Culture change at CSC

Actions taken

To increase awareness:

• Respectful Workplace Campaign
• Workplace Climate and Employee Well-being Annual Report
• Information on the complaint process and informal conflict resolution posted on internal website
• Family Wellness Information Sessions held in the regions

To strengthen accountability:

• Commitments on the management of harassment, intimidation and bullying included in performance agreements for all executives and supervisors
• Implementation of Ethical Risk Assessment initiative to promote a respectful workplace

To improve access/procedures:

• Implementation of a tip line to provide additional avenues to report misconduct
• Mandatory training sessions to staff on respectful workplace, violence and accommodation
• Employee 24/7 access to LifeSpeak, a digital wellness platform at no charge and anonymous
• Development and sharing of guidelines on Violence Prevention in the Workplace that promote informal conflict resolution
• Implementation of a Steering Committee for Workplace Mental Health Injuries

Comprehensive Strategy for Workplace Wellness and Employee Well-being

To ensure a safe, respectful and supportive environment for all, CSC has launched in 2020, its first Comprehensive Strategy for Workplace Wellness and Employee Well-being.

Pillar 1

Improve culture and increase pride

Establish an inclusive structure by reducing stigmatization, fostering communication, increasing pride and assuming our shared responsibility in establishing and maintaining a healthy workplace, considering that health and wellness at work are based on a culture of respect, trust, diversity, inclusion and fairness.

Pillar 2

Build capacity

Promote integrated programs, initiatives and services that are based on best practices and meet the changing needs of employees, managers and the organization in order to establish and maintain a healthy, safe and inclusive workplace.

Pillar 3

Foster healthy, respectful and resilient environments free from harassment, bullying and violence

Ensure that all employees and managers have a greater awareness and better understanding that harassment, bullying and violence are unacceptable under any circumstances. Encourage the reporting of misconduct and ensure that everyone feels like equal members of the organization who are supported and treated equally.

Anti-racism framework developed

• Requires a coordinated, whole-of-department effort, for CSC
• All actions will be interdependent and mutually reinforcing
• We must listen, learn and identify gaps and agree, with our stakeholders, on realistic actions we can take to make tangible impacts

Employment equity and diversity efforts

• New Indigenous representation objectives to help build a workforce that is more representative of the offender population:
  • 30% weighting based on the offender population representation
  • 70% weighting based on the workforce availability (WFA)
• Similar objectives for visible minorities and a four-year plan to address representation gaps for women and persons with disabilities.
• Cultural bias review being done on tools used for recruitment of correctional staff to ensure assessment tools are exempt of cultural barriers.
• New Indigenous inventory in the Prairie Region for Indigenous peoples to apply for a range of positions. So far, 12 appointments have been made from this inventory.
• Increased representation in all EE groups between October and December 31, 2020:

Table showing the increase:

The representation of women in the CSC increased from 49.7% in the second quarter to 49.8% in the third quarter, while the availability in the workforce (WFA) is 52.6%.

Indigenous representation in CSC increased from 9.5% in the second quarter to 9.8% in the third quarter, while the workforce availability (WFA) is 7.5%.

The representation of visible minorities within CSC increased from 10.2% in the second quarter to 10.6% in the third quarter, while the workforce availability (WFA) is at 9.2%.

The representation of persons with disabilities in CSC increased from 5.9% in the second quarter to 6.0% in the third quarter, while the workforce availability (WFA) is 9.4%.

Audit of Culture in the planning phase

• Commitment under CSC's 2019-2020 Risk-Based Audit Plan
• Opportunity to examine all dimensions  of CSC's culture  and ensure we are adopting the right approach in moving forward
• Led by Internal Audit Sector, with the support of our Departmental Audit Committee
• To be engaged: senior management, regions and sectors, various subject matter experts from the National Advisory Committee on Ethics, external consultants, labour partners, and other federal government departments and organizations who have been undergoing changes in their organizational culture.

CSC will review its corporate priorities to clearly communicate that the organization is committed to building a culture that will foster a healthy and respectful workplace.

Notable annual events celebrated annually

• Bell Let's Talk Day
• Pink Shirt Day
• CSC Respect Day
• Healthy Workplace Month
• International Day of Persons with Disabilities
• Diversity Week
• Black History Month
• Human Rights Day
• Women's History Month
• International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
• Transgender Day of Remembrance

Positive impacts already measurable

2019 PSES results

• decrease of 6% in respondents indicating harassment from previous year
• increase of 7% in respondents indicating their satisfaction with the quality of supervision they receive
• increase of 6% in respondents indicating their satisfaction with how interpersonal issues are resolved in their work unit
• increase of 5% in respondents indicating that their immediate supervisor seems to care about them as a person

Other findings from the 2019-20 Workplace Climate Report

• 2% decrease in sick leave overall from 2018-2019
• Office of Conflict Management provided 2,088 services in 2019-2020, reaching 6,877 employees; mediations and facilitated discussions occurred in 95% of cases where OCM was contacted, and resolutions was found in 90% of these cases.
• In 2019-2020, EAP Referral Agents were contacted 2,677 times
• During the 2019-2020 period, a total of 139 harassment complaints were filed compared to 153 harassment complaints in 2018-2019
• 891 grievances filed by staff in 2019-2020 compared to 1373 in 2018-2019