Racial diversity in the BC Public Service
Research update May 30, 2024
Right now, Indigenous and racialized communities are underrepresented as employees within the BC Public Service.
This gap is even bigger for management roles.
The goal of this research is advancing racial equity in the BC Public Service. To do that, we are starting with understanding the current levels of diversity across government.
Understanding racial diversity in government will move us towards our goal of a public service that reflects the diverse population of the province. This will help us to practice racial equity in all of our work.
Racial diversity matters. We want the people shaping our services to reflect the lived experiences and perspectives of the people they are serving.
What did we learn and what are the next steps?
A public service that is representative of people in B.C. can help us deliver services that work for everyone.
The first phase of research focused on:
- Racial representation across the BC Public Service, including what roles Indigenous and racialized employees hold
- Careers for interns who took part in the Indigenous Youth Internship Program (IYIP)
In this first phase, we considered how different Indigenous and racialized groups are represented across the BC Public Service. We found that many groups are underrepresented, especially across management and executive roles.
These results confirm what Indigenous and racialized employees have been saying for a long time.
It will take more than understanding representation to achieve racial equity in the public service. This research is a starting point. Already, we can see that systemic racism is keeping talented people from joining and moving up in the BC Public Service. Our next steps will include:
- Continuing research to understand employee experiences
- Evaluating our hiring practices, workplace culture and approach to promotion
- Improving programs and policies to remove obstacles for Indigenous and racialized people
This research also supports our commitment to reconciliation and aligns with several actions in the Declaration Act Action Plan including:
- Improving recruitment and retention of Indigenous Peoples across the public sector (Action 3.2)
- Reviewing and improving the Indigenous Youth Internship Program (Action 4.44)
What is this research about?
This research shows the current level of racial diversity in the public service.
We’re committed to addressing discrimination and systemic racism within government. One way to do this is to make the BC Public Service more reflective of the population it serves.
Why is this important?
Our government is a colonial institution. It was shaped by racist and discriminatory beliefs, policies, attitudes and behaviours. This foundation has gone unchanged and leads to racism and discrimination occurring today.
This means that generations of Indigenous and racialized people continue to be excluded because of systemic racism.
What data did we use?
- Demographics from employee surveys (Work Environment Survey and New Job Survey)
- Employee information such as organization and job role
Explore the results
What data did we use?
This study is about approximately 30,600 people who were employed in the B.C. Government as of January 2022.
As well as, 406 Indigenous interns who participated in the Indigenous Youth Internship Program since it started in 2007.
For this research we used:
- Voluntarily-disclosed demographics from employee surveys (Work Environment Survey and New Job Survey)
- Employee information such as organization and job role
Who’s working on this project?
BC Stats and the BC Public Service Agency are working together on this research.
In future phases, we’ll focus on racial equity and begin to look at the experiences of employees.
Looking to learn more?
On May 30, 2024, we released a technical report about this research project. Explore this report to learn more about our approach and processes for this project.