The City of Edmonton is set to release the results of a biannual employee survey conducted last September — the first in the aftermath of a year of harassment and bullying allegations.
About 14,000 employees were invited to fill out the employee engagement and diversity survey in September last year.
The city is expected to unveil the results, compiled by a third-party group TalentMap, on Thursday.
Nearly 8,600 employees responded to the 2016 survey. The results led to a corporate culture audit compiled by the city’s auditor and released in 2017, revealing one in five City of Edmonton employees said they felt they were harassed, bullied or discriminated against.
The results led to the city revamping its complaint processes.
The city hired a third party group, Alternative Dispute Resolution Group, to handle complaints involving harassment and discrimination.
ADR received 201 complaints between Nov. 22, 2017 and Jan. 9, 2018 until Deloitte took over as the external firm to deal with complaints.
In June, Deloitte gave council’s executive committee an update, reporting they had received 235 harassment complaints between Jan. 10 and May 30 and that 60 were being formally investigated.
CBC News requested updated data from the city about the number of complaints Deloitte has processed since May and was told those would be made available Thursday.
In conjunction with the external complaints process, the city established a “suite” of activities and program to help train and educate the workforce to support the complaint process.
Deputy city manager of employee services, Kimberly Armstrong, attended a vigil in November outside city hall, recognizing those who felt bullied or harassed. (Nathan Gross/CBC)
Linda Crockett, founder of Alberta Bullying Research, Resources and Recovery Centre, said she’s worked with clients from the city of Edmonton for a few years and saw an increase in demand for her services after the audit in Nov. 2017.
She said the city has made progress in response to the audit, but that many employees are still coming come forward to say they’re being harassed or bullied by upper management.
She said that indicates some supervisors and managers are not taking the complaints seriously.
“They still minimize it, they still dismiss it, they still deny it,” she said. “If a leader is really well trained, just listening and validating and offering support could de-escalate a situation immediately.”
She said she’s heard from clients and people calling for advice.
“It does take time for change to happen, I’m aware of that, but people are still being very seriously harmed.”
Results of the 2018 employee survey are expected to be shared with staff Thursday, followed by a media availability at 3 pm.