Senior leadership diversification in the Ontario Public Service – 2020 annual progress report

Executive summary

Ontarians expect their government to be responsive to the public, work across sectors and support local communities. This is why the Ontario Public Service (OPS) strives to deliver innovative policies, inclusive and accessible services that meet these needs and foster growth. Strengthening diversity within our workforce and building a positive and equitable workplace culture enhances the quality of government services we deliver to the people of Ontario. We are committed as an organization to sustain a deep and diverse talent pool and support employees’ growth into leadership opportunities to reach their full potential and to benefit all Ontarians. A more diverse public service is needed to harness a greater diversity of thought, skills and experiences to solve the province’s complex problems.

As one the largest employers in the province, the OPS is involved in many different lines of business. Public servants work in a wide variety of roles and professions such as administration, communications, finance, information technology, law, policy, program development, service delivery, science and research, and many more. Like our province, the OPS is diverse and changing over time. As Ontario continues to become more diverse, its public service must evolve with it.

Public servants also expect to see themselves reflected in their senior leadership and to have a fair chance to progress in their careers, including, into leadership roles. An inability to progress in their careers has been a key factor in workplace discrimination complaints. It is essential that the OPS addresses barriers in how our organization recruits, develops and promotes talent into leadership positions.

In 2019, the OPS set an organizational goal to achieve parity with the diversity of the Ontario labour force by 2025 for its most underrepresented groups. This includes, among others, employees with disabilities, Indigenous and racialized employees. OPS data has shown these groups of employees experience the largest gaps in representation in senior leadership roles. It’s important to note that these groups are not homogenous in their experiences and that there is a great deal of diversity within each of them.

This is our first annual report reviewing the OPS’s senior leadership diversification strategy. Our organization has established an outcomes-based framework for success. The OPS is taking concrete and meaningful steps to advance fairness and equity in how the organization recruits, develops and promotes talent into leadership positions.

We have set clear, measurable and transparent data-driven targets for talent management processes with built-in accountability for reaching these targets and goal.

Our efforts over time will diversify the talent pool and promote success and career opportunities for OPSers with diverse identities, experiences, perspectives and skills.

We are building organizational capacity to track, report on and improve results along four fundamental career pathways. Over time, it is expected that outcomes along these pathways will continue to build a diverse pool of emerging leaders and enable the advancement of current leaders from underrepresented groups. The data-driven targets are focussed on pathways that typically lead to senior leadership: coaching and mentoring programs; leadership development programs; succession plans; and, recruitment shortlists. This approach is intended to support career progression and build a deep talent pipeline for the long-term.

All ministries, which includes the Ontario Provincial Police, are using data to assess gaps in representation and set targets along the four pathways to leadership. They are doing so in keeping with their unique needs and priorities – which may include the nature of the work, geographic considerations, and the groups that are most affected within their sectors. Ministries are working collectively towards the OPS goal of parity with the Ontario labour force for the most under-represented groups in senior leadership.

At the same time, organizational capacity to do this work and achieve these goals is growing. The ability to collect and mobilize data necessary to measure and improve diversity outcomes is evolving.

We have the people, skills, knowledge and experience to set data-driven targets, collect the right information from candidates, participants, mentees and other talent sources, and then place it all in the context of the OPS’s equity goals.

Building on established data collection and analysis through the OPS Employee Experience Survey has enabled the OPS to have a strong foundation. As well, responsive, creative solutions for immediate data collection needs at the program level have been implemented in the short-term.

Concerted efforts towards meeting the long-term human resource data needs of the OPS are underway. We will continue to evolve our data collection methodologies and optimize insights to drive sustained and meaningful change.

Going forward, we will continue to be guided by data and evidence as we work towards achieving the goal of parity with the Ontario labour force in OPS senior leadership roles by 2025 for the most underrepresented groups. Building organizational capacity to mentor, cultivate and create opportunities for diverse talent – and to measure our progress on all fronts – will be key to our success and commitments to becoming a more diverse, inclusive, responsive and accessible employer.

We will continue to attract and retain the best talent and drive innovation to deliver more people-centred policies, programs and services for all Ontarians.

Who is the OPS?

About the OPS

The Ontario Public Service (OPS) is made up of approximately 63,000 people working in 24 ministries across four geographic regions to deliver the policies, programs and services of the provincial government. The OPS is a professional body that is non-partisan, which means that it is impartial in supporting the elected government of the day.

The OPS includes provincial ministries, agencies, and the Ontario Provincial Police. It does not include those who do not work directly for the province, such as employees of colleges, universities, hospital and school boards.

As one the largest employers in the province, the OPS is involved in many different lines of business. Public servants work in a huge variety of roles and professions such as administration, communications, finance, information technology, law, policy, program development, service delivery, science and research, and many more. The majority (90%) of public servants are not in management positions and most (84%) belong to one of seven collective bargaining groups (unions).

About OPS senior leadership

The OPS is overseen by the Secretary of the Cabinet (the head of the public service) and a team of 30 deputy ministers. There are approximately 1,000 executives at different levels of the organization (classified as Executive 2, 3 and 4: this includes associate and assistant deputy ministers, directors, superintendents and their equivalents) reporting to deputy ministers. These executives are responsible for their respective ministry areas.

In this report, “senior leadership” is used to refer to the Secretary of the Cabinet, deputy ministers and executives in the OPS.

• Following the direction of their deputy ministers, associate and assistant deputy ministers are responsible for leading an inclusive, innovative and high-performing workplace culture to develop and deliver various divisional strategies, programs and services.
• Directors, superintendents and equivalents provide leadership and guidance to their managers and staff in the development and implementation of the branch’s business to ensure alignment with divisional goals.
• The senior leadership team encompasses crucial operational, policy, corporate and Information Technology (IT) portfolios to ensure the success of the organization. On average, OPS executives spend 19 years of their careers with the OPS.
• Most employees in this group are between the ages of 50 to 59 (44%) or 40 to 49 (37%).
• Although managers are not included in the executive team, there are approximately 5,300 managers who directly manage the work of staff, oversee the day-to-day operations of their areas and report to the executives. Managers and senior individual contributors are the internal feeder group for executive-level positions.

Diversifying senior leadership

The OPS Inclusion and Diversity Blueprint includes the priority to improve the diversity of OPS leadership. This priority was informed by advocacy from employee groups and analysis of the socio-demographic make-up of the OPS, which revealed that the representation of certain groups declined as employees progressed into management roles. Since some of the largest gaps are for Indigenous and racialized employees, the goal of increasing the representation of these groups in senior leadership is also included in Ontario’s Anti-Racism Policy.

Leaders should reflect the diversity of the people they serve

As Ontario continues to become more diverse, its public service must evolve with it. Ontarians expect their government to be responsive to them – across sectors and communities – to deliver inclusive and, accessible policies and services that meet their needs and foster growth. A more inclusive and diverse public service is needed to meet these expectations and best utilize the diversity of skills, knowledge and viewpoints of a more diverse talent pool that reflects Ontario.

A more diverse public service will harness a greater diversity of thought and experiences to solve the province’s complex problems. Increasing diversity is not a box ticking exercise – it’s about bringing together a greater diversity of experiences, perspectives and skills to deliver the best policies, programs and services.

Further, public servants also expect to see themselves reflected in their senior leadership and feel as though they have a fair chance to progress in their careers. Experiences with career progression have been found to be a key factor in workplace discrimination complaints. These dynamics require a concerted effort to address barriers in how the OPS recruits, develops and promotes talent into leadership positions.

In 2019, the OPS introduced an organizational goal to achieve parity with the diversity of the Ontario labour force by 2025 for its most underrepresented groups.

The OPS is using a range of levers to diversify its leadership and to reduce any employment barriers.

Targeting pathways to leadership

A critical component of any effective initiative to diversify an organization’s leadership is to integrate diversity and inclusion efforts with talent management processes. Research shows that organizations that achieve their diversity goals do so by setting clear, measurable, and transparent targets for their talent management processes with built-in accountability for reaching them. Building up effective processes for measuring progress (i.e., data collection and reporting) is also needed, as will be discussed in the next section.

This makes it possible to see results, make adjustments and sustain commitment over the long-term. For the OPS, this has meant setting targets that promote changes in the way employees from underrepresented groups are supported across the spectrum of career development, opportunities and leadership success.

To meet its overall goal of parity with the labour force, the OPS has taken the strategic approach of focussing on pathways that typically lead to senior leadership:

• coaching and mentoring programs
• leadership development programs
• succession plans
• recruitment shortlists

This approach is intended to support career progression and build a deep talent pipeline for the long-term.

Over the next five years, the many small but significant interventions along these pathways will together enable a growing cohort of diverse employees to join and advance within the senior leadership ranks. These outcomes will be closely monitored within and across ministries and connected with the OPS-wide goal of real and measurable improvement in the diversity of senior leadership. A fuller description of the processes that have been established to track this progress, and early outcomes are provided in the next sections. First, we take a deeper look at each pathway to leadership.

Ministries set targets

Beginning in 2019, all ministries, which includes the Ontario Provincial Police, have set data-driven targets focussed on the four leadership pathways. Ministries identified gaps between the demographics of their leadership teams compared to the Ontario labour force and then used these insights to set diversification targets for each pathway. Ministries are reporting annually on their targets and their yearly progress in reaching them.

Coaching and mentoring

Commitments in the coaching and mentoring pathway are focused on increasing the number of participants in the Diversity Career Champions Program (DCCP), the OPS’s reciprocal mentorship program. The DCCP provides leadership development opportunities to employees from groups underrepresented in leadership positions. It provides opportunities for two-way learning between executive champions and their assigned mentees.

The DCCP has two program streams. The first matches executive champions who are deputy ministers or associate deputy ministers with employee partners who are currently in management positions. The second matches executive champions who are assistant deputy ministers, directors or managers with employee partners who are not in management. Executive champions and employee partners are encouraged to engage in honest, open and meaningful dialogue about diversity, inclusion and career development throughout the program.

Ministries are increasing participation in this program for people in their ministry’s most underrepresented groups.

Leadership development programs

The OPS offers internal leadership development programs designed for people who are beginning or advancing their careers in management. Ministries are setting targets to expand leadership development opportunities for underrepresented talent. These OPS programs include:

Advancing into Management (AIM): The goal of AIM is to develop high potential employees into managers within two years of graduating from the program.

Senior Leadership Potential Assessment (SLPA): An assessment process used to identify potential for director-level positions, and to identify a cohort of Leadership Development Program participants.

Leadership Development Program (LDP): The goal of LDP is to develop managers into directors within two years of graduating from the program.

Executive Coaching Program: A unique executive development opportunity for OPS directors and assistant deputy ministers to develop executive coaching skills.

Succession plans

Succession planning is about identifying and developing individuals at different levels of readiness who have potential to take on a specific leadership role. This process promotes career development conversations between the individual identified, their current manager, and the direct manager of the future position. Ministries are increasing the representation of people from underrepresented groups as successors for management and executive-level positions. Ministries have set a variety of targets in this pathway, such as increasing the diversity of the director-level and/or assistant deputy minister successor talent pool.

Ministries continue to collect and refine the voluntary collection of socio-demographic data of those identified and notified to increase participation rates.

Recruitment shortlists

Ministries are seeking to diversify senior manager and executive recruitment shortlists. This objective is supported by the collection of voluntary socio-demographic information offered by shortlisted candidates for recruitment processes within their ministries.

To protect candidates’ privacy, the program areas that support manager and executive recruitment across the OPS, provide ministries with aggregate reports of the percentage of shortlisted candidates from under-represented groups.

When developing annual plans, ministries are encouraged to account for geographic and ministry-specific factors that impact their own unique challenges in diversifying their leadership talent pool. These include the socio-demographic make-up of the populations they serve and of the available candidates for leadership positions as well as other labour market and industry-specific factors. Given these considerations, ministries are encouraged to explore a variety of data sources to support setting targets that fit their specific situation.

Using data to drive progress

The OPS is building capacity and continuing to evolve processes and tools so we can optimize data available to us, and ground initiatives in data-driven insights. An initiative of this scale and complexity has required a robust and often creative approach to establishing baselines, setting targets, tracking and monitoring progress. Over time, we are refining and enhancing data collection and building capacity to place evidence at the centre of senior leadership diversification.

Some key tools are well-established. This includes the annual OPS Employee Experience Survey (EES). The EES has been an important foundation, providing data that enables us to estimate the proportion of senior leadership roles held by people from underrepresented groups, to set baselines and track progress on diversification over time both at the ministry and OPS level.

Socio-demographic information is fundamental to understanding who people are and where they are at in the organization. It is required for setting targets and tracking progress over time. The collection of socio-demographic information in the EES and other key tools provides us critical insights into who OPSers are, and some of their experiences in life. Work is ongoing to address key data gaps and build organizational capacity.

This includes evolving human resources programs and processes connected to senior leadership diversification through the pathways. These program areas are demonstrating leadership and innovation to address immediate data gaps, to rapidly implement data collection and analysis, and are building capacity and confidence to do so effectively in a very short time.

While these foundations and creative solutions are important for supporting senior leadership diversification now and in the immediate future, work continues to build up the capacity of the OPS as an organization to collect key data and optimize our tools and processes for the long-term.

Monitoring the diversity of the OPS and its leadership

Data on the socio-demographic make-up of leadership is collected through the OPS’s annual Employee Experience Survey. The survey is voluntary and collects this information alongside feedback on the employee experience. With a response rate from managers and senior leadership of about 80% from a population of approximately 6,400 people, results are considered statistically representative of the OPS overall.

Beginning in 2018 and in line with the Ontario Public Service’s Anti-Racism Policy, the survey collects disaggregated race-based data in accordance with the Anti-Racism Data Standards. This enables analysis of the representation and experiences of different racial groups (e.g., Black, East/Southeast Asian).

Additional socio-demographic questions are included in the EES that inform target-setting and tracking and provide insight into the make-up of senior leadership in terms of gender, Francophone identity, sexual orientation, Indigenous identity, employees with disabilities, and other forms of personal identity and life experiences.

Using the Ontario labour force as a benchmark

The OPS uses Ontario data from the Canadian Census and other data from Statistics Canada to benchmark the diversity of Ontario’s labour force, which includes people who are employed in Ontario or looking for employment. This data shows the proportion of the overall labour force that is made up by different groups such as women, Indigenous workers, or employees with disabilities. This is then compared to the make-up of the OPS overall and for each ministry at different levels of leadership.

This benchmark was chosen as the best available option to gauge the extent to which OPS leaders are reflective of the province. However, it’s not a perfect measure and some examples of its limitations are described in Appendix A.

The 2021 Canadian Census will provide updated data and will be integrated into the OPS senior leadership diversification program framework. For example, fresh information about the make-up of the Ontario labour force will provide the opportunity to adapt our benchmarks to keep pace with the ways that Ontario and its diverse labour force are changing over time.

Understanding the diversity of people on pathways to leadership

In addition to tracking the diversity of OPS senior leadership, it has also been essential to track the diversity of groups on the various pathways to leadership. Recent efforts across the OPS have focussed on building organizational capacity to do so.

This has involved coordinated and collective work across various human resource areas that support leadership development, recruitment, and promotion. It has also involved enabling a shift in culture where the use of socio-demographic data in talent management processes is valued; data is collected voluntarily and that individuals’ privacy is protected. Best practices are being adopted for greater consistency in how data is collected, used and reported (e.g., Ontario Human Rights Commission guidelines; Ontario’s Anti-Racism Data Standards; and others).

Human resource teams and ministries are working in collaboration and with the support of equity partners to implement consistent, comprehensive and easy to use socio-demographic data collection tools. These and other tools allow the OPS to measure both the current state and change along the pathways. At the same time, careful analysis and engagement with key internal partners and stakeholders supports the ongoing evolution of socio-demographic data collection. It is important for our approaches to reflect current best practices and real-world perspectives.

Tracking leadership opportunities

Starting in 2019, ministries began tracking the number of opportunities (i.e., positions that needed to be filled) that could have been leveraged to diversify their leadership teams, both at the senior manager and executive level. The number of opportunities refers to the promotional moves, hires and re-hires into both senior manager and executive roles over a 12-month period.

Going forward, this measure will provide ministries with an annual indicator of the volume of hiring outcomes that could be leveraged to advance employees from underrepresented groups.

Accountability

The OPS is driving accountability for progress in multiple ways.

Ministry targets are shared OPS-wide

All ministries’ targets have been posted on their internal ministry webpages and ministries have been encouraged to share them with their staff.

Deputy Ministers are held accountable for the results of their ministries through annual scorecards

Beginning in 2020, Diversity and Inclusion Scorecards are informing performance conversations between the Secretary of the Cabinet and deputy ministers. These scorecards provide an annual platform to track ministries’ progress in diversifying their leadership teams, including progress on setting and meeting targets to diversify the pool of talent in each of the four leadership pathways.

Alongside this diversity data, the scorecards highlight a few key indicators of inclusion based on data from the annual OPS Employee Experience Survey and the Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Prevention Office. For example:

• employees’ perceptions of their leadership and of inclusion in their ministries;
• the extent to which employees with disabilities feel their ministry does a good job supporting people with disabilities;
• and employee experiences of discrimination and harassment.

The scorecards also provide ministry-specific areas of focus and commitments for the coming year and opportunities to highlight qualitative data and other contextual information.

Scorecards are the primary reporting mechanism to hold senior leaders in the OPS accountable for the collective goal of achieving parity with the Ontario labour force. Ministry senior management teams and their respective human resource teams use the scorecards to monitor progress and facilitate conversations about opportunities to develop and advance underrepresented talent.

The OPS is reporting on progress

The publication of this first annual progress report is a key step in communicating the OPS’s progress in diversifying its leadership. In addition, annual public reporting on the provincial government’s progress in anti-racism also includes a section on increasing the representation of Indigenous, racialized and Black employees in pathways to leadership.

Results

This section shares OPS data used to track progress towards the goal of diversifying OPS senior leadership. Data is provided on the diversity of OPS senior leadership as compared to the OPS overall and the Ontario labour force; on the diversity of people on the various pathways to senior leadership; on opportunities for leadership positions; and the extent to which ministries met their annual targets last year.

It is important to keep in mind that although data is presented for each underrepresented group, these groups are not homogenous in their experiences and that there is a great deal of diversity within each of them. Furthermore, people will often identify with more than one category and this is not captured in the tables (e.g., Black people with disabilities, Indigenous women).

Diversity of OPS senior leadership compared to the OPS overall and to the Ontario labour force

The following table shows the diversity of OPS senior leadership as compared to the OPS overall and the Ontario labour force. See Appendices A and B for notes on data sources.

OPS senior leadership socio-demographic profile, 2018-2019

Diversity within pathways to leadership

This section shares available socio-demographic data on the diversity of groups on each of the four pathways that typically lead to senior leadership: coaching and mentoring programs; leadership development programs; succession plans; and recruitment shortlists. Socio-demographic data is presented for the six underrepresented groups in the OPS overall as well as disaggregated data for race. Disaggregated data for Indigenous people (e.g., First Nations, Inuk and/or Métis) is not displayed due to small sample sizes.

Data collection was conducted by various program areas and at different points in time depending on the pathway. The questions and response categories used to collect socio-demographic information about individuals were the same as is used in the OPS Employee Experience Survey. See Appendix B for notes on these categories.

It’s important to note that this data presents an OPS-wide picture since data collection began in each pathway. Each ministry’s breakdown looks different and ministries are setting targets based on their own results rather than on the OPS-wide results presented in this report. Given the variety of contexts that ministries are working within (e.g., geography, labour markets, client populations), ministries are also encouraged to account for ministry-specific factors when developing annual plans.

Coaching and mentoring

The following table shares the number of participants in the OPS’s Diversity Career Champions Program (DCCP), broken down by socio-demographic group, for the last two program cycles. See the “Coaching and Mentoring” section of this report for a description of the DCCP.

Socio-demographic profile of applicants and participants in Diversity Career Champions Program, 2018-2019

Notes:

Data on the socio-demographic profile of participants was collected voluntarily from employees at the application stage for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 program cycles. The overall response rate for participants was 99.1% in 2018 and 98% in 2019.

Data is point-in-time with varying completion rates by socio-demographic question.

See Appendix B for additional notes.

Leadership development programs

The following table summarizes the socio-demographic profile of participants in both the OPS Advancing into Management Program and the OPS Leadership Development Program. See the “Leadership Development Programs” section of this report for a description of this pathway.

Socio-demographic profile of participants in Leadership Development Programs, 2018-2019

Notes:

Data is combined from the participant profiles of two OPS-wide programs: Advancing into Management and the Leadership Development Program. Ministry-led programs are not included in this analysis.

Participants in the AIM program are nominated by their ministries and must be identified as a successor to a manager-level position.

Participants in the Leadership Development Program are invited to participate after completing the Senior Leadership Potential Assessment (SLPA). SLPA participants are nominated by their ministry and must be identified as a successor to a director-level position.

Data is based on voluntary socio-demographic information offered by program participants. Data is point-in-time with varying completion rates by socio-demographic question. The overall response rates were 96.1% in 2018 and 93% in 2019.

Cells are empty and marked by a double asterisk (**) if there are fewer than five respondents. The data is supressed due to a low sample in order to avoid potential identification of individuals and to protect privacy.

See Appendix B for additional notes.

Succession plans

The following table shares socio-demographic data that was collected anonymously and voluntarily by ministries in 2020 from people who were confirmed successors for executive roles within their ministries. See the “Succession Plans” section of this report for a description of this pathway.

Socio-demographic profile of confirmed successors, 2019-20

Notes:

19 out of 24 ministries sent a socio-demographic survey to a total of 962 identified successors between January and April 2020. The survey received a 60% response rate.

This data represents people who were notified they were identified as a potential successor and who confirmed their interest in being a successor, received a notification in the OPS Talent Management System, as well as other successors tracked by ministries.

See Appendix B for additional notes.

Recruitment shortlists

The following tables share socio-demographic data that was collected voluntarily from people who were shortlisted for senior manager and/or executive-level positions in 2019-2020. See the “Recruitment Shortlists” section of this report for a description of this pathway.

Socio-demographic profile of people shortlisted for senior manager and executive positions, 2019-20

Notes:

Data for people shortlisted for senior manager positions was collected between April 2019 and March 2020 across 58 job competitions from 102 respondents representing an overall response rate of 56%.. This represents 34.5% of all senior manager competitions held during that same period. Data on successful candidates is not known because the survey was anonymous.

Data for people shortlisted for executive roles was collected in October 2019 and in March 2020 with an overall response rate of 63%.. This data only includes formally tracked executive competitions and does not include direct appointments.

Cells are empty and marked by a double asterisk (**) to indicate supressed data due to a low sample and in order to avoid potential identification of individuals and to protect privacy.

See Appendix B for additional notes.

Opportunities for leadership positions

The following table shows the number of opportunities (i.e., positions that needed to be filled) that could have been leveraged in 2019-20 to diversify leadership teams. The number of opportunities refers to promotional moves, hires and re-hires over a 12-month period. See the “Tracking Leadership Opportunities” section for more detail.

Leadership opportunities in executive and senior management positions, 2019

2019 ministry targets

Beginning in 2019, ministries set data-driven targets for underrepresented groups focussed on the four pathways that typically lead to senior leadership. Ministries report annually on their targets, including annual progress on reaching them. This helps in determining whether ministries are setting realistic and achievable targets and to identify areas that require more tools and supports.

The data below shows the extent to which ministries met their annual targets last year.

2019 target results by status

61.6% Targets met or exceeded
190 Targets set

Looking ahead

Diversifying the OPS’s senior leadership is a key priority for our organization. Achieving this goal will strengthen our workforce and our effectiveness in delivering public services. Our senior executives are committed to doing the work and accountable for getting us where we need to be as an organization.

The OPS Inclusive Diversity Office will continue to work closely with the Anti-Racism Directorate, OPS Accessibility Office and the HR community to enhance the process for setting, tracking and reporting on ministry targets to diversify senior leadership.

In the fall of 2020 ministries will be asked to adjust their annual commitments to align to the OPS’s 2025 goal to achieve parity with the Ontario labour force for the most underrepresented groups in senior leadership. This opportunity to re-examine and adjust reflects the agility of our organization’s approach to diversifying senior leadership. We’re also being responsive to the real world inside and outside the OPS, which is changing in its demographic make-up over time and there is a heightened awareness of the need for change.

Critical work is also underway to build-up organizational capacity and enhance a culture of knowledge and skill with socio-demographic data. Growth in these areas is building the evidence base for change and for effective performance measurement that will allow us to track success and continue making the needed interventions to increase the diversity of our senior leadership. Best practices are already being shared across program areas and platforms and working groups are being created to support ministries, program areas and HR professionals in sharing ideas, receiving needed support and celebrating successes.

In addition, Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) and the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services (MGCS) are working to enable the collection of socio-demographic information in the Workforce Information Network (WIN). This is in response to the growing call for a long-term, sustainable approach to better understand the diversity of the OPS workforce. This is an example of the OPS’s ongoing commitment to collecting race-based and other diversity data to understand outcomes for various groups.

Evidence is key to our success. We’re utilizing the strong foundations provided by the OPS Employee Experience Survey. We’re taking both practical and innovative steps to meet the immediate data needs of programs along the pathways to leadership. In addition, we’re building-up enterprise-wide approaches that promote consistency and usability of socio-demographic data across the OPS.

We will continue to improve our data collection, make the best use of our tools and increase our capacity to deliver clear and meaningful reporting on diversifying senior leadership. We will remain accountable while supporting strategic human resources and broader workforce interventions to drive meaningful change. Diversifying senior leadership will strengthen the OPS’s ability to deliver on government priorities and better serve the people of Ontario.

Appendix A: Ontario labour force data

The OPS uses the most current Ontario data available from the Canadian Census (or from other Statistics Canada data if Census data is not available) to benchmark the diversity of Ontario’s labour force. This includes all people who are employed in Ontario or looking for employment. The following notes the data sources used for each underrepresented group and some of its limitations.

Women: Statistics Canada, 2016 Canadian Census

Francophone: Statistics Canada, 2016 Canadian Census

LGBTQ+: Data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, 2017, is used as this data is not available from the 2016 Census. In this survey, the LGBTQ+ figure only represents those that identify as either gay, lesbian or bisexual. It does not include all sexual orientations under the LGBTQ+ umbrella, nor does it include transgender or non-binary people. Unlike the 2016 Census labour force data, it does not include those who are not employed but are actively seeking work. Additionally, experts warn that that counting this population accurately is difficult and there is recognition that this figure is likely lower than the real population.

Persons with disabilities: Canadian Survey on Disability, 2017. People with disabilities can be underrepresented in the workplace because of lower levels of education, lack of early employment experience, severity of disability and availability of accommodations in the workplace. People with disabilities also encounter barriers which discourage them from looking for employment. Examples include:

• expected employment income would be less than their current income
• they would lose additional supports (e.g., drug plan or housing)
• lack of specialized transportation
• family or friends discourage them from working
• few jobs are available in the local area
• accessibility issues when applying for work

Rates of employment for people with disabilities are significantly lower in Ontario than for other groups. Over 240,000 unemployed Ontarians with disabilities could be potential candidates for employment if properly accommodated in an inclusive labour market without discrimination (source: Canadian Survey on Disability, 2017).

Indigenous identity: Statistics Canada, 2016 Canadian Census. “Indigenous” respondents are from the Statistics Canada variable of ‘Aboriginal peoples’ and includes respondents who reported ‘Yes’ to Question 18 in the Census (‘Is this person an Aboriginal person, that is, First Nations (North American Indian), Métis or Inuk (Inuit)?’)”. Indigenous people are likely underrepresented in these figures because of various barriers that lead to both low response rates to the Canadian Census and to lower labour force participation than for non-Indigenous populations.

Racialized: Statistics Canada, 2016 Canadian Census. Statistics Canada’s data for “visible minority” is used.

Race categories (i.e., Black, East/Southeast Asian, Latino, Middle Eastern, South Asian, Another Race Category, White): Statistics Canada, 2016 Canadian Census. Note that individual race categories do not add up to the total number of respondents in the “racialized category” because a) respondents could identify with more than one race; and b) the Statistics Canada formula for calculating “visible minority” was used to calculate “racialized.”

Data on the representation of transgender and non-binary people in Ontario is not currently available. The OPS will be tracking the representation of this population more accurately in the coming years.

Importantly, labour force information does not always align with overall population.

Appendix B: Data on the diversity of the OPS and its senior leadership

Data on the socio-demographic make-up of the OPS and its leadership is from the annual OPS Employee Experience Survey. The survey collects data from all employees in the OPS, including the Ontario Provincial Police.

Data on the socio-demographic make-up of people in the four pathways to leadership are from various surveys administered by the program areas responsible for each pathway. For consistency, the questions and categories used in these surveys mirror those used in the Employee Experience Survey.

• People may have chosen more than one socio-demographic group or category. As such, percentage counts don’t add up to 100%.
• Respondents self-identified their job classification levels.
  • “Manager” refers to “Manager or OPP Inspector or equivalent”
  • “EXEC 2” refers to “Director, OPP Superintendent, OPP Chief Superintendent or equivalent position”
  • “EXEC 3-4” refers to “Assistant Deputy Minister, Associate Deputy Minister, OPP Provincial Commander or equivalent position or “Deputy Minister, OPP Commissioner or equivalent”
• Cells are empty and marked by a double asterisk (**) if there are fewer than 10 respondents for a given category. The data is supressed due to a low sample in order to avoid potential identification of individuals and to protect privacy.
• Data is point-in-time and based on varying participation rates and sample sizes for each category.
• Response rates are estimates for high-level approximation and should not be otherwise reported.
• Notes on data sources for underrepresented groups:
  • See the survey questions online for how the underrepresented groups in this report were categorized and counted.
  • “Indigenous” respondents are those that answered “yes” to “Are you an Indigenous person? (First Nations, Inuk, Métis).” Estimates specifically for Indigenous employees reported with other disaggregated race categories are calculated based on respondents who selected “Indigenous” in response to the question “What race best describes you?”; estimates calculated in this way may vary slightly from those calculated based on the above “Yes/No” question, due to small variations in sample across different questions.
  • Race categories and how “racialized” is calculated is based on Ontario’s Anti-Racism Data Standards. The racialized variable is derived from responses to the question “What race best describes you?” and is comparable to Statistics Canada’s Visible Minority category. Note that tables showing disaggregated data on race will not add up to a total number of racialized people because respondents can select more than one racial category. People are counted as “racialized” if they chose: 1. Black, South Asian, East/Southeast Asian, Latino or Middle-eastern either on its own or in combination with each other; or 2. Black, South Asian and East/South Asian in combination with White. Latino and Middle Eastern in combination with White would not be considered racialized and therefore would not be included in the racialized variable.

Related

• 2019 OPS Employee Experience Survey Results
• OPS Inclusion & Diversity Blueprint
• Public Service Anti-Racism Policy
• Ontario Public Service anti-racism policy progress report