Voluntary Disclosures
Diversity Data Collection & Use
HomeEquity Bank is committed to creating an environment where all employees feel valued, respected and heard and achieving employment equity. At HomeEquity Bank all employees have the opportunity to experience career success. We are subject to certain governmental recordkeeping and reporting requirements under The Employment Equity Act. In order to comply with these laws, we invite employees to voluntarily self-identify their visible minority, gender, Indigenous, and disability status. You will also be asked to indicate your gender identity, sexual orientation and whether you identify as a member of the Canadian Military.
Submission of this information is voluntary and, if you decide not to provide it, that will not impact your employment opportunities. The information will be kept confidential and will only be used by individuals who have a business need, such as the HomeEquity Bank Human Resources recruitment team, agents, and third-party service providers, or where we are required to summarize and report to the federal government.
You will be asked these questions at different stages of the recruitment process. Where we ask these questions, we have provided further information on why we are asking them and definitions for each status.
Gender Identity
A person’s internal and individual experience of gender. It is a person’s sense of being a woman, a man, both, neither, or anywhere along the gender spectrum. A person’s gender identity may be the same as or different from their birth-assigned sex.
For most people, their sex and gender identity align (“Cis-gender”). For some, they do not, e.g., a person may be born female but identify as a man. Other people may identify outside the categories of woman/man, masculine/feminine, or may see their gender identity as fluid and moving between different genders at different times in their life.
A person’s gender identity is fundamentally different from their sexual orientation, and variations in sexual orientation occur regardless of gender identity. For example, a trans woman may identify as gay, straight, bisexual, or by other terms.
Sexual Orientation
Sexual orientation is defined as an often-enduring pattern of emotional, romantic and/or sexual attraction of a person towards other persons.
Members of Visible Minority Groups
“Members of Visible minority groups” means persons, other than Indigenous [Aboriginal] Peoples of Canada who are non-white in colour or non-Caucasian in race.
Being a visible minority does not refer to citizenship, place of birth or religion.
South Asian/East Indian includes Indian from India; Bangladeshi; Pakistani; East Indian from Guyana, Trinidad, East Africa; etc.
Southeast Asian includes Burmese; Cambodian; Laotian; Thai; Vietnamese; etc.
Non-White West Asian, Non-White North African or Arab includes Egyptian; Libyan; Lebanese; Iranian; etc.
Non-White Latin American includes indigenous persons from Central and South America, etc.
Person of Mixed Origin means one parent is from one of the visible minority groups listed
Indigenous [Aboriginal] Peoples
Indigenous or Aboriginal peoples to Canada means persons who are First Nations (status or non-status), Inuit or Métis. The required regulatory definition of “Aboriginal” under the Employment Equity Act is defined as Indians, Inuit or Métis. In all other contexts, HomeEquity Bank respectfully refers to this community as “Indigenous peoples”.
Persons with Disabilities
“Persons with disabilities” means 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 an 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.”
Disabilities can be non-visible.
Impairment refers to any difficulty that lasts for six months or more and that limits your daily activities. Examples of impairment include, but are not limited to difficulties:
- seeing (even when wearing glasses or contact lenses)
- hearing (even using a hearing aid)
- walking, using stairs, using your hands or fingers or doing other physical activities
- learning, remembering or concentrating
- emotional, psychological or mental health conditions