Federally regulated employers must comply with the following nine requirements under the Employment Equity Act.
Requirements of your employment equity program
There is no mathematical formula to determine whether an employer meets its obligations under the Employment Equity Act. Different employers are at different stages and have different capacities. Commission auditors balance the need to be consistent with the need to evaluate each employer based on its particular circumstances. What is required of an employer, including the contents of an employment equity plan, will vary depending on a number of factors, including:
- Is this the first time the employer is being audited?
- Has the employer had an employment equity plan before, or does the audit trigger the creation of their first plan?
- Has the employer achieved relatively good representation of the some or all members of the four designated groups?
The Commission approaches its assessment of compliance with the overarching purpose of the Employment Equity Act in mind: to achieve a fair level of representation of members of the four designated groups and, where this does not exist, to take reasonable steps to remove barriers preventing fair representation. As such, it is very important to remember that the information provided on this page is a general guide intended to assist employers to prepare for and participate in an audit.
The nine requirements
Employers must follow these steps in order to comply with the Employment Equity Act:
- collection of workforce information
- conducting a workforce analysis
- conducting an employment systems review
- communicating on employment equity
- consulting on employment equity
- creating your employment equity plan
- implementing and monitoring your employment equity plan
- reviewing and revising your employment equity plan
- maintaining employment equity records