Short of new recruits, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is banking on a culture change to attract members of marginalized groups ― and convince them to stay.
Posted at 2:57 p.m.
After the many scandals related to harassment and sexual abuse in recent years, “the image has been a little tarnished”, acknowledged Wednesday Major-General Lise Bourgon, acting chief of military personnel, during a meeting of virtual technical briefing to report on the steps the organization has taken so far to become more inclusive.
“The reality is this: the Canadian workforce has changed, but we, the CAF, have not changed,” she summed up. Particularly when it comes to attracting women, “we’ve seen an impact and we need to work on that”.
The CAF aims to recruit 25.1% women per year. In 2021-2022, this rate was at 14.8%, a marked drop from 24.3% in 2020-2021.
However, it should be noted that the pandemic period may have influenced the results. Indeed, all types of recruits combined, the army has only managed to recruit 40% of its target in 2020-2021, and is in line to reach only 75% of its target for 2021-2022.
At the moment, the CAF are made up of 71% white men, recalled the Major General, while they only constitute 31% of the workers in the country.
Change efforts
Lieutenant-General Jennie Carignan, Chief of Professional Conduct and Culture, cited the addition of “inclusion in the performance appraisal process” of the military, and efforts to “ensure that all members of the defense team understand what constitutes inclusive behavior and what is expected of them” with this new functioning.
She underlined the central role of supervisors in “creating safe workplaces” and affirmed that several reflection and awareness workshops were organized with them, in addition to consultations with employees in general.
She also mentioned “a range of new services offered to victims” of abuse and efforts to “enable better management of their complaints”. Numerical data were not available.
Major-General Bourgon added that several changes had also been made to the absence policy, in particular to allow leave to be taken during religious or spiritual holidays other than Christian, in the event of bereavement or family violence.
She also recalled that the CAF have been using female rank names since February, and removed the gender notice from their driver’s licenses since June.
She announced the future publication of a guide on inclusivity, as well as an imminent modernization of the dress code. “The existing dress code was not inclusive,” she said. Professional skills and competence are not defined by the length or color of one’s hair. »
There were no figures available on the retention of members of marginalized groups.
This article was produced with the financial support of the Meta Fellowships and The Canadian Press for News.