Introducing the BEN/REN Newsletter
The Black Executives Network | Le Réseau des exécutifs noirs (BEN/REN)
Supporting Black executives in the federal public service and those aspiring to become Black executives.
Sharing information about events or resources to the growing Network
Welcome to BEN/REN’s first issue! We are very happy to launch this newsletter which will inform and inspire you on a monthly basis.
One of BEN/REN’s Secretariats goals for the first quarter of the new fiscal year has been to develop an online presence to house information and resources relevant to the growing Network members. Another one has been to get in touch with our network members, our champions and allies, by making a committee newsletters one of our priorities. We are making some intentional changes in how we connect with our members. The most obvious is the sharing of this newsletter with you. If you prefer not to receive it, you can unsubscribe at any time by sending us an email.
Our goal with this newsletter is to make it easy for anyone to get detailed updates on what is going on in BEN/REN. In each issue, we'll share relevant news and updates, information about job posting opportunities, notes from the steering committee meetings and engagements, upcoming events, educational pieces such as articles, blogs, videos as well as a list of upcoming events that raise awareness of Black issues.
We also have a new webpage on GCconnex and GCcollab and we'll be delighted if you'll have a look. We’re also now on LinkedIn – Since we're new, please click and connect with us!
Budget 2022: Black Commitments
Federal Budget 2022 included several commitments to Black communities. Highlights include:
The BEN/REN Secretariat has prepared a summary of the main Black related commitments as well as other areas in Budget 2022 that make reference to commitments likely to impact Black Canadians. Included with this summary is our own commentary using Black Centric GBA Plus lens. The summary is available here: Budget 2022 – Black Commitments
Of particular importance to BEN/REN is the commitment to a Mental Health Fund for Black public servants. Anti-Black racism affects every aspect of our lives from career progression to the personal well-being of ourselves and our non-executive Black colleagues. BEN/REN will be paying close attention to progress on this Budget commitment.?
Seeking input on the Employment Equity Act Review?
On?July 14, 2021, the minister of Labour announced the launch of a Task Force to review the?Employment Equity Act?(EEA). To this end, TBS/OCHRO has partnered with Employment and Social Development Canada (Labour) to conduct consultations within core public administration, including senior officials, HR community, employee networks on the Employment Equity Act, the first review of the Act conducted since 2001. More detailed information on the Task Force and its mandate can be found at:?Task Force on the Employment Equity Act Review.
We have drafted a written feedback and recommendations on behalf of BEN/REN and we would love to receive your input and insights!
View the draft report here and get in touch with us with your comments no later than April 27.
Say hello to our new members!
Our network is growing! We have had over 15 new executives join the network since January 2022. With their permission, we are happy to introduce you to some of them!?
Help us grow our network! Do you know any Black Executives? Invite them to consider joining our network!
Member Survey
The value of our network is the people! We would like to understand the level of interest in leadership or learning activities and ensure we cater our initiatives and activities to support and benefit you. We will be sharing with you by email a survey and encourage your participation as it is essential for clarifying the mission and vision of our network.
There will be a 10 total questions designed to help us uncover the priorities of the membership and your own goals for the network. Thank you for your collaboration!
Talent Management
One of our top priorities is to support the careers of existing Black exceutives and those aspiring to be executives in the future. We are happy to share that this is being accomplished through our professional profiles initiatives!
Black Executive Professional Profiles
The professional profiles of Black Executives is a professional profile template created by the Black Executives Network to highlight the existing talent of our members. This initiative, launched in 2020, is a joint effort between the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer (OCHRO) and our network.
These one-pager summary voluntarily completed by Black executives at the EX-01 through EX-03 levels include professional information about oneself to highlight qualifications, accomplishments, leadership and more. They are then compiled together and included in an e-binder and shared with deputy Heads and Heads of Human Resources in participating federal public service organizations to support the identification of diverse internal talent and to ensure that highly qualified, inclusive, and agile leaders are well placed to serve Canadians. The last intake occurred in November 2021 and the ebinder was officially distributed by OCHRO in late March 2022.
Do you wish to participate?
If you have never participated in the submission of a professional profile in the last 6 months, or your information needs updating, we encourage you to fill one up today. To participate and to find out more – click here
Tell us what you think!
We would like to get a precise level of what your experience was with the e-binder in order to quantify officially what has happened to the executives who we’re included in the 2020-2021 eBinders so we could effectively report on what the initiatives success.
If you submitted a profile during October 2020 and March 2021, we invite you to complete this quick 10 question survey no later than May 16, 2022.
Future Black Leaders
At the beginning of the month, BEN/REN launched a pilot program for Black public servants with management and leadership capacity below the EX level who are promotion ready and have been at level for more than 24 months because of systemic barriers that prevent them from being considered for the same opportunities as their peers. This program is emulating the model used to promote and support the advancement of the Black Executives community and adapt it to the feeder groups.
The profiles are being compiled together and included in an e-binder to demonstrate the depth and breadth of Black talent who are ready for advancement and to help inform succession planning, support talent mobility, and increase the representation of Black individuals in the federal workforce.
We will be sharing this binder with our members and other managers in the public service who are looking to diversify their teams, support the identification of diverse internal talent. Following the distribution of the binders, we will evaluate the project and collect feedback from our members and the binder participants in order to improve it for our next collection.
The eBinder will be available to our members soon!?
Mentorship/Sponsorship opportunity
We are happy to share with you that ESDC’s Black Engagement and Advancement Team (BEAT) whose mandate is to identify and implement potential tangible and sustainable solutions to change the existing landscape for Black employees at ESDC, has launched their peer-to-peer coaching initiative called Community Collective Enrichment Circles (CCEC). It is the team’s first targeted career advancement program for Black employees at ESDC. This safe space consists of a supportive peer to peer community approach to help with career advancement. The pilot was launched on March 25, 2022 with a cohort of 6 members and will continue for 8 weeks – please see the session calendar below:
Session calendar
We need you!
Support from BEN/REN executives is being solicited to promote visibility of CCEC to executives across the public service. Interested executives are invited to meet the first cohort members, possibly attend a session for a 15-30 minute ‘pop in’ segment or provide a few mentorship meetings to a potential mentee.
We believe this is a great opportunity for our members to actively support the aspiring Black executive community. To participate, please reach out to BEAT directly [email protected]
FBEC COVID-19 Vaccine Survey
The Federal Black Employee Caucus (FBEC) is conducting a survey for Black employees of the Government of Canada. The purpose of this survey is to help us better understand Black employees experience of the GoC’s mandatory vaccine policy and its impacts on them. The data collected may also be used to advocate that the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat consult with Black people and Black-led organizations —including policy developers, political decision-makers, and other relevant stakeholders—in developing the evaluation framework of the mandatory vaccine policy.
We need your help to share this survey far and wide with every Black public servant in your network! We appreciate your collaboration. For more information about the survey and to complete the survey, please visit?https://aeara.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9SPtF1JaEk5Fb5Y
Join our BEN/REN Working Groups
领英推荐
Working Groups (WG) are the networks subgroups created to focus on priority areas as required. The Working Groups report to the steering committee and are supported by the secretariat in the development of work plans and the delivery of activities based on input from BEN/REN members.
Some great work is already underway and the workplans ready to be shared with our members soon. Here’s a glimpse of what is being worked on this year:
Mental Health, Learning & Leadership | Lead by Trudy Samuel
This working group is built on three pillars that contribute to the development of our members as executives and ensure that they are well-rounded, balanced leaders to better serve all Canadians. The group is responsible for offering projects and initiatives targeted at:
Network Communications and Engagement | Lead by Maxine Ifill
This working group aims to ensure broader visibility of the network, organize informal social meetings, support the onboarding of new executives, advocating for the needs of members, engaging in Network-to-Network outreach, and conducting survey memberships and more!
Data and Research | Lead by Paula Folkes-Dallaire
The work of this working group is focused around four key areas: Collecting data on culture (Research on the Black experience), ensuring the accuracy of the definition of racism specifically anti-Black racism, data disaggregation and accountability.?
Talent Management | Lead by Farahldine Boisclair & Seyi Okuribido-Malcolm
The current goals of this working group are two fold: influence the modernization of the Executive Performance and Talent Management Program and creating opportunities for future Black leaders (feeder groups).
Partnership & Stakeholder Engagement | Lead by Ray Edwards
This group is focused on the need to engage with key stakeholders at the highest levels of the public service to share, discuss and get support for the network’s recommended actions to address systemic racism and discrimination towards black public servants.
We invite you to participate by volunteering or referring us to someone who can. We are opening up the working group membership to the non executive community of Black public servants – as we believe it would be beneficial for them to have the opportunity to learn and gain experience working alongside BEN/REN executives.
If you or someone you know is interested, please get in touch with us!
Career Opportunities
Do you have any job vacancies in your team or heard of anyone looking for talent? Let us know!
We will be dedicating this space to sharing job opportunities and vacancies from our members. We invite you all to share with us the jobs you wish to fill or job opportunities that may be of interest to the Black Executive community and we will share it right here with the rest of our network.
Send us an email!
An innovative diversity and inclusion initiative
The Federal Internship for Newcomers (FIN) Program recently celebrated its 1,000th placement! More than 50 public sector organizations have benefited from the skills and experience that these amazing newcomers to Canada bring to their workplaces.
As you look for ways to meet the Treasury Board Directive on Employment Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, address hiring needs and increase the diversity of your workplace, the FIN Program can help you and your organizations. More than 70% of the newcomers who were successful in the Program’s selection process this year self-declared as visible minorities, and 150 candidates are now ready to meet your hiring needs.
In addition to work experience, each FIN intern is provided with training and mentorship to help them overcome the challenges of integrating into the Canadian workplace. The Program also promotes intercultural understanding by providing cross-cultural information and support to newcomers, managers, volunteer public servants, and mentors.
Recent amendments to the Public Service Employment Act (PSEA) have made it easier to hire permanent residents. FIN candidates hired initially in casual positions may now be hired into longer term or indeterminate jobs in the Federal Public Service via a non-advertised external appointment.?
We hope that you will consider including the FIN Program as part of your HR and staffing strategies. Please share this message with your management teams and HR staff.
The FIN team at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada ([email protected]) would be happy to provide more information about the Program.?
Upcoming Events
May 3 - ADDRESSING EMPLOYMENT BARRIERS FACED BY BLACK PEOPLE IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE: CAREER ADVANCEMENT
Part II of a three-part online event series focused on addressing employment barriers faced by Black People in the Public Service. Register on CSPS website here!
May 9-13 - GBA PLUS AWARENESS WEEK 2022
All federal public servants are invited to celebrate the 10th iteration of the Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) Awareness Week. Various virtual events will be held under the theme of #GBAPlusinAction! Consult your Department’s GBA Plus team for more information.
May 17-19 - APEX LEADERSHIP SUMMIT & AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE CEREMONY
The theme for this year’s summit is “Engage. Energize. Elevate.” The virtual program features three half-days of plenary sessions covering three sub-themes: Global Context, Challenges & Opportunities, Nourishing Mental & Emotional Health, and Inspirational Leadership & Resilience. APEX has assembled an impressive list of thought leaders and speakers – for more information and to register please visit https://apex.gc.ca/summit-program/
May 26 - BEN/REN GENERAL MEMBERS MEETING
Add it to your calendar!
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Connect With Us!
We are happy to share that you can now find us online. In addition to our newsletter, we will be using these platforms to keep our members engaged and abreast of all the updates including career opportunities and postings, events and conferences, and general information about network such as the objectives, priorities, committee Structure, accomplishments and more.
We invite you all to follow our pages and engage with the content. We encourage you to also share with those interested.
Until We Meet Again!
If you have relevant educational information, templates, resources, events to promote or other informational/material of value, please share it with the secretariat at [email protected]. You can also contact us if you’d like to be on our distribution list.
We look forward to continuing our work together to ensure a safe, welcoming, respectful and healthy workplace for everyone.
How to be involved
Membership in BEN/REN is open to people of African descent who are Federal Public Servant executives (at the EX 01 level and above, or are acting for one year or more in an EX position). If you fit that description, please consider becoming a member. BEN/REN currently has over 100 members Canada-wide. Being a member will give you the opportunity to stay connected and explore opportunities for further engagement. You will have access to our upcoming events and will have opportunities to contribute to BEN/REN's mandate.
To join, please subscribe to our mailing list by sending us your name, title and department/agency to?[email protected]
Self Identification
We encourage all Black employees to self-identify in surveys and employment processes to give BEN/REN and the government an accurate picture of Black representation and experiences in the public service.
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This newsletter was edited and curated by the BEN/REN Secretariat. — Please reach out to us if you have any questions – [email protected]
Stock photos used in this publication are royalty free