Message from the Commissioner: Audit of Organizational Culture 

I am pleased to update you on our first-ever Audit of Organizational Culture.

First, I would like to thank all CSC staff who took time to participate in the Audit of organizational culture – whether it be taking time to fill out the survey or participate in focus groups and interviews. I want you to know that the work you do, in service to Canadians, is invaluable. It is challenging work and I want to make sure that you have the work environment, tools and supports you deserve to do your job.

I asked for this audit because I wanted to better understand the challenges and opportunities of our various workplaces from coast to coast to coast. This audit, in addition to other data available from various surveys and Calls to Action, including your feedback, will be relevant in this exercise to ensure that we are aligning our efforts and focusing on the right areas or improvements moving forward.

The Audit Report is now finalized. This initiative is near and dear to me, as Commissioner, and I wholeheartedly accept all of the audit’s recommendations and have responded to all of them. As you will see in the management response, I did not wait to implement some of your feedback. To this end, work is underway in many areas, and together, we will have more work to do moving forward.

I want to hear more from our staff, at all levels, in terms of whether the focus areas identified are the right ones, or whether we need to adjust them. In some cases, I need to better understand the root causes of the feelings behind some of your comments so we can work to address them. From there, we will develop a more detailed action plan. I want to underscore that I recognize that listening is important, but it must be backed up by action – and this is what you will see.

I need you to know that this will not be a quick fix – it will be a multi-year initiative that will need ongoing reinforcement. We are a large and complex organization, and our approach will be multi-faceted. Leaders at all levels will be engaged, as will our employees. This will take hard work. The findings in this report help set us on the right path. They challenge us to be innovative, communicate in new ways, and transform aspects of the organization that have remained unchanged for a very long time.

Today, my call to action is clear: please join me in building on everything that is working well, our strengths, while we work to improve what is not. That starts with each and every one of us, and our daily actions. To that end, we all need to “own” our culture to build a workplace that truly reflects our shared values, behaviours and expectations.

With a direct reporting line to me, I have asked the Assistant Commissioner, Communications and Engagement, to oversee our culture evolution moving forward. We will be standing up a team shortly to focus on this, including regional representation. Please stay tuned for next steps, including additional engagement opportunities. As part of my commitment to this effort and to demonstrate action, I will provide you with ongoing progress updates.

Thank you for your ongoing hard work and dedication in everything you do for CSC and in service to Canadians.