Staffing Update Report

Guidance - Engagement - Oversight

Staffing Support and Engagement

Staffing Inquiries

Data captured by the Staffing Support Division (SSD) is an important source of insight into the organizational reality and is fundamental in supporting internal partners, public servants, and the public.

1741 inquiries were received by SSD during this six-month reporting period:

• 95% of inquiries were received from organizations
• 5% of inquiries were received from other sources (councils, committees, public)
• 1.7 days was the average response rate, meeting SSD’s 2-day service standard

Nature of inquiries received from organizations, councils/committees, public remains varied:

• one-third of inquiries received by Staffing Support Advisors (SSA) were regarding assessment, with a continued focus on second language evaluation, for example:
• the anticipated date for return to in-person SLE testing
• continued confusion regarding the SLE measures and associated dates
• frustrations and concerns for the delays caused by the removal of the measures, especially for oral assessments
• concerns that service standards on PSC website are not reflective of true timelines and delays

Targeted tracking is conducted to report on specific topics identified by senior management:

• a breakdown of inquiries received by topic is available in Annex A

Organizational Engagement

SSD outreach is designed to provide participants with valuable knowledge, essential awareness, and quality guidance on the public service staffing system:

• customized learning is offered to organizations through a menu of available sessions
• national and regional councils and committees benefit from SSD outreach efforts through regular updates on PSC projects and initiatives

107 outreach events were conducted virtually across Canada:

• 68% of events were conducted in the National Capital Region (Ottawa, Gatineau)
• 32% were in the regions (Halifax, Moncton, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Montreal)
• a total of 1658 participants attended the various outreach events:

Nature of outreach offered to organizations, councils, and committees remains diverse:

• more than half of outreach activities was dedicated to continuous outreach with organizations, councils, and committees
• almost one-quarter of outreach was dedicated to SSAs providing feedback to their designated organizations on their cyclical assessment submissions
• a breakdown of outreach conducted by event type is available in Annex B

Participant feedback is shared with internal stakeholders and utilized to develop future outreach sessions, scenarios, and guidance materials:

• 77% of participants felt their knowledge improved following the event, particularly related to:
• overview of staffing options and flexibilities
• distinction between self-declaration and self-identification
• clarification on the order of priority entitlements for consideration
• 99% of participants were satisfied with the overall accessibility of the outreach event
• 95% were satisfied with the overall quality of the event, with specific appreciation expressed regarding the staffing scenarios and the interactive format of the sessions
• participation by role was varied, with three-quarters of participants representing HR:
• 75% human resources (63% operations, 12% corporate)
• 19% management (15% hiring managers, 4% senior management)
• 6% other (employees)

Canada School of Public Service Engagement

In December 2021, the School released the new course on inclusive hiring practices (H205). Over the course of the Fall and as part of the ongoing partnership, the PSC provided regular updates to organizations on the anticipated release date of the course as the majority of organizations are leveraging the H205 in order to meet the new ADAI requirement for mandatory training on unconscious bias.

Following the implementation of the changes to the PSEA related to the preference in hiring, the School has updated the active virtual course P901 - Staffing: A Resourcing Tool for Managers, to reflect the changes. As inactive courses are reviewed and migrated to a virtual environment, content will be adjusted to align with current legislative framework.

In January 2022, the School established a tiger team to review and migrate the curriculum for staffing advisors (P801, P802) to a virtual environment in order to support organizations and their developmental programs. Dedicated resources from the PSC are assigned to the project to ensure accurate content and direction is provided to the Staffing Community. Work to review the P901 has been deferred to a later date to focus on other course design priorities. 

Capacity Building

Communications

President Borbey delivered 4 speeches at events external to the PSC. Subjects centered around: building the Next Direction in Staffing, application of emerging technologies in the management of human talent in the public sector, and the progress made so far towards diversity and inclusion. The following topics were also addressed: removing barriers; shifting culture; enhancing accessibility; and attracting talent.

On November 4, 2021, the President attended the 2021 International Congress of Meritocracy where he spoke on the theme of Application of emerging technologies in the management of human talent in the public sector. This event was highlighted on Twitter. A video of the event was also posted on YouTube.

On December 15, 2021, the President delivered a speech at the Inaugural Mosaic Leadership Development Program Launch, addressing the first ever cohort. He welcomed candidates to the Government of Canada’s Public Service and spoke about building a truly diverse executive leadership cadre and the progress made so far towards diversity and inclusion.

On January 27, 2022, President Borbey took part in The Exchange, a forum for the PSC to engage with the Human Resources community on key strategic staffing and recruitment topics. The Vice-President, Policy and Communications also presented an overview on the implementation of the amendments to the PSEA to engage the HR community on the next steps. This year’s session focused on Building the Next Direction in Staffing. Around 200 HR professionals were in attendance and the event was promoted on Twitter.

On March 31, 2022, President Borbey took part in the 4th Policy Jam, an annual event between the PSC and students from the University of Waterloo’s Master of Public Service program. This event provides students with an opportunity to engage with real policy priorities of a Government of Canada agency and enables the PSC to gain fresh insights and outside-the-box thinking from a group of highly talented and educated students. Approximately 75 participants attended virtually.

PSC released its 2020-21 Annual Report on December 17, 2021. The communications approach prioritized the development of a fully accessible report in line with Government of Canada accessibility standards. Various products were developed in support of the release, including: news release, social media, President’s message to employees, letters to Members of Parliament and Committees, web content, graphic design, media lines, questions and answers.

Analytics of the 2020-21 Annual Report communications:

• Web visits for the first 10 days (December 17 to 27 2021)
• English: 878 visits
• French: 279 visits
• Social media
• The first Twitter post published was most popular.
• Tweets included #PSCAnnualReport for a 6th year. With no pick-up from organizations outside PSC, we recommend retiring this hashtag.
• General messages performed better than specific data, with the exception of French LinkedIn messages. More testing is suggested.
• Twitter audiences were enticed by social media posts to click on the links at a higher rate than benchmark (2-3%). PSC 6%; CFP 15%.
• Media
• 1 interview
• 2 articles

The 2021 Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey (SNPS) results were released on March 1, 2022. Several communications products were developed to support the release: Web content, social media, a news release, and messages from the President to PSC employees, Deputy Heads, Heads of HR and parliamentary committees.

Overall, perceptions about the fairness, transparency and merit of staffing processes have improved between 2018 and 2021. There has been a positive “closing of the gap” between the perspectives of hiring managers and employees. This suggests that a period of adjustment may have been required to communicate and understand the significant changes introduced by the New Direction in Staffing in 2016. The results for 2021 are similar to the results observed in the 2013 Survey of Staffing, which was carried out before the introduction of the New Direction in Staffing.

The 2021 survey results reveal that:

• employees’ views on merit, fairness and transparency have improved since 2018
• differences persist in employment equity groups’ perceptions of merit, fairness, and transparency
• employees’ awareness of obligations related to political impartiality remains high
• there is a need to raise hiring managers’ awareness of persons with a priority entitlement as a valuable source of qualified candidates
• despite staffing during a pandemic, managers and staffing advisors expressed a high degree of confidence in their organizations’ ability to recruit needed staff

In addition to the publication of the SNPS Highlights report, an interactive data visualization tool was developed that allows for manipulation of the data to obtain the most useful information by organization. As well, the complete SNPS datasets were released on the Open Government Portal.

Analytics of the 2021 SNPS communications:

• Web visits for the first 10 days (March 1-10, 2022): 2021 SNPS Highlights Report
• English: 671 visits
• French: 197 visits
• Social media
• The first Twitter post was the most popular.
• Messages with links saw higher engagement than those without. Likely because links received more amplification.
• Click-through rates met benchmark levels (PSC Twitter 1.5%; Twitter CFP 2.8%).
• This was the first time we promoted specific SNPS results on social media, as such we are using it as a benchmark for future data.
• Media
• 2 articles
• 11 mentions in the media - most consulted mentions:
• Public Service Commission of Canada releases findings from the 2021 Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey
• Nepotism still rampant in Canadian federal hiring (Toronto Sun)
• Nepotism still rampant in Canadian federal hiring (Ottawa Sun)
• 1 interview (Policy Options)

On behalf of the PSC, Shared Services Canada conducted an A/B test on the PSC’s institutional profile page to try out a new version of it to increase link clicks on the “Services and information” and “Most requested” sections.

What is A/B testing?

• It’s an experiment where two or more variants of a page are shown to users at random, and statistical analysis is used to determine which variation performs better for a given goal.

As a result of this testing, we will implement a new design and layout in the long term to further optimize our website.

On behalf of the PSC, Shared Services Canada conducted an A/B test on the GC Jobs page to try out a new design and layout to increase the click-through rate of the following links:

• Search for government jobs
• Sign in to create a GC Jobs account
• Rates of pay for Government of Canada employees
• Federal Student Work Experience Program
• Jobs for Indigenous people
• Self-declaration

When comparing the overall click-through rate of all 6 links, version A (current layout) performed better. But when click-through rate is broken down by individual link, version B (experimental layout) often performed better. As a result, we will:

• keep the “Search for government jobs” link as the first link for users
• move up the “Most requested” section higher up on the page and highlight in blue
• re-organize the “Services and information” section by audience

Media requests received: 3

• Interview with the President on SNPS results
• Question on SNPS results
• Request for hiring statistics for 2020-21

Infocom requests received: 13
Main subjects of requests:

• Employment types/tenures (acting, term)
• Public service jobs (opportunities, working from home)
• Staffing process (self-declaration, reliability/security clearance, complaint process, informal feedback, priority entitlements, equity-seeking groups)
• Statistics (number of Deputy Ministers and Assistant Deputy Ministers employed in the Government of Canada)

Policy Guidance

Letters to Heads of HR were published in September 2021 to communicate the extension of the temporary measures for the oral interaction and in January 2022 to communicate the extension and changes to the temporary measures and to the terms of use for unsupervised test results. The questions and answers for human resources specialists were updated accordingly.

In September 2021, new guidance on Advertising an appointment process was published to communicate considerations when deciding whether to advertise, including scenarios to illustrate the considerations. In February 2022, a new scenario illustrating the considerations related to the use of social media in staffing was added.

In December 2021, the PSC, in collaboration with the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) delivered a joint presentation to the National Staffing Council with respect to the CS to IT classification conversion exercise. Guidance on staffing considerations following the conversion to the IT group were shared verbally and new staffing interpretations related to classification conversion exercises and reclassifications were shared in February via the Staffing Interpretation Centre.

In collaboration with Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) on the Employment Systems Review Guide, the Policy Division is awaiting TBS approval before publication. The guide is expected to be published by late April/early May 2022.

Oversight

Cyclical Assessment

SSD reported observations from the most recent cyclical assessment cycle (May to October 2021) to internal partners and senior management.

61 organizations submitted a cyclical assessment this cycle:

• 49 assessments were led by the organization and subsequently reviewed by the PSC
• 12 assessments were conducted by the Audit Directorate at the PSC as part of the Cyclical Assessment Pilot Project offered to smaller organizations
• 1 additional cyclical assessment was received from an organization that was not required to submit for this cycle

Organizational reporting demonstrated an overall understanding of the requirements and objectives of the cyclical assessment process, with most organizations:

• implementing the requirements for their staffing system and sub-delegation
• reviewing whether their organizational appointment framework was aligned with the Appointment Delegation and Accountability Instrument requirements
• examining appointments for adherence to legislative and policy requirements
• reporting high compliance rates on priority clearance and selection decision requirements

Best practices included:

• reviewing files based on risk identified by the organization
• assessing multiple components of their appointment framework
• including a diverse sample with various types of staffing action
• linking conclusions and recommendations to observations and data
• identifying the methodology and types of files selected for assessment

Cyclical Assessment Pilot Project

All cyclical assessments performed on behalf of smaller organizations participating in the Cyclical Assessment Pilot Project (CAPP) were completed last Fall and reports submitted to deputy heads. A summary report on key results from the pilot project and key considerations directed at the PSC for next steps on the cyclical assessment requirement for smaller organizations was presented at MOC in February 2022. Key results from the pilot project have also been integrated into the analysis undertaken by the Policy and Communications Sector on all cyclical assessments submitted to the PSC. 

In February 2022, the PSC presented a high-level overview of findings from the CAPP to the Office of the Comptroller General’s Small Departments Audit Committee.

Oversight Activities

In the last five fiscal years, the PSC has received on average 157 requests for investigations of error, omission, or improper conduct in an appointment process per year. This combines both requests related to external hiring processes under section 66 of the PSEA and internal hiring processes at the request of the deputy head under subsection 67(2) of the PSEA.

Approximately half of these requests for investigations pertain to allegations of favouritism, nepotism, tailoring, failure to disclose a relationship or improper choice of process (referred to in the table as “Allegations Related to Partiality).

Though the number of investigation requests under these sections has remained relatively constant over the years, the proportion of cases that relate to allegations involving the issues mentioned above has gradually increased over the years.

Of the 787 investigation requests received in the past five fiscal years under section 66 and subsection 67(2), 366 were related to issues such as favouritism, nepotism, tailoring, failure to disclose a relationship or improper choice of process. Of those 366 cases, the PSC has since completed 235 and 131 remain to be completed. Of the 235 cases completed, 63 of them warranted an investigation, the rest were closed for various reasons without proceeding to an investigation. Finally, of the 63 completed investigations involving allegations related to partiality, 35 were deemed to be founded.

In conclusion, for the past five fiscal years, the PSC determined that 35 investigations were deemed founded for allegations related to favouritism, nepotism, tailoring, failure to disclose a relationship or improper choice of process.

Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board Insights

There are currently 583 active Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board (FPSLREB) staffing complaints filed under the New Direction in Staffing Appointment Framework.

Complaints by Fiscal Year

Fiscal Year	Complaints	Advertised (%)	Non-Advertised (%)
2014 - 2015	601	70	30
2015 - 2016	594	76	24
2016 - 2017 (NDS)	736	53	47
2017 - 2018	624	56	44
2018 - 2019	584	43	57
2019 - 2020	472	55	45
2020 - 2021	442	48	52
2021 - 2022	309	49	51
Oct ‘21 - March ‘22	103	46	54

Advertised versus Non-advertised Appointments

The overall use of non-advertised staffing has continued to increase from 60% of appointments in 2020-2021 to 62% in 2021-2022 Q3 YTD. An increase was seen for new hires.

• The use of non-advertised staffing actions for new hires increased from 48% in 2020-2021 to 54% in 2021-2022 Q3 YTD (Dec).
• The use of non-advertised staffing actions for acting positions has remained constant (87%) since 2020-2021.
• The use of non-advertised staffing actions for promotions has not changed from 2020-2021 to 2021-2022 Q3 YTD (54%).

Share of Non-Advertised Appointments by Staffing Process - National Capital Region

Appointment Type	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021	2021-2022 Q3 YTD (Dec)
New Hires	36%	44%	40%	55%	67%	69%
Acting	73%	81%	85%	90%	92%	92%
Promotions	28%	37%	46%	49%	57%	59%
Total	33%	47%	51%	58%	68%	69%

 

Share of Non-Advertised Appointments by Staffing Process - outside the National Capital Region

Appointment Type	2016-2017	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020	2020-2021	2021-2022 Q3 YTD (Dec)
New Hires	17%	26%	24%	30%	34%	41%
Acting	62%	67%	73%	77%	81%	82%
Promotions	28%	32%	37%	41%	48%	47%
Total	25%	37%	39%	45%	51%	54%

The use of non-advertised staffing continued to be more pronounced in the NCR (69%) compared to the Regions (54%).

• The share of non-advertised appointments by appointment type remained relatively stable compared to the previous fiscal year.

Outside NCR, the overall use of non-advertised staffing has continued to increase from 51% in 2020-2021 to 54% in 2021-2022 Q3 YTD.

• The use of non-advertised staffing actions for new hires increased from 34% in 2020-2021 to 41% in 2021-2022 Q3 YTD (Dec).
• The use of non-advertised staffing actions for acting and promotions have been stable from 2020-2021.

Annex A - Breakdown of inquiries received by topic

*Assessment includes second language evaluations

Annex B - Breakdown of outreach conducted by event type