residents in all competitions and recruitment
initiatives.
CARRIED