The Canadian Human Rights Commission conducts three main types of audits to determine if employers are meeting their legal obligations to offer equal employment opportunities to four designated groups: women, Indigenous people, persons with disabilities, and members of racialized groups.
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Employer-specific audits
Employer-specific audits focus on the employer and look at whether that employer meets the requirements of the Employment Equity Act. Employer-specific audits are sometimes referred to as ‘conventional’ audits, as this was the original audit type conducted by the Commission.
How it works:
The Commission sends notification letters to selected employers indicating that they are being audited.
Employers then receive an employment equity audit submission index and are required to submit their responses, related evidence, and their most recent workforce analysis to the Commission.
The Commission analyzes the evidence, sets up interviews with employees from different levels of the organization, and conducts on-site visits where possible or necessary.
The Commission then prepares a confidential audit report for each employer that summarizes the audit findings.
If an employer does not meet all the requirements of the Employment Equity Act, the Commission requires the employer to sign a mandatory Management Action Plan (MAP). This is an agreement to take corrective actions in place within specific timeframes. Employers must then provide the Commission with proof of completion of the MAP for evaluation.
During this monitoring phase, the Commission will also validate the employer's employment equity goals as part of their employment equity plan.
Once the Commission validates that the employer has provided sufficient evidence of meeting all nine requirements of the Employment Equity Act, the Commission sends the employer a letter confirming that the audit is closed.
Issue-based audits
An issue-based, or horizontal audit focuses on systemic employment equity issues faced by members of one designated group in a specific sector. Each horizontal audit seeks to better understand the situation and experiences of the designated group, and includes a diversity and leadership lens to promote a higher representation of designated group members in management positions.
Horizontal audits aim to:
- address persistent representation gaps for a designated group in particular sectors
- ensure employers have adequate plans to correct under-representation
- identify specific barriers that impede progress
- gather best practices that increase representation and help retain employees
- allow for the sharing of best practices with all federally regulated employers through the publication of sector-wide reports
How it works:
A horizontal audit has two phases.
In phase one, the Commission sends a survey to all employers in a sector.
Survey results are then used to randomly select employers for the second phase of the audit, which consists of a compliance audit of their employment equity program.
The employers selected for phase two must provide information and documentary evidence related to audit lines of inquiry, which are linked to each of the nine requirements of the EEA.
The Commission analyzes the evidence, sets up interviews with employees from different levels of the organization, and conducts on-site visits where possible or necessary.
The Commission then prepares a confidential audit report for each employer; this report summarizes the audit findings.
If an employer does not meet all of the requirements of the Employment Equity Act, the Commission requires the employer to sign a mandatory Management Action Plan (MAP) with items that require remedial action.
Once the MAP is complete and employers provide evidence of meeting all remedial actions, the Commission sends employers a letter confirming the audit is closed.
At the completion of a horizontal audit, the Commission publishes an anonymized sector-wide report. This report includes an analysis of the Employment Equity Survey results, as well as a summary of the overall audit findings, common barriers, and positive practices uncovered during the audit of that sector.
Requirement-based audits
Requirement-based audits are a mechanism for the Commission to check on employers, with a narrower scope than an employer-specific or issue-based audit. A requirement-based audit focuses on at least one designated group and is based on two or more of the nine requirements of the Employment Equity Act. Requirement-based audits are sometimes referred to as ‘blitz’ audits to reflect their more targeted nature.
How it works:
Employers are selected from the same pool used to select employer-specific audits.
The Commission sends notification letters to selected employers indicating that they are being audited.
Employers will be required to submit documentation related to the requirements being assessed.
Based on the results of the audit, the Commission will develop action items for the employer to implement. Action items could range from launching a new self-identification survey to a full audit of the employer's employment equity program.
The Commission may prepare a confidential audit report that summarizes the audit findings, which can include a Management Action Plan to address areas of non-compliance.