All UBC employees are asked to complete a confidential online survey that helps inform our understanding of the demographic composition of faculty and staff.
This survey is one way to examine patterns and trends in employment across the university. A few minutes of your time spent completing this survey will provide UBC with better and more data to advance equity and inclusion in our workplaces.
Overview
At UBC, we are committed to advancing employment equity. We know that some in our community continue to experience inequities. As a university, we’re committed to doing better, to building more inclusive and equitable teaching and working spaces, and to creating a workforce that is reflective of the diversity of the student body and the wider community.
The Employment Equity Survey is an important part of these efforts and one way that you can help build a more inclusive UBC, today. By counting yourself in, you will:
- provide valuable data on the compositional diversity of UBC’s workforce;
- inform employment equity goals which improve our recruitment and retention practices;
- assess progress in terms of advancing the Employment Equity Plan;
- support institutional accountability by allowing us to track and report on progress and trends;
- help ensure that everyone benefits from a fair and equitable workplace.
UBC employees are required to complete the survey, however, self-identifying is optional, and respondents may “prefer not to answer” any question.
Please note that alternative ways to complete the survey are available. Please see the following instructions or get in touch with the Equity & Inclusion Office.
An alternative to the online survey is available.
Employees can print and fill in a hardcopy of the survey:
Download a fillable and printable PDF copy of the survey.
Download a fillable and printable Word copy of the survey.
If you do not have access to a printer and need a hard copy mailed to you, please contact the EIO at: info@equity.ubc.ca.
Once you've completed the paper copy of the survey, please return it to the Equity & Inclusion Office via UBC's interdepartmental campus mail.
Place your survey submission in a sealed envelope addressed to the EIO. Do not write your name or any identifying information on the envelope. Drop it off at your department’s main office mail pick up or closest campus mail pick up location.
Please send your campus mail to our Vancouver office location.
All incoming mail is stored securely and can only be retrieved by designated EIO staff. Information from paper surveys will be entered by a designated EDI data analyst into a secure UBC database and physical copies subsequently destroyed.
If you require additional accommodation to enable you to complete the survey, please let us know and reach out to the Centre for Workplace Accessibility.
Privacy and Confidentiality
We understand that some of you may feel vulnerable and hesitant to share your information. We hear you. All data collected is confidential, analyzed anonymously, and presented on an aggregate level – no one is identified by name. All data is stored on secure UBC systems and individual responses are not shared with your manager or supervisor. Please see the FAQ section on “Your Privacy” below.
Frequently Asked Questions
About Employment Equity
We understand employment equity as expanding access to employment opportunities for all – particularly as we work to address systemic disadvantages faced by federally designated groups – Indigenous Peoples, racialized people, people with disabilities, and women – as well as people with minoritized gender identities and sexual orientations.
As a university, UBC has clear commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion, including through the university's strategic plan and Strategic Equity & Anti-Racism Framework and Roadmap for Change.
The research is unequivocal: diversity enhances innovation, and inclusive spaces ensure that diverse teams are able to collaborate effectively. As the world becomes more connected, and UBC focuses on contributing to global citizenship and finding solutions to complex issues, our commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion support our continued progress.
About the Survey
The Employment Equity Survey is the only mechanism for centralized and standardized collection of demographic information on UBC employees. Respondents are given the option to self-identify by gender, trans experience, sexual orientation, Indigenous identity, ethno-racial identity, racialization experience, and disability. Respondents have the option to "Prefer not to answer" any self-ID category in the questionnaire. The survey is available to employees to update or complete at any time. Survey data is downloaded each year at the end of October and is used to produce the annual Employment Equity Report.
The university collects this data to understand the demographic composition of faculty and staff. This data also helps to assess barriers to equitable participation in UBC's workforce, particularly among historically, persistently or systemically marginalized (HPSM) groups, and analyze, track and report on patterns and trends. This analysis supports evidence-based decision-making to advance employment equity and institutional accountability and transparency.
In short, these data help us understand:
- current and changing faculty and staff demographics;
- patterns and trends, as well as gaps or inequities in employment, promotion and retention;
- differences in employees’ experiences; and
- progress towards institutional commitments.
The Employment Equity Survey aligns with the Federal Employment Equity Act and the British Columbia Human Rights Code and with UBC’s employment equity policy and plan, which follow the guidelines of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal.
At times, depending on the level of the university’s contracting with the Federal government, UBC may be required to report employment equity data in compliance with the Federal Contractor’s Program. Please see the FAQ section about the Federal Contractors Program below.
All paid employees – faculty and staff – are asked to complete the survey.
You can access the survey here.
You can update your responses by resubmitting the survey here.
If you completed the survey prior to October 2021, please fill it out again as questions and answer options since changed. Completing the survey should take approximately two to three minutes and will ensure that your data is accurate and up-to-date and that decisions made using this data are well informed.
The Employment Equity Survey is periodically updated in effort to improve the quality and accuracy of UBC's institutional data. This includes endeavoring to respond to feedback from the UBC community, adopt promising practices in demographic data collection, meet informational needs of various rightsholders and stakeholders on UBC's campuses, and align to federal and provincial standards, where relevant, and peer institutions, when feasible.
The survey has been administered in somewhat similar form for well over a decade. A summary of updates is reflected below.
For a more detailed explanation of rationales informing changes to the survey, please contact info@equity.ubc.ca.
2021 release updates:
- Reframed to "gender identity" from "sex"; expanded gender category to include "trans" and "non-binary";
- Adopted terminology of "2SLGBQIA+"; separated self-ID for "trans experience" from "sexual orientation";
- Adopted terminology of "Indigenous", defined by Section 35 of the Constitution Act;
- Adopted terminology of "racialized" and "person of colour";
- Updated subpopulation groupings with adapted Canadian census categories; added "Indigenous (within North America)";
- Removed terminology of "disability" to focus on "functional limitations" and "environmental barriers".
2024 release updates:
- Updated subpopulation groupings to include "Jewish";
- Added self-ID for "disabled" based on Employment Equity Act definition.
The Employment Equity Survey is intended to capture faculty and staff paid by UBC. Students are encouraged to complete the Student Diversity Census. A direct link to the census was sent to every UBC student via email and can be accessed in their Canvas inbox. You can learn more about the Student Diversity Census here.
While paid employees are required to fill out the survey and encouraged to self-identify, if you prefer not to disclose personal information you can select the “Prefer not to answer” option for any question in the survey.
At this time there are no measures in place to guarantee compliance.
Please contact the Equity & Inclusion Office at info@equity.ubc.ca.
UBC Equity & Inclusion Office (EIO) is responsible for the survey development and employee engagement. EIO works with UBC's Planning and Institutional Research Office (PAIR) to analyze survey data. EIO also works with the Integrated Service Centre (ISC) who program the survey into Workday and provide managed access to Workday reports.
For each reporting year, survey data are downloaded at the end of October. These data are processed and anonymously analyzed. Summarized results are compiled into the annual Employment Equity Report.
Individual responses are never shared with your manager, supervisor, head of unit or department. Information is only shared in anonymized aggregate summaries.
Overall institutional-level results are presented to the Board of Governors as an accountability measure, to communicate progress, and to inform decision-making. Reports are also shared with administrative and academic leadership to inform workforce planning and recruitment and retention practices.
Survey data results support the university’s evidence-based approach to decision-making around resource allocation, program and policy developments, and strategic plan implementation related to equity, diversity and inclusion.
Individuals can request aggregate anonymized survey results for a specific Faculty, administrative portfolio, unit or department. To request this data, submit a request via the EIO’s online consultation intake form for ‘measurement, evaluation, reporting and data’ and, subsequently, a ‘data request’.
Yes. Many if not all public post-secondary institutions collect employment equity data.
About Your Privacy
Information you provide is protected by section 26 (a) and (c) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) and is treated in strictest confidence.
Data is stored in Canada on UBC’s secure systems, a database accessed only by a limited number of designated staff. The information you provide will not form part of your personnel file.
The survey data will not be made available for purposes other than employment equity programs, and will be reported in an aggregate, summarized form which does not identify individuals, to protect your privacy.
The survey is not anonymous so that individuals can update their information at any time or should an employee’s status at the university change (leaving the university and/or changing positions, for example), and to allow required analysis of aggregate demographic data linked with job categories and/or occupational groups.
The Associate Vice President, Equity & Inclusion is the data trustee and steward for all employment equity data and designates individuals within the Equity & Inclusion Office and Planning and Institutional Research Office who have access to record level data to support proper processing, analysis and reporting.
Data is shared at an aggregated level (e.g., anonymized summaries). Inquiries regarding access to case-level data must demonstrate necessity, and approval must come from the Data Access Committee.
Visit ACCESS UBC DATA for more information.
Personally identifiable information is not accessible to UBC staff, faculty or leadership and, as a result, there is no way for someone to gain knowledge of your personal identity data from this survey.
Aggregate level data may be used to inform recruitment and selection processes and, as a result, some positions may be designated as seeking preferential hiring for those from under-represented, federally designated groups.
Likewise, aggregate survey data may inform development of programs to support under-represented employees in terms of career development, including mentorship and/or sponsorship programs.
About the Federal Contractors Program
The Federal Contractors Program requires that organizations who do business with the Government of Canada implement employment equity in their workplace. Organizations with a contract for goods and services with the federal government valued over $1 million dollars sign an Agreement to Implement Employment Equity (AIEE).
Employers subject to the Federal Contractors Program are required to collect, analyze and report on workforce data pertaining to the four designated groups under the Employment Equity Act. More details about the requirements for the FCP Program can be found here: https://equity.esdc.gc.ca/sgiemt-weims/emp/WeimsEET.jsp.
The four designated groups under the Employment Equity Act are:
- women;
- Indigenous Peoples;
- persons with disabilities;
- and members of visible minorities.
Even if you don’t identify within one of the four designated groups you are still asked to complete the survey. UBC’s survey captures these four designated groups as well as additional demographics.
The table below provides the description of each designated group, as written in the Act, and the correlating description in UBC’s Employment Equity Survey. The survey is periodically revised to improve overall participation and to respond to feedback from the UBC community.
The federal definitions are currently under review as part of the Government of Canada’s efforts to modernize and strengthen its employment equity framework. In the interim, UBC continues to collect data through its current employment equity survey but will report them to the FCP as the designated groups.
| Designated Group | Employment Equity Act definition | UBC’s Employment Equity Survey definition | |
| Indigenous Peoples | Persons who are Indians, Inuit or Métis | Indigenous peoples include treaty, status/non-status, and/or registered/non-registered members of First Nations, Métis or Inuit. | |
| Members of visible minorities | Persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour | Someone who is racialized, a visible minority, person of colour, or an analogous term. Members of racialized groups are persons who do not identify as Indigenous peoples (as defined above), and who do not identify as primarily White in race, ethnicity, origin, and/or colour, regardless of their birthplace or citizenship. | |
| Persons with Disabilities | Persons who have a long-term or recurring physical, mental, sensory, psychiatric or learning impairment and who (a) consider themselves to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of that impairment, or (b) believe that a employer or potential employer is likely to consider them to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of that impairment, and includes persons whose functional limitations owing to their impairment have been accommodated in their current job or workplace | Persons who have a long-term or recurring physical, mental, sensory, psychiatric or learning impairment and who (a) consider themselves to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of that impairment, or (b) believe that a employer or potential employer is likely to consider them to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of that impairment, and includes persons whose functional limitations owing to their impairment have been accommodated in their current job or workplace | Has a significant and persistent or recurring mobility, sensory, learning, or other physical or mental health impairment; Experiences functional restrictions or limitations of your ability to perform the range of life’s activities related to a significant and persistent or recurring mobility, sensory, learning, or other physical or mental health impairment; and/or Experiences environmental barriers related to a significant and persistent or recurring mobility, sensory, learning, or other physical or mental health impairment that hamper your full and self- directed participation in University activities. In 2024, UBC’s Employment Equity Survey includes both UBC’s and the Employment Equity Act definition for employees self-identifying as disabled, to comply with FCP reporting requirements. |
Yes, you can identify as belonging to multiple designated groups. You are asked to self-identify in all relevant categories.