A recommendation from York University's Decolonizing, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (DEDI) Strategy to develop and launch an employment equity dashboard has been brought to fruition. The community and the public are invited to engage with this dynamic display of employment equity data where viewers can explore and filter substantive data by employee groups, equity groupings and more.
The new dashboard, housed on York's Data Hub, features three years of employment equity data (currently from 2022, 2023 and 2024) using employees' voluntary self-identification information. The dashboard will serve as a companion to the annual employment equity report, which is housed on the employment equity website, along with archives of past years' reports. The dashboard also displays comparator data from the Ontario workforce and the York student census.
The dashboard is the result of collaborative efforts of staff in the Division of Equity, People & Culture (EPC), the Office of Institutional Planning and Analysis (OIPA), and University Information Technology (UIT).
"This dashboard will be important in helping the community form a better understanding of York as a workplace and to increase positive outcomes in representation for identified employment equity groups," says Margaret Kierylo, assistant vice-president institutional planning and chief data officer. "The project exemplifies how teams across the University can come together to deliver on York's institutional priorities, leveraging data to drive meaningful change. It aligns with York's Data and Analytics Strategy, which emphasizes the importance of accessible, high-quality data to support decision-making. This is an important addition to York's Data Hub, and I am pleased to support continued efforts at making data accessible to the community."
The aim is for the data to be actively used by community members to: understand the University employee community; inform the development of programs and services; assess representation, participation and outcomes in employment programs; offer insights into longitudinal trends; and more.
"The employment equity dashboard lets us see not only who makes up York's workforce but also where there may be gaps and barriers," says Laina Bay-Cheng, vice-president equity, people and culture. "Such visibility is essential to improving employment practices from hiring to career advancement."
The dashboard can be used to identify patterns and trends in representation, recruitment and retention, and to inform further analysis or programs.
Developed out of recommendations in the DEDI Strategy, the dashboard will serve as the foundation for a full employment systems review to be undertaken in the next 18 months. Part of this next stage of work includes creating benchmarks, identifying and developing metrics to annually monitor employment progression in leadership roles of equity-deserving groups across all employee groups, and to monitor the representation of equity-deserving groups at all levels of employment and in all categories within the institution.
The dashboard data will be updated annually in January for progress and measurement against local representation rates where possible. Employees can update their responses to the employment equity survey at any time through HR Self-Serve.
This story was originally featured in YFile, York University's community newsletter.
