Visible minorities, people with disabilities and Aboriginals remain underrepresented to varying degrees among University of Western Ontario staff and faculty, and women hold fewer professorship positions than men.
Western’s Equity and Human Rights Services recently conducted a survey of university employees to get a picture of the diversity composition of its workforce. The results will be incorporated into an ongoing Employment Systems Review, which is conducted by an external consultation firm, Barbara Herring and Associates Inc.
The review involves an examination of employment policies and practices, both formal and informal, and the barriers these might pose for four designated minority groups: women, visible minorities, people with disabilities and Aboriginals. It is also a requirement under the Federal Contractors Program.
“Now that Western is competing on the global stage for our students and our faculty, we need to be showing that our workforce is diverse and that we actually are a place where we can invite people to come and feel welcome because they are going to see others who look like them,” says Larissa Bartlett, director of Equity and Human Rights Services.
The survey shows that overall Western lags when it comes to minority representation. There’s considerable variation across groups and categories, and in some instances a specific group may even be over-represented. Still, the survey has identified some gaps.
Visible minorities make up 7.3 per cent of administrative staff on campus, and are particularly underrepresented among middle and other managers, professionals, and other sales and service personnel. However, visible minorities represent 15.5 per cent of faculty.
Aboriginal persons make up only 0.6 per cent of administrative staff and 0.7 per cent of faculty members on campus.
Persons with disabilities are underrepresented among professional, and administrative and senior clerical positions, accounting for 3.6 per cent of administrative staff. Similarly, persons with disabilities comprise 3.5 per cent of faculty members.
Although women appear to be overrepresented among administrative staff – 64.2 per cent – they are not as equally spread across faculty positions, representing 29.3 per cent of Western’s professors. Women are also missing from skilled sales and service personnel and skilled craft and trades workers.
Although Western staff and faculty have been surveyed in the past, this is the first time a significant number of employees (more than 80 per cent) responded, allowing for a more accurate Employment Systems Review. About 86 per cent of faculty and staff responded to the survey.
All of the employment positions at Western are categorized into 14 staff groups and a separate faculty group for the review.
Employees were asked to identify whether they fell into one or more of the four categories and these results are compared for with the percentage of these minorities in the labour pool outside of Western, based on Statistics Canada census data from 2001.
Comparisons are made between Western and the relative national, provincial or local labour market from which Western would recruit employees.
The survey results for Western’s employment categories are compared to data from the national, provincial or local workforce, depending on the typical geographical area for recruitment.
“We found some gaps,” says Bartlett. “We found gaps in representation amongst professionals in three designated groups – visible minorities, persons with disabilities and Aboriginal persons. There is no gap in professionals for women; in fact there is an overrepresentation, although we are not asked to account for that.”
The recommendations provided by the review are not hiring quotas, says Bartlett.
The goal of the review is to hold a mirror up to Western’s employment strategies and highlight any barriers that might prevent members of these minority groups from gaining employment and promotions, or disadvantages employees during recruitment, selection, development and training, retention, termination or accommodation.
“It’s to get a sense of what we can be doing better,” says Bartlett. “If we can encourage a diverse workforce, we’re encouraging people from different backgrounds and different talents, different perspectives to come onto campus and all grow to work together.”
“Employment equity means recruiting the best candidate who can fulfill that role,” she adds.
The review is currently moving into its second stage of interviewing people involved in the creation of Western’s employment policies and procedures, and recruiting members of the four minority groups for interviews.
The consulting firm will provide Western with recommendations and a final Employment Systems Review report is expected to be issued to the Western community this spring.
“Then it comes to the university to develop a plan to address the equity report,” says Bartlett.
Volunteers wanted
The next stage of the employment review involves interviewing faculty and staff involved in the creation of Western’s employment policies and procedures, as well as recruiting members of the four minority groups for interviews.
Confidential meetings will be conducted by a consulting firm and all faculty and staff members are encouraged to participate.
For more information on the review or to see the complete workplace summary, visit www.uwo.ca/equity/index.htm.
Volunteer for a focus group at equity@uwo.ca or call 519-661-2111 ext. 83334.