Every five years Canada completes a census of the population. To complete this task, Statistics Canada employs some 35,000 Canadians for periods varying from a few weeks to a few months. A wide variety of positions are offered, including team leader, call centre operator and enumerator.
In January, I saw a posting for census jobs at Kootenay Employment Services on their job board. Feeling I had nothing to lose, and free time on my hands, I sent in a resumé. Some weeks later I was invited to an examination session, which led to an interview, however, due to a clash with Census training sessions, and other travel plans that opportunity did not pan out. The examination was interesting in that it was a multiple choice test, but really drew on the critical thinking skills of the participants.
In April, I received a call inviting me to become a "Collective Enumerator." Most of us will be familiar with the enumeration process: a form is mailed to you, or dropped off at your residence, and you complete it online or request a paper form by calling a toll-free number. Collective Enumeration differs in a number of ways - it gathers information from institutions and businesses where more than family group lives. Locations such as hospitals, care facilities, seniors homes, shelters, supportive housing, jails, boarding houses, hotel & motels, and RV parks are amongst the facilities enumerated. And the forms used may be different.
As you can likely guess, some of the individuals in some of these places are not in a position to complete a census form. Therefore, depending on the type of collective facility, the information collected for individuals present may differ, and in some cases information beyond name and address is not gathered. Depending on the independence of the resident, a facility may provide basic information from the intake information gather when the individual came to the facility; in other cases the resident completes the form themselves, or with the support of the enumerator, and in the case of hotels and motels, often a simple count of individuals present, but un-counted on another form is used.
A Collective Enumerator communicates with a representative of each of the collective facilities in a geographic area to confirm the information needed on Census Day, and set an appointment to meet and review the information with the representative after Census Day, or meet with individuals to complete the forms. I found this a great way to re-connect with folks with whom I had worked with during my time with Interior Health. I felt not being a stranger, and known to these individuals made the job much easier.
This was the first time I had worked from home, and I learned lots about the needs of a home office. In previous jobs, I have worked from an office, and 'on the road', but this presented a very different situation. My home office space is set up to use my computer almost exclusively, and for most of the tasks I complete, I could move anywhere. Although much of the information entry I completed was managed through a secure web interface, all the information gathering is still completed on paper. In addition to needing a much larger desk space to assemble these documents, once completed they needed to be secured for confidentiality reasons. My little space became very crowded for a short time.
All timesheet submission and payroll was handled electronically. Pay was direct deposited (no surprise) and all pay stubs were sent by e-post - the Canada Post electronic delivery system. T4, etc will also be sent at the appropriate time via e-post.
I found it interesting how our connectivity has changed the expectations of an employer in situations such as this, and wonder about what changes the future will bring. All enumerators were expected to have internet access at their home to complete data entry of various sorts; work could not be completed at a public venue. Phone calls to gather personal information from residents or facility representatives was to be completed on a landline, not a cell phone, and email was not to be used to transmit any personal information. As ever more people move to mobile communications options, I wonder if some of the expectations of Stats Canada will change for the next census.
Would I do this again? Without question. It was a great experience. Working with members of our team was a wonderful opportunity, and the freedom to set hours of work, and the ready availability of the team to work together made this an enjoyable task.