A framework for implementation of diversity initiatives: the case of Edmonton, Alberta.

• Author: Fernandes, Peter P.

Inculcating diversity principles in the city's long-range planning and day-to-day thinking is part of Edmonton's management strategy to ensure a totally productive and dedicated work force.

During the past few years, local governments have implemented a variety of expenditure reduction strategies in order to balance the annual budget, while municipal administrators have been trying to "do more with less" by efficient, effective, and economical use of available resources. Some local governments have embarked upon processes such as rightsizing, delayering, downsizing, and outsourcing. Others, the City of Edmonton, Alberta, among them, have introduced a combination of such initiatives to ensure that all resources are used productively (e.g., quality performance, employee centred management, and diversity initiatives).

Since payroll costs can be a large portion of municipal expenditures, Edmonton officials believe it is essential to ensure that 100 percent return is obtained from all employees who are on the municipality's payroll, regardless of their individual backgrounds, gender, beliefs, and orientations. The city has undertaken special efforts to ensure that all employees feel that they are an integral part of the corporation and that they can make a significant contribution to improved services to customers. The prevailing management philosophy is to ensure that the corporation has a totally productive and dedicated work force.

From a service provision perspective, it is important that recipients of Edmonton's services feel that they are receiving the best value for their tax dollars, regardless of their ethnicity, language, race, or culture. To meet this challenge, it was necessary for the City of Edmonton to factor into its strategic approach the need to stretch existing dollars as well as recognize the changing demographics of the community. The concept of correlating employee efficiency vis-a-vis customer needs led to the introduction of a diversity initiatives process, which envisioned delivery of services within the context of limited dollars and the new demographics of the community.

Concepts and Goals of Initiatives

The City of Edmonton is the third largest municipal corporation in Canada, with an annual budget of more than $1 billion. Its nearly 10,000 employees are represented by 11 different civic unions and associations. Approximately 30 percent of the city's work force comprises women, 10 percent visible minorities, and aboriginal peoples and persons with disabilities each make up less than 5 percent. The city provides a population of approximately 627,000 with all municipal services, including police, fire, and ambulance. It also owns and operates utilities such as water, sanitary sewer, airport, and a power utility as a wholly owned subsidiary corporation.

In Edmonton, the purpose of its diversity initiatives program is to ensure that every employee feels involved in achieving the corporation's goals, to ensure that there are no unnecessary barriers or hindrances for such involvement, and to eliminate unproductive time (or lost time) which could result from perceived or actual harassment or discrimination. Experience had shown that a certain percentage of total person days were lost due to issues related to treatment of employees and customers. In times of restraint, such dissipation of energy and resources was considered unacceptable.

The basic premise of diversity initiatives is that if employees felt that they were being treated with fairness, dignity, and without discrimination, they would reciprocate with a sizeable amount of commitment to corporate goals. This is based on the belief that every employee has the ability and responsibility to increase return on investment and to improve the bottom line by efficient delivery of services. The philosophy behind diversity is awareness that the organization must be responsive to the needs of its employees and customers and that this is accomplished by understanding customer needs and by ensuring employees have the skills to meet those needs. The philosophy has come alive with the introduction of proactive strategies through the diversity initiatives program and the objective of making diversity an integral part of the way the City of Edmonton does business.

While financial considerations provided one area of focus, the city's diversity initiatives program had to be introduced within the parameters of human rights legislation and the contractual and policy framework within which city departments must operate:

* the 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which reflects all the values and fundamental freedoms of the United Nations Declaration;

* the Canadian Human Rights Act of 1977, which applies to federal and federally regulated bodies and whose aim is to protect Canadians from discrimination based on 11 protected grounds listed in the act;

* the 1986 Employment Equity Act, whose goal is to ensure fair hiring, promotion, and training practices in companies under federal jurisdiction - such as federal crown corporations, banks, airlines, railways, telephone and broadcasting companies - with more than 100 employees (employment equity means that no one should be discriminated against for being a woman, a person with a disability, an aboriginal person, or a person from a visible minority group);

* Alberta's Individual Rights Protection Act of 1972, designed to protect individuals from discrimination; and

* the City of Edmonton's Equal Opportunities Policy adopted in 1976 (revised in 1991 and 1995).

When Edmonton began to deal with issues of harassment and discrimination in the...