Background

A strong and effective public service is an important factor in a country’s long term success. While Canada has been well-served by this national institution, the challenge now is to ensure that Canada continues to have a strong Public Service geared to excellence in the years ahead.

The challenges facing the Public service are very real:

• the Public service is undergoing significant demographic change as an ageing Public Service workforce is more prevalent than in other sectors;
• despite recent progress, continued effort is required to ensure the Public Service better reflects the growing diversity of Canada;
• like all employers, the Public service is experiencing the changing nature of work as technology is fundamentally altering how it conducts its business;
• like other sectors, the Public service faces the strongest national labour market in over 30 years, with many career options for Canada’s best and brightest;
• at the same time, the Public service is facing an ongoing shift in public expectations, with more accountability, better management of tax dollars and improved core public services at the top of the list; and
• the “Public service brand” is probably less clear and perhaps less positive in the public’s mind than in decades past.

As a result, the Public service needs to:

• rethink its recruitment model;
• rethink its development model;
• rethink its retention model; and
• improve its human resource management toolkit.

The objective will be to launch initiatives in these priority areas in order to achieve demonstrable and consistent progress. To be successful, these initiatives will need to be targeted, pragmatic and results-oriented.

Meeting these challenges will require sound advice, innovative solutions and strong support from both within and outside government.