Employee Equity and Retention Strategies at CP Rail: Case Study

This case study analyzes CP Rail's initiatives to advance women employees, comparing them to a recommended six-step program for employment equity and retention strategies discussed in HRM 3.1. The study examines CP Rail's implementation of diversity goals across departments, mentoring programs, public forums for senior women to discuss their career paths, and the Women on Track program. The analysis highlights how CP Rail's actions align with the six-step program, addressing under-representation and barriers to employment. Furthermore, it reviews retention strategies from the HRM 3.1 course, emphasizing the importance of mentoring and job opportunities for female employees. The study concludes that CP Rail's initiatives are adequate but could be enhanced by considering additional strategies to further support the advancement of women employees.

Running head: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS: EMPLOYEE EQUITY
Case Study Analysis: Employee Equity
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CASE STUDY ANALYSIS: EMPLOYEE EQUITY
Employment Equity is a Canadian concept as established under the federal law of
Canada that requires employers or business owners to implement proactive measures that will
increase representation of four specific groups within their organization, namely, the aboriginal
people, people who are disabled, visible minorities and women (Chan, 2019). According to the
Employment Equity Act of Canada, the term employment equity entails not just treating all
employees the same way but also the accommodation of differences and the implementation of
special measures to ensure the wellbeing of the four designated groups mentioned above
(MgGown & Ng, 2016). This assignment compares the initiatives that have been undertaken by
CP Rail for the advancement of women employees by implementing a six step program for this
purpose, and it also reviews the highlights in the HRM 3 course, namely retention strategies to
discuss what more can be done by CP Rail to assist the advancement of women employees by a
considerable degree.
According to the recommended six step program for employment equity, employers
should take necessary steps to ensure that the implementation program is going to be successful
by assigning accountability and responsibility and developing a proper communications strategy,
to identify under-representation, to identify barriers to employment so as to prepare for the
removal of the same, to go ahead and implement the initiatives, to engage in monitoring and
evaluation activities (Ramos & Li, 2017). The initiatives that have been undertaken by CP Rail
are aimed at addressing the matter of diversity, since all of the departments are to have diversity
goals, mentoring programs are to be established for females, to have senior women to discuss
career prospects at public forums and creating a program known as Women on Track so that
female employees are offered increased opportunities. It can be said that the initiatives that have
been undertaken by CP Rail are in keeping with the recommended six step strategy for employee

2CASE STUDY ANALYSIS: EMPLOYEE EQUITY
equity since the question of under-representation has been addressed by creating diversity goals
for all departments and mentoring programs for female employees. By getting women employees
to talk about their career experiences on public platforms and by creating the Women on Track
program under-representation and barriers to employment are being effectively addressed as well
(Reimer, 2018).
When it comes to the retention strategies that were discussed in the HRM 3.1 course, it
was stated that mentoring and the offering of job opportunities for female employees is some of
the best ways to get female employees to stay on and work in an organization. This is something
that the CP Rail is clearly doing by establishing mentoring programs specifically for women, and
by getting women, especially the senior employees to talk about career opportunities on public
platforms (Ramos & Li, 2017).
Thus, the initiatives that are being undertaken by CP Rail to look into matters of diversity
and representation are definitely adequate. These are initiatives which are in keeping with the
recommended six step strategy for employment equity and also the retention strategies that have
been discussed and highlighted in the HRM 3.1 course.

3CASE STUDY ANALYSIS: EMPLOYEE EQUITY
References
Chan, J. (2019). Employment Equity for Whom? Deconstructing the Canadian Paradigm.
In Interrogating Models of Diversity within a Multicultural Environment (pp. 97-116).
Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
McGowan, R. A., & Ng, E. S. (2016). Employment equity in Canada: Making sense of employee
discourses of misunderstanding, resistance, and support. Canadian Public
Administration, 59(2), 310-329
Ramos, H., & Li, P. (2017). Differences in representation and employment income of racialized
university professors in Canada. The equity myth: Racialization and indigeneity at
Canadian universities, 46-64.
Reimer, M. (Ed.). (2018). Women and Careers: Transnational Studies in Public Policy and
Employment Equity. Routledge