Talent Cloud Results Report

The Idea

The Government of Canada is committed to advancing diversity, inclusion and equality in public service hiring, and in all aspects of government work. While much of this commitment involves the socialization of antiracism approaches and a shift in culture, particularly at decision-making levels, there is also the need for systemic solutions that can produce results at an aggregate level. In short, the Government is in search of new processes that produce new outcomes.

Based on the small, but promising work that Talent Cloud has done on reengineering the application process for Government of Canada jobs, the team feels there is merit in a wider study to see if this solution can produce scalable results.

The experiments done by Talent Cloud to date are far from a statistically sound study that would prove or disprove the method. The first step would be to start with a sample large enough that we could statistically prove (or disprove) the theory. This would require between 50 and 100 jobs, with an anticipated applicant volume of 2000-5000 applications in total. (Ideally, this would then be tested against the diversity outcomes of an equivalent sample of advertisements on the GC Jobs platform, comparing baselines.)

If the model proved successful, the intention would then be to standardize its use in Government of Canada job advertisement processes, by making the necessary changes to the primary platform(s) being used by GC hiring managers and departments.

"A commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion is measured in more than just words."

Intended Outcomes

The intended outcome of this project would be two-fold:

1. Confirm and refine a new methodology for advancing inclusion and diversity that could have far-reaching implications for the Government of Canada beyond just hiring, and could be an asset to other governments domestically and internationally looking to do the same; and
2. Generate concrete, sustainable, process-aligned improvements to diversity and inclusion outcomes in hiring at all stages of the recruitment and selection process; and to deliver results for equity-seeking and underrepresented groups including, and beyond, the employment equity categories identified in the Employment Equity Act (1995).

Leveraging Talent Cloud

Talent Cloud has the expertise, the platform, the methodology, the Privacy Impact Assessment, and the Authority to Operate ready to go to undertake this study. If there was a decision to advance this work in the near future, the research study could “go live” at any time.

Requirements to advance this research:

1. The willingness of a dozen departments to put forward a small handful of job advertisements each as part of the study;
2. Sustained resource support; and
3. Ongoing championing from Treasury Board Secretariat and the Office of the Chief Information Officer to host the team as part of its organizational structure (which is where the infrastructure, Authority to Operate and Privacy Impact Assessment for Talent Cloud have been set up.)