Employment Equity Tasks

Legislated Employment Equity Program

We have separated into short segments the tasks that employers subject to the Legislated Employment Equity Program are required to do in order to build and maintain a representative workforce and achieve employment equity in their workplace:

  • Ongoing task: Meet your communication, consultation, and recordkeeping requirements
  • Task 1: Collect your workforce data
    • Self-identification questionnaire template
  • Task 2: Create employee, promotion, and temporary files
    • Includes : How to prepare required salary information
    • Workforce data codes
  • Task 3: Analyze your workforce data
  • Task 4: Review your employment systems
    • Human resources policies and practices list template
  • Task 5: Create, implement, and sustain an employment equity plan
    • Employment equity plan template
  • Task 6: Report annually on or before June 1
  • Task 7: Review Forms 1 to 6
  • Task 8: Prepare your narrative report
    • Variance examples

Completing these tasks will ensure your organization complies with the Employment Equity Act and is prepared for a compliance audit, which may be done at any time by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Federal Contractors Program

To achieve employment equity, employers subject to the Federal Contractors Program (FCP) will need to complete most (if not all) of the requirements identified in Tasks 1-3 and 7 above. FCP-specific tasks are also explained in two segments:

  • Task 9: Prepare for a first and subsequent compliance assessment
  • Task 10: Complete your achievement report

Completing these tasks will ensure your organization fulfills the terms of its Agreement to Implement Employment Equity and is prepared for a compliance assessment, which is done by the Labour Program.

Many of these tasks are linked to templates or sample tools as well as specific sections of the Workplace Equity Information Management System user guide to help you complete your employment equity responsibilities.

Related Links:

Ongoing task: Meet your communication, consultation, and recordkeeping requirements

This Legislated Employment Equity Program task involves:

  • regularly communicating to your employees and their representatives about:
    • employment equity
    • your organization's employment equity activities
    • your organization's employment equity progress
  • regularly consulting and collaborating with your employees' representatives and/or bargaining agents
  • maintaining up-to-date records of your employment equity data and activities

On this page:

Why communication and consultation are important

Regularly communicating and consulting with your employees, management, employee representatives and bargaining agents will help them understand the importance of employment equity and become involved in your organization's employment equity activities. It will also reinforce the commitment and accountability of your organization and senior management to achieving employment equity.

Other advantages to these activities include:

  • ongoing communication demonstrates transparency and accountability
  • consultation and collaboration ensure the perspectives of employees and their representatives are taken into account when activities are carried out
  • consultation and collaboration also enable employee representatives and bargaining agents to:
    • respond to the progress of specific initiatives
    • contribute to new actions or emerging issues

What to communicate to your employees and their representatives

We recommend that the head of your organization, such as the president or chief executive officer, issue the first communication to:

  • demonstrate the importance of employment equity at the highest level
  • explain the purpose of employment equity and its benefits in the workplace
  • reiterate the organization's commitment to workplace equity and actions planned to achieve it, and
  • name and list the contact information of the senior official responsible for employment equity activities

Your organization should then communicate with employees and their representatives during other employment equity tasks as follows:

  • Workforce data collection
    • explain the purpose of employment equity
    • invite employees to participate in an employment equity committee
    • introduce and explain the self-identification questionnaire
    • provide follow-up information on the questionnaire
    • regularly remind employees that:
      • self-identification is confidential
      • they may update their self-identification information
      • information is kept confidential and separate from personnel files
    • share survey results
  • Workforce analysis
    • share analysis results with employees, management, employee representatives and bargaining agents
    • invite them to discuss issues related to the analysis
  • Employment systems review
    • express the commitment of senior managers and bargaining agents
    • explain the review purpose and how it benefits your organization and employees
    • describe its methodology, including how information will be collected and used
    • assure employees that all information collected will remain confidential
    • name persons involved in the process
    • invite others to participate and explain how they may do so
    • say when results are expected and how they will be used in the employment equity plan
    • assure employees that existing and new policies and practices will be continuously monitored and evaluated
    • announce the results of the employment systems review
  • Employment equity plan
    • consult employee representatives and bargaining agents on the proposed plan and incorporate input, where possible
    • develop and implement a communication strategy to promote and share your organization's employment equity plan
      • announce the plan to employees, managers, representative groups and bargaining agents
      • describe the employment equity activities and measures your organization is carrying out
      • share progress reports on your efforts, including updated activities
      • communicate special events or activities as they are planned and rolled out
    • consult employees about the implementation and monitoring of your plan
  • Annual reporting
    • share a copy of the report with employee representatives and bargaining agents

It's important to frequently communicate with employees and their representatives when your organization is starting its employment equity activities and at least once a year thereafter. Communication from senior management is especially effective.

When to consult and collaborate with employee representatives and bargaining agents

Consult employee representatives and bargaining agents about how best to implement employment equity in your organization. These representatives should then be consulted at various points in the employment equity process, and at least once a year thereafter.

Many organizations keep an active employment equity committee to ensure regular and informed consultations between management and employee representatives. Others build on existing labour management structures, such as health and safety committees, or create a new structure to focus on employment equity.

You should also encourage bargaining agents to participate in employment equity consultations or to designate someone to participate on their behalf. If collaboration with employee representatives and bargaining agents is not possible, employers must still fulfill their employment equity requirements.

What records to keep and for how long

It's important to keep electronic and/or hard-copy records of your organization's employment equity activities throughout the process so you can demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements during an audit. Records may include, for example, minutes or notes of meetings.

You are also required to keep the following records for at least 2 years after the end of an employment equity plan to which the records relate:

  • the self-identification questionnaire and related information given to employees
  • information used to analyze your workforce data
  • workforce analysis results report and the WEIMS-generated summary and detailed tables
  • summary report of your employment systems review activities and results
  • current employment equity plan and any previous version
  • employment equity plan implementation monitoring activities
  • information communicated to employees

In addition, you must keep an electronic and/or hard copy of your annual report and the data that you used to generate Forms 1 to 6 for 2 years after the year it was filed.

Lastly, you must keep the following records on each employee for at least 2 years after the employee no longer works for your organization:

  • designated group membership
  • occupational group, including National Occupational Classification code
  • salary, excluding bonus pay and overtime pay
  • period (such as number of weeks) over which the salary is paid
  • number of hours worked and paid
  • bonus pay
  • overtime pay
  • number of overtime hours worked and paid
  • salary increases
  • promotions

Task 1: Collect workforce data

This Legislated Employment Equity Program and Federal Contractors Program task involves:

  • developing a self-identification questionnaire to collect and maintain up-to-date information about your workforce
  • achieving high response rates to the questionnaire

On this page:

Key Tool:

Why collect workforce data

Collecting information from all of the employees in your workforce will help you:

  • determine the representation of the 4 designated group members across your organization, including by occupational group
  • set goals to reduce and eliminate under-representation
  • complete your other required employment equity tasks

What information to collect

You need to prepare and distribute (via email, website or manually hand out) a self-identification questionnaire to all of your employees so they can indicate whether they belong to one or more of the designated groups. The questionnaire is also a useful way to find out if some of these employees want to be involved in your organization's employment equity activities.

For LEEP employers, employees include all persons who are employed on a permanent full-time and permanent part-time, as well as persons employed on a temporary basis for 12 weeks or more during a calendar year. This includes employees on any form of long-term leave.

For FCP employers, employees include all persons who are employed on a permanent full-time and permanent part-time basis. This includes employees on any form of long-term leave.

We have prepared a self-identification questionnaire template to help you with this task.

Federal Contractors Program Employers

When you are brought into the program, your assigned Workplace Equity Program Officer will ask to review your questionnaire before it is sent to employees to ensure that it meets program requirements.

In addition to the representation data collected through the questionnaire, you need employee hiring, promotion, and termination data to create and update employee and/or promotion files for your compliance assessments.

Legislated Employment Equity Program Employers

In addition to the representation data collected through the questionnaire, you must also collect from your employment records:

Required elements of a self-identification questionnaire

Your organization's self-identification questionnaire must include these 7 elements:

  • a privacy statement so employees know that responses are strictly confidential and will only be used by authorized persons to complete Employment Equity Act obligations
  • a means of identifying the employee who completed the questionnaire
  • a statement to tell employees that answering the questions is voluntary (you can make it mandatory for employees to return incomplete or unanswered questionnaires)
  • a statement to inform employees that they can change their answers at any time
  • accurate definitions of designated groups as set out in the Employment Equity Act
  • a statement to tell employees that they may self-identify as a member of more than 1 of the 4 designated groups
  • a statement to tell employees that they can get the survey in an alternative format or get assistance to complete the survey

Tips to achieve a high response rate to the questionnaire

Open and consistent communication with employees and their representative groups about your organization's employment equity plan is an excellent way to demonstrate your commitment to a fair and inclusive workplace-and to motivate employees to respond to the self-identification questionnaire. Communication, consultation and collaboration with employees and representative groups are also employment equity requirements for Legislated Employment Equity Program employers. This includes:

  • introducing and explaining the purpose of the self-identification questionnaire
  • sharing follow-up information on the questionnaire

We recommend assigning personnel to answer any employee questions about the questionnaire and to help them complete it, if assistance is requested. It is also important to set a deadline to receive completed questionnaires.

Aim for a 100% response and return rate to your questionnaire.

An 80% or higher response and return rate to the questionnaire is required for you to have a true picture of the representation of designated group members in your organization. If you have not achieved that rate, you must:

  • follow-up with employees who did not return the questionnaire or fully complete it, or
  • remind employees about the importance of collecting this information and that it is mandatory to return the questionnaire

You must record how many of the questionnaires were:

  • sent to employees
  • returned blank
  • returned incomplete
  • fully completed

Federal Contractors Program employers report this information in their first compliance assessment, while Legislated Employment Equity Program employers report it during an audit.

How to maintain up-to-date workforce data

Your self-identification questionnaire should be given to all new employees hired after the date that it was sent out across the organization. It should also be available to employees who ask to change the information that they initially gave you or who ask to see their questionnaire.

You also need to take into account completed questionnaires when there are changes in an employee's status, such as promotions, salaries and terminations. And, remember to keep an employee's questionnaire for at least 2 years after they no longer work for you.

Related links:

Self-identification questionnaire template

The following template has been developed to help employers survey their employees to determine the representation of the 4 designated groups across their organization. It is intended only as a template, and employers are encouraged to adjust it according to their employment equity plan objectives in their employment equity plan and organizational policies and practices. Elements required by the Employment Equity Act or the Federal Contractors Program must be retained. These elements are identified below.

The Employment Equity Act (the Act) designates 4 groups: women, Indigenous peoplesFootnote 1, persons with disabilities, and members of visible minorities. For compliance purposes, you are required to use the designated group definitions as they are written in the Act. Organizations can include additional information in their workforce survey, such as examples of designated group characteristics and supporting descriptive text.

Provincial equity and diversity programs may also require that an organization collect data on its workforce. Where separate group names and definitions are used by these programs, the employer must clearly indicate each name, definition and the federal or provincial program to which it is associated. Separate sections may be used on the questionnaire to ensure clarity between all programs.

This document can be saved in alternate formats for use within your organization as required.

In this template you will find the following sections:

IMPORTANT NOTICE: For employers subject to the FCP, prior to surveying your workforce, you must share a copy of the questionnaire with the Labour Program to ensure it meets all mandatory requirements.

Instructions on completing the questionnaire

As part of our employment equity program, we are collecting information about our workforce through this questionnaire. Identifying as a member of a designated group (women, Indigenous peoplesFootnote 2, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities) will help create an accurate picture of our workforce.

Our workplace is a safe environment in which employees can self-identify. As an employee, you can ask for the accommodation you need in order to fulfil your work-related duties to the best of your ability.

The responses that you provide on this form will be retained for statistical purposes only. Your confidentiality is protected and will not be used for unauthorized purposes, as indicated in the Privacy Notice at the end of this questionnaire.

Important information

  • Completion of sections B through E is voluntary.
  • Even if you choose not to fill out any additional information, it is mandatory to
    • Provide your name and employee number (Section A)
    • sign and date the document (Section F), and
    • return the questionnaire to human resources.
  • We encourage you to review, update and correct information about yourself at any time.
  • Note that the questionnaire is available in Braille, large print or audio format upon request.

Workforce Survey

  1. Employee information (Mandatory)

    Name: __________________________________________

    Employee number: ______________________________

    Note: The fields above are for guidance purposes only. Organizations can include additional fields as required (e.g., position title, section/division, employment status). For employment equity purposes, organizations can use any combination of identifiers to collect the employment equity data from employees.

  2. Data for employment equity purposes (Voluntary)

    After reading the descriptions in the sections below, answer "Yes" if you identify as belonging to any of the designated groups. Please note that you may self-identify as belonging to more than one group.

    Gender (optional)

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

    For employment equity purposes, do you identify as a woman?

    Yes No

    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 commonly used than 'Aboriginal peoples' and 'Indians.'

    For employment equity purposes, do you identify as an Aboriginal person?

    Yes No

    Members of visible minorities

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

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

    Examples of 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 origin (e.g., with one parent that is a member of a visible minority group)

    For employment equity purposes, do you identify as a member of a visible minority group?

    Yes No

    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

    1. consider themselves to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of that impairment, or
    2. 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

    For employment equity purposes, do you identify as a person with a disability?

    Yes No

  3. Additional Data for Accommodation Purposes (Optional)

    Please specify how we can help you more fully participate in the workplace. Note that if we implement these accommodation measures, they will not have a negative impact on your hiring, training, promotion and retention in our organization.

  4. Voluntary Employee Participation (Optional)
    1. Please indicate below if you wish to have your employment equity self-identification information used for employment equity initiatives.

      Yes tt No

    2. As part of our ongoing employment equity work, we may ask designated group members to participate in a specific activity, such as a committee or focus group. Please check "Yes" below if you agree to be contacted to participate in this kind of activity.

      Yes No

  5. Employee Comments (Optional)

    If you have any comments/feedback on our employment equity program, please provide them in the space below or contact our employment equity representative by phone [number] or email [address]. All comments will be kept confidential.

  6. Employee Signature (Mandatory)

    Signature: ____________________________________ Date: _____________________

Thank you for your participation!

Please return by [deadline date] to: [contact information]

Values statement (Optional)

This section provides an opportunity to emphasize the value your organization places on equality in the workplace to your employees. It provides an opportunity to reinforce your commitment to implementing employment equity. It is also a chance to encourage your employees to voluntarily self-identify as belonging to one or more of the designated groups.

Sample statement:

[Organization] promotes employment equity in the workplace to ensure that women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities are fully represented at all levels of our organization. Our employment equity program also ensures that all employees are treated fairly and that our hiring and promotion practices are based on qualifications and ability.

Privacy Notice

The information you provide in this self-identification questionnaire is collected under the authority of sections 18 and 42 of the Employment Equity Act (the Act) to enable our organization to collect workforce data, comply with employment equity legislation and implement employment equity in the workplace.

While participation in the self-identification survey is voluntary, refusal to provide personal information will result in the incomplete or inaccurate capture of our workforce data.

The information you provide 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 legislation under the Legislated Employment Equity Program or Federal Contractors Program. Subject to the Act, personal information collected in the Legislated Employment Equity Program annual reports 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 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 the Employment Equity Act, the Department of Employment and Social Development Act, and the Privacy Act. You have the right to the protection of, and access to, your personal information, which is described in Personal Information Bank ESDC PPU 739 - Workplace Equity. Read Information about Programs and Information Holdings for instructions on how to access this information or visit your Service Canada Office.

You have the right to file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada regarding the institution's handling of your personal information.

Task 2: Create employee, promotion, and temporary employee files

This Legislated Employment Equity Program task involves:

This Federal Contractors Program task involves:

  • Creating your employee file
  • Creating your promotion file for a subsequent compliance assessment
  • Uploading employee and promotion .txt files into WEIMS to generate your workforce analysis and Forms 1 to 6

On this page:

Key Tools:

Who needs to prepare one or more of these files

Legislated Employment Equity Program employers

You must submit numerical (quantitative) information about your workforce, including representation of all 4 designated groups. This information must be captured in 3 tab-delimited text files named and saved as follows:

  • employee.txt (for all employees)
  • promo.txt (for all promotions)
  • term.txt (for all temporary and casual employees)

These files may then be uploaded into WEIMS to generate your workforce analysis report, as well as Forms 1 to 6 for your annual report.

Federal Contractors Program employers

In preparation for your first compliance assessment, you must capture numerical (quantitative) information about your workforce, including representation of all 4 designated groups, into a tab-delimited text file named and saved as:

  • employee.txt (for all permanent full-time and permanent part-time employees)
  • promo.txt (for all promotions)

This file may then be uploaded into WEIMS to generate your workforce analysis and Form 1.

When you prepare for a subsequent compliance assessment, you must also create and upload to WEIMS a promo.txt file to report on how many permanent full- and part-time employees were promoted since your last compliance assessment (if there were promotions). This file must be uploaded with your employee.txt file to generate a complete workforce analysis report and Forms 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6.

How to prepare your employee file

Use your cursor to scroll over each column to view an enlarged image of the contents and to get the directions about what to fill in. The workforce data codes will help you fill in the columns B-F.

Note that for employees whose status in Column F (Status) is ‘01’ (permanent full time) or ‘02’ (permanent part time) and whose employment is terminated during the reporting year, do not enter data in the following columns for those employees (i.e. leave the cells blank).

  • Column I (Salary Paid)
  • Column L (# Hours)
  • Column M (# Weeks)
  • Column N (Special Salary Hourly pay)
  • Column O (Bonus Pay)
  • Column P (Overtime Pay)
  • Column Q (# Overtime Hours)


FCP employers do not include columns J to Q.

Maximum 20 characters: letters, numbers or a combination of both.

Each employee number must be different.

Insert the 2-digit CMA code and the 2-digit Province code (including zero, if applicable).

Insert the 2-digit CMA code and the 2-digit Province code (including zero, if applicable).

Insert the 4-digit NOC code and the 4-digit NAICS code (including zero, if applicable).

Insert the 4-digit NOC code and the 4-digit NAICS code (including zero, if applicable).

Insert the 2-digit Employee Status code. FCP employers do not use codes 03 or 05.

For employee status 04: Other, leave columns I and L-Q blank and insert 'N' in columns J and K.

Insert a comment or leave this column blank.

Insert 'M' or 'F'.

Insert salary using numbers only and up to 2 decimal points.

The salary must correspond with data inserted in columns L and M.

Annual salary is required in some scenarios.

Salary is not required for FCP employers.

Insert 'Y' or 'N'.

'Y' is for employees who are paid based on commission only.

LEEP employers only.

Insert 'Y' or 'N'.

'Y' is only for situations (other than commission) when the number of hours is unknown.

LEEP employers only.

Insert numbers only and up to 2 decimal points for partial hours.

The # hours must correspond with data inserted in column I.

Leave blank if employee is paid special salary ('Y' in column J or K) or is '04: Other' in column F.

LEEP employers only.

Insert numbers between 2 and 53.

The # weeks must correspond with data inserted in column I.

Leave blank if '04: Other' in column F.

LEEP employers only.

Only used if 'Y' in column K.

Insert numbers only and up to 2 decimal points for partial hours.

Leave blank if 'N' in column K or '04: Other' in column F.

LEEP employers only.

Insert numbers only and up to 2 decimal points.

Leave blank if employee was not paid a bonus, is paid special commission salary ('Y' in column J) or is '04: Other' in column F.

LEEP employers only.

Insert numbers only and up to 2 decimal points.

Overtime pay must correspond with data inserted in column Q.

Leave blank if employee was not paid for overtime hours, is paid special commission salary ('Y' in column J) or is '04: Other' in column F.

LEEP employers only.

Insert numbers only and up to 2 decimal points for partial hours.

Overtime hours must correspond with data inserted in column P.

Leave blank if employee is paid special salary ('Y' in column J or K) or is '04: Other' in column F.

LEEP employers only.

Insert 'Y' or 'N'.

Employers reporting for the first time can insert 'N' if they have yet to collect this data.

Insert 'Y' or 'N'.

Employers reporting for the first time can insert 'N' if they have yet to collect this data

Insert 'Y' or 'N'.

Employers reporting for the first time can insert 'N' if they have yet to collect this data.

Insert 10 characters as YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY/MM/DD.

Leave blank if employee is '03: Temporary' or '05: Casual' in column F.

Insert 10 characters as YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY/MM/DD.

Leave blank if employee is '03: Temporary' or '05: Casual' in column F.

N.B.: If you have entered titles in the first row for each column, you are not required to delete the row prior to uploading the file into WEIMS. However, when titles are included in the first row of the submission, an error message will be displayed in the report log when the data is analyzed in WEIMS. This error message will not prevent your submission from being uploaded and analyzed.

When you are finished inputting data, name your file employee and save it as a .txt file (Tab delimited text)

Reporting calculations prepared by the Workplace Equity Information Management System (WEIMS)

Legislated Employment Equity Program employers

When your employment equity data is uploaded, WEIMS will generate your employment equity forms.

You will have the opportunity to view the results of the WEIMS calculations and make any necessary corrections to the data file before submitting your annual report.

Beginning with 2021 calendar year data, you must report on the pay gaps that may exist in your organization between:

  • women and men
  • Aboriginal peoples and non-Aboriginal peoples
    • Aboriginal men and non-Aboriginal men
    • Aboriginal women and all men
    • Aboriginal women and Aboriginal men
    • Aboriginal women and non-Aboriginal women
  • persons with disabilities and persons without disabilities
    • men with disabilities and men without disabilities
    • women with disabilities and all men
    • women with disabilities and men with disabilities
    • women with disabilities and women without disabilities
  • members of visible minorities and non-visible minority members
    • visible minority men and non-visible minority men
    • visible minority women and all men
    • visible minority women and visible minority men
    • visible minority women and non-visible minority women

You will also report on the percentage receiving bonus pay and the percentage receiving overtime pay for men and the 4 designated groups, including sub-groups by gender. The pay gaps to report are the:

  • hourly pay gaps
  • bonus pay gaps, and
  • overtime pay gaps

They must also be reported by:

The employee.txt file that you need to upload into WEIMS has additional columns for you to input the required salary information. Use your cursor to scroll over columns I-Q to get the directions about what to fill in.

Employee.txt File Instructions

Once your employee.txt file has been uploaded into WEIMS, the system will automatically calculate the pay gap information that you need to report.

How to prepare your employee promotion file

Insert the employee number, the promotion number, and the promotion date in each row. When an employee has more than one promotion, each must be reported in a separate row and they must be in chronological order (as shown below). When you are finished inputting data, name your file promo and save it as a .txt file (Tab delimited text)

N.B.: If you have entered titles in the first row for each column, you are not required to delete the row prior to uploading the file into WEIMS. However, when titles are included in the first row of the submission, an error message will be displayed in the report log when the data is analyzed in WEIMS. This error message will not prevent your submission from being uploaded and analyzed.

Promo.txt file example
Employee # Promotion # Promotion Date
111 1 2021-03-03
111 2 2021-07-25
222 1 2021-04-01

How to prepare your temporary employee file (LEEP employers only)

Insert the employee number, term number, start date and end date of the work term, and the termination date in each row (as shown in the example below). If an employee worked for more than one term, information should be shown in separate rows and in chronological order (as shown for employee 555 in the example below). You only need to enter the termination date when it came before the end of the contract term.

When you are finished inputting data, name your file term and save it as a .txt file (Tab delimited text)

N.B.: If you have entered titles in the first row for each column, you are not required to delete the row prior to uploading the file into WEIMS. However, when titles are included in the first row of the submission, an error message will be displayed in the report log when the data is analyzed in WEIMS. This error message will not prevent your submission from being uploaded and analyzed.

Term.txt file example
Employee # Term # Start Date End Date Termination Date
333 1 2021-03-03 2021-12-03 2021-05-03
444 1 2021-07-25 2021-10-25 -
555 1 2021-04-01 2021-06-30 -
555 2 2021-07-14 2021-11-30 -

How to save files as Text Tab Delimited (.txt) files

There are several 'Save as' .txt options, so ensure you save your files as 'Text (Tab delimited)' as shown below.

Related Links:

Workforce data codes

Employers subject to the Legislated Employment Equity Program (LEEP) and the Federal Contractors Program must collect specific information on each of their employees to be able to analyze their workforce. This information must use codes that tell us the:

The WEIMS recognizes these codes and uses them to generate a workforce analysis report for organizations and Forms 1 to 6. This workforce analysis report shows any under-representation of the 4 designated groups by occupation based on their availability in the broader Canadian workforce (or one of its segments). The system uses default values for occupational groups and geographical areas to calculate this report.

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Province/Territory and Census Metropolitan Area codes

Remember to use the code for the employee's position, not where the employee resides or where they may be working remotely.

Province/Territory and Census Metropolitan Area codes
Province/Territory Province/Territory Code CMA Code Census Metropolitan Area
Ontario 10 06 Toronto
57 Kingston
58 Ottawa-Gatineau
59 Oshawa
60 Peterborough
61 Hamilton
62 St. Catharines-Niagara
63 Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo
64 London
65 Windsor
66 Greater Sudbury
67 Thunder Bay
68 Brantford
69 Guelph
71 Barrie
75 Belleville
93 Elsewhere in Ontario
Quebec 11 04 Montréal
53 Saguenay
54 Québec
55 Sherbrooke
56 Trois-Riviéres
58 Ottawa-Gatineau
78 Drummondville
95 Elsewhere in Quebec
Nova Scotia 12 03 Halifax
89 Elsewhere in Nova Scotia
New Brunswick 13 51 Moncton
52 Saint John
77 Fredericton
88 Elsewhere in New Brunswick
Manitoba 14 08 Winnipeg
87 Elsewhere in Manitoba
British Columbia 15 07 Vancouver
72 Abbotsford
73 Kelowna
74 Victoria
80 Kamloops
81 Chilliwack
82 Nanaimo
86 Elsewhere in British Columbia
Saskatchewan 17 05 Regina
70 Saskatoon
96 Elsewhere in Saskatchewan
Alberta 18 01 Calgary
02 Edmonton
76 Lethbridge
79 Red Deer
85 Elsewhere in Alberta
Newfoundland and Labrador 19 50 St. John's
91 Elsewhere in Newfoundland and Labrador
Prince Edward Island 16 94 -
Yukon 20 97 -
Northwest Territories 21 90 -
Nunavut 22 92 -
Outside of Canada 98 98 Outside of Canada
Canada 99 99 Canada

Employee status codes

Employee status code
Code Status Definition
01 Permanent Full Time A person who is employed for an indeterminate period to regularly work the standard number of hours set by the employer.
02 Permanent Part Time A person who is employed for an indeterminate period to regularly work fewer than the standard number of hours set by the employer.
03 Temporary A person who is employed on a temporary basis for any number of hours during a fixed period or periods totaling 12 weeks or more during a calendar year. (LEEP employers only)
04 Other A person who is on unpaid leave but who otherwise fulfils the definitions of a permanent full-time, permanent part-time or temporary employee and maintains the right to return to work.
05 Casual A person who is employed on a contract with designated start and end dates and who works fewer than 12 weeks during the calendar year. (LEEP employers only)

Workforce analysis default values

Workforce analysis default values
Employment Equity Occupational Group (EEOG) Level of Comparison
Occupational Geographical
01 Senior managers EEOG National
02 Middle and other managers
03 Professionals NOC National
04 Semi-professionals and technicians Province/Territory
05 Supervisors EEOG CMA
06 Supervisors: crafts and trades NOC Province/Territory
07 Administrative and senior clerical personnel EEOG CMA
08 Skilled sales and service personnel NOC Province/Territory
09 Skilled crafts and trades workers
10 Clerical personnel EEOG CMA
11 Intermediate sales and service personnel
12 Semi-skilled manual workers
13 Other sales and service personnel
14 Other manual workers

Related links:

Task 3: Analyze your workforce data

This employment equity task involves:

  • examining the workforce data you collected through the self-identification questionnaire to find out if:
    • the representation of the 4 designated groups in your organization is equal to their availability in the Canadian workforce (or one of its segments)
    • designated group members are concentrated in specific occupational groups
  • identifying any gaps in representation for each of the designated groups by occupation, including:
    • areas of significant under-representation
  • examining all hires, promotions and terminations
  • writing a report detailing the results of your workforce analysis

Some parts of this task are only required of Legislated Employment Equity Program employers.

On this page:

How to analyze workforce data and identify representation gaps

The purpose of your workforce analysis is to see how each of the 4 designated groups are represented within your organization, by occupational group and/or by geographic area, compared to their availability in the Canadian workforce (or one of its segments). This information will help you set quantitative short- and long-term goals to close any representation gaps in your:

Once you have uploaded your employee.txt file into the Workplace Equity Information Management System (WEIMS), you can download your workforce analysis report. It will show you in red where you have gaps in designated group representation for each occupational group. WEIMS calculates this report using default values for the occupational group, census metropolitan area, province/territory, or national location of recruitment based on the availability of the designated groups in the Canadian workforce.

The illustration below shows an example of a workforce analysis report generated by WEIMS which shows the representation of women within an organization. In this example, the employer has 4 financial managers and 1 is a woman, so the "internal" representation of women in this National Occupational Classification (NOC) code occupation by percentage is 25%. Financial managers are captured in the 'Middle & Other Managers' Employment Equity Occupational Group (EEOG), which shows the availability of women in the broader workforce is 39.4%, so the "external" representation (or availability) is higher than the "internal" representation. This means there is a representation gap of women in the financial manager occupation, which is expressed numerically in column I.

Using the same example, the employer has 14 employees in the 'Middle & Other Managers' EEOG: financial managers, human resources managers, advertising, marketing and public relations managers, and computer and information systems managers. When analyzing the "internal" representation of women in this EEOG, compared to the "external" representation in this EEOG across the Canadian workforce, there is no representation gap.

Workforce analysis template sample

Note that the WEIMS will automatically round up or down decimal points in the "external" representation (column H) and representation gap (column I).

The detailed tables of your workforce analysis report identify the:

  • representation gap or (over)achievement for each designated group in each EEOG and/or NOC group, and
  • the overall representation gap or (over)achievement in your organization's workforce.

They also identify any areas of significant under-representation that will inform your employment systems review. Significant gaps in representation are numerically captured as:

  • -3 or a higher negative value in an EEOG (e.g. -4, -5, etc.)
  • -3 or a lower negative value (e.g. -2, -1) in more than 2 EEOGs for a designated group
  • -3 or a lower negative value (e.g. -2, -1) in the same EEOG for all 4 designated groups

How to do an advanced workforce analysis

Legislated Employment Equity Program employers

If you need to change the default values to make your workforce analysis report more accurate, this change must be made in WEIMS before you generate your report. You must also record these changes and make the information available during an audit.

Federal Contractors Program employers

If you need to change the default values to make your workforce analysis report more accurate, this change must be explained in the contextual box in this section of the WEIMS and then approved by the Labour Program.

When to do a clustering analysis

Legislated Employment Equity Program employers

If you find more than 20 designated group members in an EEOG or a lower salary quartile compared to their non-designated colleagues, you need to do a clustering analysis. For example, if your organization has 20 women and 5 men in middle management positions, but the majority of women are in salary quarter 1 or 2 while the men are in salary quarter 3 or 4.

WEIMS has a clustering analysis template (shown below) so you can look more closely at your overall workforce and each designated and non-designated group by EEOG at all four salary quarters. This template should be filled out separately for:

  • permanent full-time employees
  • permanent part-time employees
  • temporary employees
  • all employees

To do a clustering analysis, fill in the top and bottom of the salary range for each occupational group (column C), as well as the number of employees in each yellow column shown in the template sample below. You can use the data generated by WEIMS in Form 2 parts A to C to make this task easier. WEIMS will automatically calculate the salary ranges. Refer to the WEIMS user guide detailed steps on how to use the system to analyze clustered workforce data.

Clustering analysis template sample

How to analyze hires, promotions and terminations: Flow data analysis

In the last part of your workforce analysis, you need to look at the hires, promotions and terminations in your organization by occupational group to compare the

  • percentage of hires of designated group members with external availability
  • percentage of promotions of designated group members with internal representation
  • percentage of terminations of designated group members with internal representation

Your objective is to find any areas where designated group employees are not being hired or promoted at the same rates as their non-designated colleagues, as well as areas where there are high termination rates among designated group employees.

WEIMS has a flow data analysis tool for Legislated Employment Equity Employers. There are also flow data analysis tables within the achievement report template for Federal Contractors Program (FCP) employers who are preparing for a subsequent compliance assessment. The flow data analysis tables, combined with Tab 8 of the achievement report, function as a goal-setting tool.

An example of this table is shown below. You only need to fill in the yellow columns, but a separate table must be created for hires, promotions and terminations of each designated group.

FCP achievement report flow data analysis table example

How to write a workforce analysis results report

Employers subject to the Legislated Employment Equity Program must prepare a report on the results of their workforce analysis once it is completed. This report should include a:

  • brief profile of your organization
  • description of the methodology you used to do the workforce analysis, including an explanation of why you changed the default values in WEIMS for occupational group or geographical recruitment location (if applicable)
  • workforce analysis summary report and detailed tables identifying all representation gaps by EEOG and designated group
  • written description of the representation gaps identified in the report tables
  • list of significant gaps, which will be the focus of your employment systems review
  • description of the methodology and results of clustering and/or flow data analyses (if done)
  • conclusion

The report will inform your employment systems review and the development of your employment equity plan. It should be properly stored so it is available for any compliance audit that may be done by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Task 4: Review your employment systems

This Legislated Employment Equity Program task involves:

  • finding out why your organization has significant gaps in the representation of designated group members
  • reviewing your employment systems, policies and practices to identify barriers to inclusion and positive actions that lead to employment equity and reduce pay gaps
  • making recommendations to remove barriers and use more positive actions

On this page:

Key Tools:

Why review your employment systems

The purpose of an employment systems review is to help you identify the reason(s) why your workforce analysis uncovered significant under-representation of 1 or more of the 4 designated groups in your organization. It may also help you identify policies and practices that are causing pay gaps. The results of this review will form the basis of your organization's employment equity plan.

Employment systems include all of your organization's formal and informal human resource policies and practices. Reviewing these systems will help you identify any barriers to the inclusion of the designated groups. You may also find some positive actions that have improved the representation of designated group members in certain occupational groups or areas of your organization.

Who is involved in the review

Your review must be led by a human resource official with extensive knowledge of your employment systems, but it must involve more than 1 person. For example, it could be supported by:

  • an employment equity committee or subcommittee
  • an employment systems review task force
  • a private consultant, or
  • another arrangement

Remember that communication, consultation and collaboration with employees and their representatives or bargaining agents are employment equity requirements. Employees and managers in different parts of your organization may have in-depth knowledge of formal and informal human resource policies and practices, which could benefit your review. These individuals should also have ample opportunity to be involved in the process.

How to review your employment systems: Five Steps

  1. Start by looking at the workforce analysis results report that you prepared, as well as your clustering and/or flow data analysis (if applicable). This report will include a list of the significant gaps on which to focus your employment systems review. You can also fill in the numerical workforce analysis results in the employment equity plan table (shown below) for each of the 4 designated groups to help you with this task and when you are setting your goals.

  2. List all of your organization's formal human resource policies and practices related to:
    • recruitment, selection and hiring
    • training and development
    • promotion
    • retention and termination
    • compensation
    • attitudes and organizational culture
    • accommodations

    The human resources policies and practices list template will help you get started.

  3. List all of your organization's informal human resource policies and actual practices. These are not always written down, so you must talk with or consult other employees or managers across your organization to complete your list. For example, you could:
    • seek input from others through a survey or interviews, including designated group members
    • review human resource hiring and termination records to see if there are patterns, such as using an external employment agency when recruiting new employees
    • hold a brainstorming session with human resources experts, managers and employee representatives

    Getting additional input on informal human resource practices can also help you understand:

    • any discrimination perceived by employees
    • positive examples of inclusion experienced by employees
    • how attitudes and your organization's culture benefit and/or harm employment equity
    • the order of priority to remove barriers preventing employment equity
    • potential ways to prevent and remove barriers preventing employment equity
  4. Once your list of formal and informal human resource policies and practices is complete, you must determine which may create barriers to members of designated groups and prevent your organization from achieving representation in each occupational groups. To do so, you must assess each policy and practice in terms of the answers to the following questions:
    • impact: does it negatively impact any designated group compared to its impact on employees who are not members of that group?
    • legality: does it follow human rights and employment laws?
    • consistency: is it applied consistently with all personnel?
    • validity: is it necessary for the safe and efficient operation of your business?
    • accommodative nature: is accommodation possible to reduce or remove the negative impact?
  5. You can use the employment equity plan table (shown below) to record the results of this assessment. We recommend that you list and explain the 'barrier status' of policies and practices. For example, 'x policy' is a barrier because it is not legal and it has a negative impact on the promotion of women, whereas 'y policy' is not a barrier because it is legal, consistent, valid and cannot be accommodated even though it negatively impacts the hiring of Indigenous peoples. You should also list policies and practices requiring further long-term assessment to determine their impact. There is space for you to list policies and practices that have helped to increase representation, if you wish to include them.

How to examine your employment systems to address pay gaps

When you upload your workforce data .txt files in the Workplace Equity Information Management System, any pay gaps in your organization will be automatically calculated by the system and shown in Form 2 parts D to G.

If your organization has pay gaps, the review of your employment systems should also assess your employment policies and practices to identify any barrier that may cause these gaps. You can include results of this assessment in your non-numerical employment equity plan table.

How to make recommendations to remove barriers

Once you have recorded all of the barriers, you must recommend one or more ways to remove them. Your goal is to change or remove the policies and practices that are negatively impacting 1 or more designated groups and are also either:

  • found to be illegal or invalid
  • not applied consistently
  • are invalid, or
  • can be accommodated to reduce or remove its negative impact

If you have any pay gaps, you should also recommend one or more ways to remove barriers that are causing them. For example, you could do pay gap calculations using the tools in WEIMS before approving future salary increases and bonus pay to see if these proposed activities will increase or decrease your organization's current pay gaps

You can include these recommendations in your non-numerical employment equity plan table.

How to develop a process to review new policies and practices

To prevent future employment barriers, you must develop a process to review any new (and relevant) employment systems, policies and practices in your organization before they are adopted. This can be done by:

  • human resources officials with the help of employees from designated groups , or
  • the employment equity committee

How to write a summary report of your employment systems review

You must prepare and keep a record of a summary report describing all of the activities carried out during your employment systems review. The report should include the following parts:

  • overview of the review, including:
    • the identified representation gaps
    • a list of previously completed employment systems reviews and how they are reflected in this report
    • any challenges your organization encountered when completing this review
    • the status of recommended measures to remove barriers
  • description of resources and processes (methodology) used to do the review, including:
    • information on individuals who managed and conducted the review
    • a list of those who participated in consultations
    • the steps taken to identify and assess the systems
    • the methods used to collect the required information
    • a list of all employment systems, policies and practices reviewed
  • completed employment systems review sections in the employment equity plan table
  • process for reviewing new policies and practices
  • conclusion summarizing:
    • your overall findings
    • measures planned to remove identified barriers and to ensure new policies and practices do not introduce new barriers

The report must be properly recorded and stored so it is available for any compliance audit that may be done by the Canadian Human Rights Commission .

You should also communicate the results of your employment systems review to employees, management, employee representatives and bargaining agents.

Human resources policies and practices list template

The review of your employment systems begins by listing all of your organization's formal and informal human resources policies and practices. This list should be verified by all employees responsible for delivering human resources services or products.

The following template has been created to help you get started with your own list.

General Human Resource Policies

  • human resource manuals
  • written/unwritten policies and practices
  • contract forms
  • web site material
  • advertising
  • promotional materials
  • public relations material
  • internal communication tools
  • collective agreements
  • union grievances procedures
  • human rights complaints procedures
  • other relevant documents

Training and Development

  • access to transfer funds
  • acting positions
  • career development program
  • education/training program
  • job rotation
  • lateral transfers
  • mentorship program
  • new skill levels/jobs
  • tuition reimbursement
  • training materials/programs
  • career development initiatives

Recruitment, Selection and Hiring

  • application forms
  • recruitment ads (printed and on-line)
  • agency job referrals
  • co-op placements
  • outreach with agencies
  • job descriptions
  • sponsor trades school training
  • staffing policies
  • targeted recruitment for designated groups
  • word-of-mouth referrals
  • orientation packages
  • hiring of interns
  • hiring of student interns
  • hiring of temporary workers
  • internal recruitment and seniority rights
  • managerial accountability
  • mergers and acquisitions
  • walk-in recruiting
  • work experience

Promotion

  • accelerated/modified career bridging
  • career development assignments
  • dissemination of new job opportunities
  • promotion policies and practices
  • seniority and union restrictions
  • succession planning

Accommodation

  • accessibility
  • accommodation policies
  • bereavement leave
  • child care services
  • compassionate care leave
  • court or jury duty leave
  • family-related leave
  • flexible work arrangements
  • medical leave
  • modified facilities
  • modified job functions
  • modified worksite
  • modified workstation
  • maternity/paternity/parental leave
  • personal leave
  • religious observance
  • remote work
  • substance addiction
  • technical aids
  • telework
  • unpaid leave/sabbaticals

Retention and Termination

  • consultation with employee representatives
  • disciplinary measures and appeal processes
  • dress code
  • employee assistance program
  • exit interview documents
  • harassment policies
  • health and safety
  • job sharing
  • retention of temporary workers
  • shiftwork
  • last hired first fired practice
  • performance evaluation
  • termination
  • violence prevention
  • wellness
  • work sharing
  • work-life balance

Compensation

  • allowances
  • benefits
  • bonuses (monetary and non-monetary)
  • commission pay
  • compensation for extra-duty services
  • hours of work (standard, overtime and maximum)
  • paid leave (other than vacation)
  • payment in kind
  • reimbursements for employment expenses
  • retroactive payments
  • salary progression
  • salary protection
  • securities
  • shift premium
  • starting salaries
  • supplementary payments
  • vacation and general holidays

Note that policies and practices in one list may be relevant to other employment system areas. For example,accommodation and compensation policies and practices may also impact rates of retention and termination.

Task 5: Create, implement, and sustain an employment equity plan

This Legislated Employment Equity Program task involves:

  • preparing, implementing, monitoring, and reviewing your employment equity plan using:
    • short- and long-term goals to close representation gaps
    • measures to remove employment barriers
    • positive human resource policies and practices
    • positive measures to accommodate the 4 designated groups
    • special measures targeting members of designated groups
  • establishing an effective accountability mechanism, including monitoring and evaluation
  • defining the roles and responsibilities of key employment equity personnel
  • regularly assessing progress and making revisions, if necessary, to ensure progress

On this page:

Key Tool:

Why an employment equity plan is important

An employment equity plan is a structured approach to remove barriers preventing designated groups from being well represented in your workplace-and to bring in measures to correct under-representation. It's also an employment equity requirement for employers that are subject to the Legislated Employment Equity Program.

Your plan must include:

  • short-term hiring and promotion goals to eliminate under-representation
  • long-term goals to achieve full representation
  • measures to remove the barriers identified in your employment systems review
  • policies, practices, and measures to ensure all employees, including designated group members, can work in a positive and equitable workplace
  • special measures to increase the representation of under-represented designated groups
  • clear time frames and accountability measures, and
  • a system for monitoring and revising the plan over time

How to develop your employment equity plan: Setting goals

At the start of your employment systems review, you filled in the results of your workforce analysis into the employment equity plan table or recorded these results in another document. These results show quantitatively (numerically), in red and by occupation, where 1 or more of the 4 designated groups are under-represented in your organization. Use this information to set your goals to:

  • reduce or eliminate under-representation over the short term through hiring and promotion activities targeting qualified persons in designated groups
  • achieve or maintain full representation over the long-term

The goal-setting report in the Workplace Equity Information Management System will help you with this process. The goals can then be recorded in your employment equity plan table.

How to develop your employment equity plan: Adopt measures and accommodations

The summary report of your employment systems review lists the recommended measures to remove identified barriers and to ensure new human resource policies and practices do not introduce new barriers to designated groups. These measures can be listed in your employment equity plan table.

You must also adopt positive human resource policies and practices to create an environment that supports a diverse workforce and the removal of employment barriers. This should include, at a minimum, three key policies:

Your accommodation policy should outline a clear process that allows managers to accommodate employees. The accommodation measures that you offer to ensure full participation of all designated group employees could include:

  • modifying facilities, work stations and job functions
  • providing technical aids and technological options
  • allowing flexible work arrangements
  • developing return-to-work programs
  • allowing leave substitutions for religious days

How to develop your employment equity plan: Bring in special measures

If your organization has identified areas of significant under-representation due to barriers that you anticipate will take a lot of time to eliminate, you must take special measures to attract, promote, and retain designated group members. These measures may include:

  • targeted outreach and recruitment
  • education and training programs
  • job rotation and co-op placements
  • accelerated/modified career development programs
  • mentoring and apprenticeship programs
  • sponsored trade school training
  • support networks for members of designated groups in the workplace
  • development opportunities for members of designated groups

How to write an employment equity plan

Your organization's employment equity plan should be a thorough summary of:

  • the efforts you have taken to date to analyze your workforce and review your employment policies and practices,and
  • the goals you set and the measures you plan to adopt to build and maintain a workforce that is consistent with the availability of members of the 4 designated groups in the Canadian workforce.

We have prepared an employment equity plan template to help you with this task. It includes the employment equity plan tables in which you can record the results of your workforce analysis and employment systems review, as well as your short- and long-term goals.

How to be accountable for your plan

To remain accountable for the success of your employment equity plan, your organization must:

  • Designate personnel to be responsible for:
    • achieving specific goals, such as managers or human resource officials, under specific timeframes
    • ensuring measures are adopted throughout the organization
    • monitoring the effectiveness of your employment equity plan
  • List the personnel responsible for each goal, as well as the timeframe to achieve the goal, in your employment equity plan table
  • Create and follow monitoring and revision procedures to measure the effectiveness of your plan, including:
    • how often the plan will be monitored
    • the type of consultations that will take place as part of your monitoring activities
    • how the results of your monitoring activities will be reported to employees and their representatives and/or bargaining agents

Employment equity plan template

Introduction

  1. Provide an overview of your organization's workforce profile, including:
    • the number of employees covered under the plan and their employment status
    • a description of anticipated changes in the workforce
  2. List all of the communications and consultation activities that your organization held in the process of developing your employment equity plan, including:
    • all of the employees, employee representative groups and others that you consulted
    • when various update reports were sent out and to whom
  3. Describe the measures that your organization has put in place to ensure accountability for its employment equity goals, including:
    • who prepared the employment equity plan
    • who approved it and who is responsible for implementation and achievement
    • when your plan was completed and approved

Action plan

Describe in detail:

  • measures to be taken in the short term to eliminate employment barriers identified in your employment systems review
  • positive policies and practices to be instituted in the short term for hiring, promoting and retaining designated group members and for accommodating them in the workplace
  • short-term goals for hiring and promoting designated group members and special measures that will be taken to achieve those goals
  • measures to be taken in the long term to address gaps in the representation of designated group members that may require more than 3 years to close, and
  • the timetable for the implementation of all of these policies, practices and measures

Monitoring and revision procedures

Describe in detail the measures your organization has and will put in place to monitor and revise the plan,including:

  • names and contact information of those responsible for monitoring your plan
  • how often a review will take place
  • the types of employee consultations that will take place about the monitoring of the plan
  • to whom the results of the monitoring process will be reported, and
  • how the results of the monitoring process will be reported to employees

Employment equity plan tables

Create a numerical and non-numerical table (as shown below) for each of the 4 designated groups. You will have 8 tables in total. Use these tables to:

  • fill in the results of your workforce analysis (numerical) and employment systems review (non-numerical)
  • itemize both the short- and long-term numerical and non-numerical goals
  • record the personnel responsible for achieving each goal and the time frame

Task 6: Report annually

Employers subject to the Legislated Employment Equity Program must annually prepare and submit an employment equity report to the Labour Program. This process has 3 tasks:

On this page:

Annual report key dates

The deadline to submit your annual report to the Labour Program is on or before June 1. Forms 1 to 6 must cover prescribed information as of December 31 of the preceding calendar year.

First report

If this is your first employment equity annual report, and you have yet to collect workforce data through a self-identification questionnaire, you only need to report on all of your employees by gender. You are also not required to submit a narrative report.

Subsequent reports

If this is not your first employment equity annual report, your workforce data must already be collected through a self-identification questionnaire and you are required to report on all of your employees, including data on the representation of the 4 designated groups. You must also prepare and submit a narrative report.

Task 7: Review Forms 1 to 6

Employers who are subject to the Legislated Employment Equity Program must include Forms 1 to 6 in their annual reports.

Employers who are subject to the Federal Contractors Program (FCP) must include Form 1 in their first compliance assessment and Forms 2, 4, 5 and 6 in their subsequent compliance assessment. (Form 3 is optional.) Form 2 will only show representation data for permanent full-time and permanent part-time employees, as data on salary and temporary employees are not reported by FCP employers.

Forms 1 to 6 are automatically generated by WEIMS when employers upload their employee, promotion and/or temporary employee .txt files into the system.

On this page:

What are Forms 1 to 6

These forms capture your employment equity data in 6 ways:

  • Form 1 is a summary of the number of employees in your organization by industrial sector, geographical areas and employment status. It is also where you certify that the information contained in your forms is accurate.
  • Information is then captured on the number of employees and members of designated groups by industrial sector, geographical areas, and Employment Equity Occupational Groups (EEOG) as follows:
    • Form 2 shows the pay gaps and representation by EEOG salary ranges
    • Form 3 shows representation by overall salary ranges
    • Form 4 shows the number of employees hired
    • Form 5 shows the number of employees promoted
    • Form 6 shows the number of employees terminated

Note that employers subject to the Federal Contractors Program do not report salary data.

Where can I get Forms 1 to 6

The forms are automatically generated by WEIMS when employee, promotion and/or temporary employee .txt files are uploaded into the system. You can also download each blank form from the Service Canada catalogue.

Task 8: Prepare your narrative report

This Legislated Employment Equity Program task will help you prepare the narrative report that is required as part of your second and all subsequent annual reports. This report presents a summary of the measures your organization has taken during the reporting year to remove employment barriers and correct under-representation of designated group members. It also details the consultations that took place between your management and employee representatives about these measures.

Completing a narrative report each year will help you track the progress of your employment equity plan over time.

On this page:

Key Tools:

How to prepare your narrative report: Overview

Your narrative report must:

  • describe the activities your organization carried out over the reporting year to:
    • remove employment barriers for current and future employees
    • correct under-representation of designated group members
  • describe your achievements as a result of these activities, including:
    • how designated group employees benefitted from your activities
    • direct and/or indirect links between measures put in place and outcomes
  • explain any issues or constraints your organization had when carrying out these activities
  • describe consultations held between management and employee representatives related to employment equity activities
  • explain any significant changes to your workforce data since your last annual report

Your report cannot:

  • simply list and date an activity undertaken; activities must be described
  • be the same report that you submitted in a previous year

How to prepare your narrative report: Using the online tool

The Workplace Equity Information Management System (WEIMS) includes a narrative report tool to help you fill in and submit your narrative report while you are using the system.

Your narrative report includes elements such as:

Measures implemented and results achieved

In this section, you will describe each measure taken to remove a barrier impacting 1 or more designated groups, including by 1 or more of the Employment Equity Occupational Groups (EEOG). There is space for you to describe each activity and the results achieved by carrying it out. This includes any milestone your organization may have reached.

This section has space for you to list any special measures taken, such as a short-term or temporary plan, program or arrangement, to help 1 or more designated groups that are under-represented in an EEOG or in your organization as a whole. For example, expanding job opportunity advertisements in media outlets set up to reach designated groups.

There is also space for you to identify and describe positive policies and practices that you initiated during the reporting year that may not have targeted designated groups, but helped you achieve a milestone or significant result, or create an environment that supports a diverse and inclusive workforce. For example, an anti-harassment policy or a career development program.

Consultations

Consultations between management and employee representatives related to your employment equity activities must take place throughout the year. In this section, you will describe the type and frequency of consultation and the representatives consulted.

Significant changes to your workforce data

In this section, you will explain any significant changes to your workforce data since your last annual report. These changes or 'variances' include both an increase or a decrease in employees from 1 or more designated groups in an EEOG.

WEIMS will also automatically flag significant changes that you will need to explain in your narrative report. To help you with this task, you can generate the following variance reports from the 'Analytical Tools' section in WEIMS:

  • Year-to-year occupational group and its variance explanations
  • Year-to-year bottom line and its variance explanations
  • Year-to-year salary comparisons
  • Data verification
  • Significant variances

Variance examples

Organizations can experience significant changes or 'variances' in their workforce from year to year. For example, they may have significantly more employees from 1 or more designated groups in an Employment Equity Occupational Group (EEOG) 1 year compared to the next or significantly fewer employees. These changes should be explained in the narrative report that is submitted with your annual report.

For reference, the following table lists specific examples to explain positive and negative variance in occupational and designated groups.

Variance examples
Positive Variance / (More employees) Negative Variance / (Fewer employees)
Occupational Group
  • Reclassifications into another EEOG (e.g. due to a national occupational classification (NOC) change)
  • Promotions into EEOG
  • Changes in employment status (e.g. part-time to full-time)
  • Employees on long-term leave returned to work
  • Employees on strike or locked out returned to work
  • Employees posted out of Canada returned to work in Canada
  • Employees transferred from a subsidiary company
  • Reclassifications into another EEOG (e.g. due to a national occupational classification (NOC) change)
  • Promotions or demotions out of EEOG
  • Changes in employment status (e.g. full-time to part-time)
  • Employees on long-term leave as of December 31
  • Employees on strike or is locked out on December 31
  • Employees posted to work outside Canada
  • Employees transferred to a subsidiary company
Designated Group
  • Employees decided to self-identify as members of a designated group (e.g. following a re-survey)
  • Changes in employment status (e.g. part-time to full-time)
  • Employees on long-term leave returned to work
  • Employees on strike or locked out returned to work
  • Employees posted out of Canada returned to work in Canada
  • Employees decided to no longer self-identify as members of a designated group
  • Changes in employment status (e.g. full-time to part-time)
  • Employees on long-term leave as of December 31
  • Employees on strike or is locked out on December 31
  • Employees posted to work outside Canada

Task 9: Prepare for a first and subsequent compliance assessment

We assess whether employers subject to the Federal Contractors Program (FCP) are compliant with their employment equity requirements 1 year after they sign their contract and every 3 years thereafter. This employment equity task helps you prepare for the first, and all subsequent compliance assessments.

On this page:

How to prepare for a first compliance assessment

Your first compliance assessment will take place 1 year after your initial contract award date. This date will continue to be your compliance due date, every 3 years, with the FCP program. We will contact you before this due date to remind you about the compliance assessment.

To prepare for a first compliance assessment, you need to:

When these tasks are completed, the following documents and information must be sent to us via ee-eme@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca:

  • A blank copy of your self-identification questionnaire
  • The results of this questionnaire, including how many were:
    • sent to permanent full- and part-time employees
    • returned blank
    • partially completed
    • fully completed
  • Your workforce analysis, including summary and detailed reports
  • Your achievement report

How to prepare for a subsequent compliance assessment

Subsequent compliance assessments will take place 3 years after your first assessment on the same date.

To prepare for a subsequent assessment, you need to:

Update your workforce data

Your workforce data must be updated in terms of how many permanent full- and part-time employees were hired, promoted and/or terminated since you last submitted the required documents for a compliance assessment. This includes:

Task 10: Complete your achievement report

Employers subject to the Federal Contractors Program must track their progress toward achieving full representation of the 4 designated groups in their organization. This employment equity task helps you complete and update an achievement report.

On this page:

Key Tools:

How to complete your first achievement report: Step-by-step

The achievement report template is an Excel spreadsheet with 8 tabs, but you only need to insert information in the blue-coloured fields in the following 2 tabs when you are preparing for a first compliance assessment:

  • Tab 1: Workforce analysis
  • Tab 3: Goals

Tab 2: Flow data analysis and Tab 8: Efforts are only filled in when you are preparing for a subsequent compliance assessment. Tabs 4 to 7 are used to show and assess results on each of the 4 designated groups.

Tab 1: Workforce analysis

Use your workforce analysis summary report and detailed tables to complete tables 1 to 4 in Tab 1 of the achievement report. The report and tables identify all of your organization's representation gap by Employment Equity Occupational Group (EEOG) and designated group. This information is automatically generated in the Workplace Equity Information Management System (WEIMS) after you upload your employee.txt file.

Tab 3: Goals

You need to set reasonable short- and long-term goals to hire designated group members in each occupational group that has a representation gap in your workforce analysis. Short-term hiring goals should be achieved within 1 to 3 years, while long-term goals should aim to be achieved in 3 or more years. Most of the information in the Goals tab will be pre-populated with data you entered under the workforce analysis and flow data analysis tabs

Set your short-term goals in tables 1, 3, 5 and 7 (one for each designated group) in Tab 3 of the achievement report by doing the following:

  • Look at Column R to see where you have a negative number as this shows the representation gap
  • In the rows where you have a negative number:
    • Copy data from Column Q into Column P. You are aiming to hire members of designated groups at a rate that is equal to or higher than their availability in the workforce.
      • Note that the representation goal for women cannot be higher than 50% so do not set a hiring goal in Column P if the representation of women in an occupational group is already 50% or higher in Column T
  • You can then test your hiring goals by entering higher percentages in Column P to see which representation goal would be reasonable to achieve and be as close to zero as possible in Column S.

If known by your organization, you may also:

  • Set your annual workforce growth projection % in Column E
  • Set your annual workforce turnover projection % in Column H

Table 1 example from Tab 3: Goals

The short-term hiring goals that you set in Column P of tables 1, 3, 5 and 7 will automatically be updated in Column D of tables 2, 4, 6 and 8 (one for each designated group). Copy the data from Column D into Column F (or insert other higher percentages in Column F) to establish your long-term goals. There is room for you to add comments, such as how you plan to achieve these goals.

Table 2 example from Tab 3: Goals

How to complete a subsequent achievement report

The achievement report template is an Excel spreadsheet with 8 tabs. When you are preparing for a subsequent compliance assessment, you only need to insert information in the blue-coloured fields in the following 4 tabs :

  • Tab 1: Workforce analysis
  • Tab 2: Flow data analysis
  • Tab 3: Goals
  • Tab 8: Efforts

Your organization's workforce analysis summary report, Forms 4, 5 and 6, and the previously completed achievement report will help you with these tasks. Note that Tabs 4 to 7 are used to show and assess results on each of the 4 designated groups.

Tab 1: Workforce analysis

Use your workforce analysis summary report and detailed tables to complete tables 5 to 8 (one for each designated group) in Tab 1 of the achievement report. The report and tables identify all of your organization's representation gap by EEOG and designated group. This information is automatically generated in WEIMS after you upload your employee.txt file.

Tab 2: Flow data analysis

Using the flow data analysis tables in Tab 2, you can capture and analyze data on the employees hired, promoted and terminated at the national level, by designated and non-designated group since your last achievement report.

Example from Tab 2: Flow data analysis

Tab 3: Goals

Most of the information in the Goals Tab tables will already be filled in with the data you entered in the workforce analysis and flow data analysis tabs.

For tables 9, 11, 13 and 15 (one for each designated group):

  • Look at Column R to see where you have a negative number as this shows a representation gap
  • In the rows where you have a negative number:
    • Copy data from Column Q into Column P. You are aiming to hire members of designated groups at a rate that is equal to or higher than their availability in the workforce.
      • Note that the representation goal for women cannot be higher than 50% so do not set a hiring goal in Column P if the representation of women in an occupational group is already 50% or higher in Column T
  • You can then test your hiring goals by entering higher percentages in Column P to see which representation goal would be reasonable to achieve and be as close to zero as possible in Column S.

If known by your organization, you may also:

  • Set your annual workforce growth projection % in Column E
  • Set your annual workforce turnover projection % in Column H

The short-term hiring goals that you set in Column P of tables 9, 11, 13 and 15 will automatically be updated in Column D of tables 10, 12, 14 and 16 (one for each designated group). Copy the data from Column D into Column F (or insert other higher percentages in Column F) to establish your long-term goals. There is room for you to add comments, such as how you plan to achieve these goals.

Tab 8: Efforts

This tab lists a series of required and other measures to implement the Federal Contractors Program. Check all that apply to your organization. Note that to be compliant with the program, all required measures must be implemented.

There is also an 'Operational Context' section for you to report on any events that may have influenced your organization's employment equity activities, such as a corporate restructuring, significant lay-offs, or an economic event.

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