Equity Action Plan
The Equity Action Plan now encompasses UVic’s employment equity program, which falls under the jurisdiction of BC's Office of the Human Rights Commissioner. The current program is approved from September 2022 through September 2027. It carries new strategies in recruitment and retention, a plan for greater employment equity data collection and the right to conduct limited and/or preferential hiring searches for underrepresented populations.
Best practices to support employment equity
1. Get informed
Learn more about Indigenization, anti-racism initiatives, sexualized violence prevention, gender diversity, disability and accommodation, and mental health support and fair hiring.- Indigenous Academic and Community Engagement (IACE)
- Anti-Racism education
- Sexualized violence prevention and supports
- Trans, Two-Spirit & non-binary supports
- Disability and accommodation for staff
- Disability and accommodation for faculty. Information about accommodation, sick leave, and long-term disability.
- Mental health: See what resources are available to support mental health for employees at UVic
- UVic competencies model has resources on personal development and learning on many of these topics
- Fair Hiring: See what resources UVic has to support fairness in all stages of the hiring process
2. Become a bias buster
Learn about unconscious bias, its impacts and how to overcome it. See Bias Resources.
3. Inclusive vision
Work with your team to create a shared vision of inclusion. Build an inclusive vision: Inclusive statements (PDF)
4. Integrate best practices
Draw on resources to support all stages of hiring, assessment and employment. Factor equity into every decision you make. See Hiring resourcesMake a standing item on equity, diversity and inclusion at your meetings.
- Include it: Embed EDI dialogues (PDF)
- See Performance & Development for resources on having difficult conversations and managing employees well
5. Build community
Plan an event focused on equity, diversity and inclusion. Steps for community building (PDF)
6. Become champions
Create and support an equity committee in your unit.
Embed practices of equity, diversity, accessibility, inclusion and dialogue throughout the university community so that all members feel welcomed, valued and supported to achieve their highest potential. - University of Victoria Strategic Framework, strategy 1.2
Better Data Project
Embedding employment equity is not only the right thing to do but needed to attract and retain people with the knowledge, perspectives and skills to achieve excellence. Given the importance of this work, UVic is excited to begin work on the Better Data Project which aims to build ethical data governance practices that have consistent collection of disaggregated data to address barriers to equity across the UVic community.
Launched fall 2022, the Better Data Project will start by building a community-informed data governance structure in consultation with campus leaders and subject-matter experts. Following it, the project has two phases to improve the collection of self-identification, demographic data across campus.
Phase 1 will be a redesign and relaunch the Employment Equity Survey to establish a baseline understanding of the make up of employees at UVic. Key trends in representation will be shared with the community through an interactive, live data dashboard. Phase 1 of the project will be important in forming new hiring goals and evaluating on-going initiatives to increase equity on campus.
Phase 2 of the project will involve the development and distribution of an equity census for UVic students. By enhancing the self-identification options available to students, Phase 2 aims to address known gaps in UVic’s current self-identification data collection and management practices. These gaps include a limited representation of diverse groups (options limited to Indigenous identity and gender identity) and an inability to identify and analyze intersectional identities.
Both phases of the Better Data Project will provide the campus community with an opportunity to self-identify across a range of identities to provide UVic with an understanding of who makes up our community. Importantly, the work is guided by key equity data collection principles set forward by topic experts and guiding policy documents (e.g., the Grandmother Perspective). The revised Employment Equity Survey and the Student Equity Census launch in September 2023.