2023 Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey Executive Summary

January 2024

Report

Contract Information

Accessibility

As of March 22, 2024, I, Nael Hajjar, confirm that the accessibility of this document has been verified.

Catalogue Number: SC1-11E-PDF (Electronic PDF, English)

ISSN 2816-3982

This publication may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes only. Written permission must be obtained first from the Public Service Commission of Canada. For more information on this report, please contact: cfp.sdip-snps.psc@cfp-psc.gc.ca

© His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the President of the Public Service Commission of Canada, 2024

This report presents the executive summary for the 2023 Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey conducted by Advanis Inc. on behalf of the Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC). The survey was administered to 273,186 employees of the Government of Canada, between September 20 and November 17, 2023.

Ce rapport est aussi disponible en français sous le titre: Sondage sur la dotation et l'impartialité politique: sommaire exécutif.

1. Executive Summary

1.1 Background

The Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey was first introduced in 2018 as a biennial survey covering all federal departments and agencies that fall under the Public Service Employment Act (PSEA). This online survey helps the Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC) fulfill its mandate and responsibilities to oversee the integrity of the federal public service staffing system and ensure non-partisanship. It gathers key information on the integrity of the public service staffing system and is currently the only tool the PSC can use to gauge employees’ perceptions of the public service staffing system and the political impartiality of the public service.

For the third cycle of the survey in 2023, the PSC contracted Advanis to administer the survey.

1.2 Objectives

The survey results are important to achieving the PSC’s mandate. Answers to the 2023 survey questions help the PSC explore and understand employees’ perceptions of the federal public service staffing system and assess their awareness of rights and responsibilities related to political activities and non-partisanship.

Key themes covered in this survey include perceptions of employees, hiring managers, supervisors, and staffing advisors on:

• merit, fairness, and transparency in federal public service staffing processes
• organizational staffing policies and practices
• staffing services and advice
• priority entitlements

In 2023 new lines of questioning were added to reflect current priorities such as addressing biases and barriers facing equity-seeking groups.

1.3 Methodology

The PSC developed the Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey questionnaire. The content was updated from the 2021 survey cycle. Part of survey development was a pretest where participants were encouraged to provide feedback and screenshots on the survey content while completing the survey.

The 2023 questionnaire was formatted as an electronic survey (to be completed online) that was fully compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, level AA or higher. Employees also had the opportunity to phone Advanis to complete the survey with an interviewer.

The survey was administered from September 20 to November 17, 2023, to public service employees who worked in federal departments and agencies which fall under the Public Service Employment Act. The survey was also administered to:

• members of the Canadian Armed Forces who have civilian (public servant) direct reports employed under the Public Service Employment Act
• regular members, civilian members and special constables of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) that are hired under the RCMP Act but who have public service employee direct reports that are employed under the Public Service Employment Act

The sample frame was created using the most current available lists of all eligible employees provided by human resources services in each participating department or agency. The PSC then verified, cleaned, and combined these lists to create the entire sample frame and provided it to Advanis. All eligible employees with valid email addresses were sent an invitation to complete the electronic questionnaire. Invitations were sent out over a period of 5 days. Reminder emails were also sent to participants who had not responded.

During fielding, departments and the PSC could also add new employees to the sample frame through a self-serve support website hosted by Advanis throughout the data collection period.

Of the 273,186 employees eligible to participate, 86,717 completed the survey, for a response rate of 31.7%. Among respondents, 77% (66,403) completed the survey in English and 23% (20,314) completed it in French.

Considering that the survey was administered as a census, the results can be extrapolated to the broader population of employees within the participating federal departments and agencies that fall under the Public Service Employment Act.

Although all eligible employees were included in the sample for the 2023 survey, because of the levels of non-response, it was necessary to weight the responding units by department or agency so that they were representative of the target population. The weight adjusts for the non-response within gender and age groups, within each department or agency. Although the value of the bootstrap was discussed for a census type study like this one, 1,000 bootstrap weights were provided in a separate file.

1.4 Contract Value

The contract value for this survey was $299,986.75 (including HST).

1.5 Political Neutrality Certification

I hereby certify as a Senior Officer of Advanis that the deliverables fully comply with the Government of Canada political neutrality requirements outlined in the Policy on Communications and Federal Identity and the Directive on Management of Communications’ requirements for public opinion research reports. Specifically, the deliverables do not contain any reference to electoral voting intentions, political party preferences, standings with the electorate, or ratings of the performance of a political party or its leader.

Signed:

Nicolas Toutant

Vice-President, Research and Evaluation

Advanis

nicolas.toutant@advanis.ca