PSMAC Subcommittee on People Resourcing

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IV.   Gaps and Recommendations

Gap 1: Planning

The continued weakness in planning by many departments and agencies has yet to fully capture the links between identifying current and future business needs, assessing current workforce composition, and developing concrete people resourcing strategies.

Key Facts

• As of March 2009, there were 208,947 individuals in the Core Public Administration, an increase of 4.5 per cent from March 2008. This trend continued into 2010 as the public service grew another 3.4 per cent to 216,045 as of March 2010;See footnote ^[3]
• There is a freeze on operating budgets from fiscal year 2010–11 to 2013–14 that will limit growth;
• Overall, departure rates for the indeterminate Core Public Administration population have risen only from 4.8 per cent in 2006–07 to 5.0 per cent in 2008–09.See footnote ^[4] This is predicted to plateau in the coming years;
• The overall indeterminate mobility rate for the Core Public Administration in 2007–08 was 22.6 per cent;See footnote ^[5] and
• The departmental HR plans available for analysis were inconsistent in format and did not present standardized information; most did not clearly link business and HR needs, and where future HR needs were stated, the information was not specific enough to be useful.

In consultations with managers and HR professionals, both communities indicated the following:

• Managers receive insufficient demographic data in support of planning;
• The current process is too heavy and has somehow become more important than the needs. Streamlining the process is part of the solution. We also need to clearly integrate HR planning with business planning, thus moving away from transactional position-based planning; and
• Key players have not embraced integrated HR planning as a meaningful driver for staffing and people management (e.g., not a future-focused or strategic approach to managing succession).

What do the facts tell us?

Therefore, deputies heads should do the following:

• Lead, and be seen to lead, serious engagement with their management teams in crafting each year's integrated business/HR plans;
• Insist on regular reporting and forecasting that connects the silos of salary budgets, staff complement, and space allocation;
• Ensure that senior management meets regularly to provide meaningful direction on implementation of the plans; and
• Ensure that their respective organizations have a process in place to obtain timely reports and forecasts that reconcile salary budgets, staff complement and space allocation against priorities.

Therefore, the Centre should do the following:

• Use off-the-shelf Web 2.0 platforms to accelerate the efficient interdepartmental sharing of integrated business/HR plans; and
• Support improvements in departmental plans by supplying high-quality demographic data to feed the planning process.

Gap 2: Efficiencies

There is a lack of basic tools and common processes by which sub-organizations within and especially across departments and agencies can combine their resourcing activities for greater effectiveness at lower cost.

Key Facts

• Of the departmental HR plans available for analysis, the formats and information available were inconsistent and not detailed enough to identify areas of common need;
• In 2008–09, federal organizations posted more than 380 advertisements to fill CR-03, CR-04, CR-05, AS-01 and AS-02 positions in the NCR. These postings generated over 138,000 applicants;See footnote ^[6]
• The Administrative Services Review is examining public service administrative processes to find efficiencies;
• Figure 1 summarizes the amount of time it takes from the date a poster for a position is launched to appointment:See footnote ^[7]

Figure 1. Variations in Time to Staff Across Collective and Distinct Processes

Figure 1: Variations in Time to Staff Across Collective and Distinct Processes - Text version

• Noting the time to staff as shown in Figure 1, there are several resourcing options that do not require launching a process from scratch every time. These include appointment of priority referrals, student bridging, and referrals from inventories and pools such as the Post‑Secondary Recruitment program (i.e., referrals from the Public Service Commission (PSC) can be obtained in as little as 72 hours);
• Over 70 per cent of managers surveyed indicated that slowness in pre-process preparation delayed their staffing "to some extent" or "to a great extent," a percentage that has remained fairly constant since April 2006;See footnote ^[8]
• Easily accessible tools to facilitate temporary replacements are lacking (i.e., 22.6 per cent mobility rate in 2008–09 and an average of 5.9 per cent in the last 10 years);
• In 2008–09, only approximately 29 per cent of individuals entitled to a priority placement were appointed (i.e., 711 out of the 2471See footnote ^[9]);
• Although over 299 people resourcing tools and guides exist, they are scattered in various locations and are not communicated properly. In addition, managers and HR professionals consistently mentioned that a repository of job descriptions, posters, assessment guides, etc. is needed to facilitate managing selection processes;See footnote ^[10] and
• The Common Human Resources Business ProcessSee footnote ^[11] was endorsed as the Government of Canada standard in June 2010 for full implementation by 2013–14, but engagement and implementation are incomplete. Currently, 12 departments have begun adopting the Common Human Resources Business Process, which represents over 55 per cent of the Core Public Administration workforce.

HR professionals and managers stated the following:

• There are currently no clearly identified and agreed-upon areas where there is an interest and benefit in adopting a coordinated, interdepartmental or public service–wide approach;
• Managers expressed a need for being more aware of the wide variety of staffing and contracting strategies available, depending on their operational context (e.g., urgent versus regular needs, permanent versus temporary, etc.);
• Managers have expressed concern over the time investment they have to make to complete the assessment of candidates, stating that more emphasis should be put on the benefits of asset qualifications assessment and right fit performed by the hiring managers;See footnote ^[12] and
• Managers expressed a lack of trust in the assessment of candidates conducted by others and believe that this contributes to multiple similar selection processes being launched every year.See footnote ^[13]

What do the facts tell us?

Therefore, deputy heads must do the following:

• Drive, and be seen to drive, swift adoption of the emerging Common Human Resources Business Process and common interoperable IT, and stamp out any drift toward customized processes and systems;
• Define a risk management framework that strikes the optimal level of delegation down to hiring managers and facilitates collaboration for common resourcing needs;
• Commit to shared resourcing processes that should steadily become the norm within and across departments and agencies by:
  • Playing an active role in ensuring that the people resourcing needs of the organization are communicated to an interdepartmental marketplace to consolidate needs and join forces, where appropriate;
  • Making it a standard practice to open staffing pools public service–wide;
  • Committing to make maximum use of staffing pools and databanks wherever possible; and
  • Ensuring that managers use them and that their departments collaborate.

In addition, deputy heads and their departments should:

• Consider the full range of available staffing strategies, including priority appointment, before launching distinct selection processes (e.g., casuals, terms, deployments and contracting).

Therefore, OCHRO should:

Use off-the-shelf Web 2.0 platforms to:

• Create an interdepartmental marketplace where departments and agencies could:
  • Identify their proposed resourcing activities before formally launching a selection process;
  • Seek alternative sources of candidates; and/or
  • Access staffing pools created by activities elsewhere in the public service.

Therefore, OCHRO and the Treasury Board Secretariat's Chief Information Officer (CIO) should:

• Mandate departments and central agencies to cease creating their own customized applications; and
• Work toward fully interoperable IT systems to support people resourcing.

Therefore, OCHRO and the PSC should:

• Conduct, as a high priority, further work on:
  • Tools to pre-screen large pools of candidates to obtain smaller numbers in which hiring managers can have confidence and from which they can draw candidates who meet the established requirements; and
  • Targeted tools facilitating the assessment of specific qualifications;

• Use off-the-shelf Web 2.0 platforms to accelerate the efficient sharing of tools for best practices in resourcing and staffing aimed at hiring managers and HR professionals to maximize efficiencies (e.g., job descriptions, statement of merit criteria, selection tools and interview guides). The central location could include:
  • Information on all active pools available, including PSC and departmental pools;
  • Public service–wide data banks of various temporary and permanent opportunities, as well as employees interested in such opportunities; and
  • Proactive identification of employment opportunities across the public service available to employees before they receive formal priority status, as well as a list of individuals eligible for priority appointments.

Gap 3: Hiring Culture

There is a yawning gap of mutual misunderstanding and mistrust between the management community and the HR community, stemming from lack of clarity about expectations, roles and risk tolerance. This is feeding a cumulative pattern of risk aversion and inefficiency.

Key Facts

• In seven large organizations representing 40.4 per cent of the organizations subject to the Public Service Employment Act (PSEA), sub-delegated managers indicated that better support is required from their staffing advisors and systemsSee footnote ^[14];
• The five-year review of the PSMA will examine the administration and operation of the Act with the objective of identifying improvements;
• The HR Community Development Working Group has been established to continue work, which will enhance the capacity of the HR community; and
• In 2007–08, the PSC study on the mobility of public servants stated that the overall mobility rate for the PE occupational group was 74 per cent.

HR professionals and managers stated the following:

• Although HR professionals are expected to encourage and promote reasonable risk taking in the staffing regime, this is often in conflict with our role in responding to the PSC or senior management's questions, should audit results not be satisfactory. For example, do the PSC and senior management want HR to be a doer, a gatekeeper or a strategic advisor and partner?;See footnote ^[15]
• The roles of HR and managers, as well as the type of service delivered should be clarified (e.g., managers perceive that HR owns the process while, for HR, the management of human resources is considered to be a managerial responsibility);See footnote ^[16]
• Managers stated that there is such a high turnover of HR advisors, particularly in the NCR, that they do not have time to acquire the skills and tools to provide the advice and services that managers need;See footnote ^[17] and
• We are told to use the flexibilities provided by the PSMA, yet it is unclear what these are, and when we try to use them, we are not supported.See footnote ^[18]

What do the facts tell us?

Therefore, deputy heads should do the following:

• Ensure a serious and authentic discussion within their respective organizations to clarify the expectations, roles and accountabilities of hiring managers and HR professionals, and insist on codifying these roles and responsibilities and setting baseline service standards as a starting point for further collaboration; and
• Provide clearer expectations for people resourcing by providing clear direction on the level of risk they are prepared to accept (e.g., guiding principles on the use of non-advertised processes, etc.).

Therefore, the Centre should:

• Support departments in efforts to slow down the churn within the HR professional community and to foster professional development and adaptation to new tools and approaches; and
• Work with departments to align training and tools of HR professionals and managers to meet departmental needs.

Gap 4: External Recruitment

There is a credibility gap between the rhetoric of public service branding and the real experience of would-be entrants.

Key Facts

• The public service is experiencing its highest-ever volume of job seekers at 276,580, which represents over 800,000 applications in 2009–10;See footnote ^[19]
• Shortages are forecasted in the health sector, where the highest excess demand is projected for managers in health and education services, physicians and nurses; as well, a slight shortage is projected in the social sciences, education, government services and religion sectors. However, the number of job seekers is projected to be high enough to generally balance demand for skilled candidates. The ranking in the forecast hides the fact that several individuals who do not find work in occupations they studied for end up working in other occupational groupings;
• In addition, according to the 2008–09 career fair assessment report commissioned by OCHRO, only 51 per cent of students surveyed indicated that the slogan "One Employer—Thousands of Opportunities" attracted their attention to the public service as a future employer;
• The 2009–10 career fair assessment report states that the promotional products used during 2009–10 career fairs did not generally receive positive feedback. Regional organizers and departments also noted that the current branding products do not speak to young people; and
• The number of applicants is on the rise, while the number of available positions is on the decline.

Applicants stated the following:

• Applying for positions in the public service is complex, discouraging and time-consuming. There are so many qualifications, criteria and testing that applying for a position becomes a full-time job in itself;
• There is lack of communication, follow-up information and feedback once a candidate has submitted an application; and
• A person cannot get a job with the public service unless he or she is bilingual or knows someone "on the inside."

What do the facts tell us?

Therefore, deputy heads should do the following:

• Be more candid about the likely number of hires for departmental external recruitment processes; and
• Ensure timely communication with applicants throughout the departmental recruitment process.

Therefore, the Centre should:

• Be more candid about the likely number of hires for centralized external recruitment processes;
• Ensure timely communication with applicants throughout the process;
• Support the concept that the public service should be an employer of choice, but also a choosy employer that seeks people who aspire to excellence and to making a difference; and
• Implement measures to support this approach that include:
  • Streamlining the technology and tools supporting the application process to improve candidates' experience;
  • Enhancing the system's screening capability to make it more efficient and better able to target the right candidates;
  • Revising the current approach to public service branding and outreach to ensure it is relevant and allows for targeted (external) recruitment; and
  • Basing efforts to attract new recruits on real job opportunities rather than on a generic public service brand.

Questions Deputy Heads Should Ask

In response to Gap #1: Planning, deputy heads should ask the following:

• Do I engage seriously and regularly with my senior management to provide strategic and future direction on people resourcing needs?
• Does my HR plan address the strategic and future needs of my organization rather than just focusing on filling vacancies in my current organizational structure?
• Can my organization give me timely reports and forecasts that reconcile salary budgets, staff complement and space envelope or do I have information silos?
• Does my organization have a simple dashboard that tracks how people enter, move around within and leave my department?
• Do I have a governance process inside my organization that enables identification and sharing of resourcing needs? Does my HR plan consider the collective needs of multiple departments?
• Am I aware of the churn rate within my organization for the various occupational groups?
• Am I contributing to the high mobility rate by "poaching" from others?

In response to Gap #2: Efficiencies, deputy heads should ask the following:

• Is my department using the most efficient and standardized staffing processes and tools?
• Have I explored options for bringing together and sharing information and best practices within my organization and sharing them with other departments?
• When staffing a position in my organization, am I explicitly considering all my resourcing alternatives (including use of casuals, terms, students, priority persons, deployments, assignments and contracting)?
• Have I struck a balance between delegating staffing down into my organization and making my managers collaborate on common resourcing needs?
• Do I maximize staffing efficiencies in my organization and across organizations by leveraging collective staffing opportunities, where appropriate?

In response to Gap #3: Hiring Culture, deputy heads should ask the following:

• Have I defined and codified the roles and responsibilities of HR and managers related to staffing?
• Do I have clear performance indicators and appropriate monitoring and controls?
• Have I ensured that proper departmental and interdepartmental mechanisms are in place to communicate my expectations regarding people resourcing management (e.g., risk tolerance)?
• Is my department helping or hindering the growth of a more stable HR community?

In response to Gap #4: External Recruitment, deputy heads should ask the following:

• What are my department's target audiences, and what do we know about how to reach them?
• Is my department being candid with job seekers about the number of job opportunities in my department?
• Am I empowering my hiring managers to take risks and commit to new hiring, or do I send signals that make them unduly risk averse?
• Is our branding reflective of the real-life experience when entering the public service?

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