| WHAT ARE WE
WORKING ON?
Central agencies are developing leading-edge initiatives to better
support managers in recruitment
The Public Service Commission and the Treasury Board Secretariat have
made an important contribution to moving forward on recruitment, and
they are committed to going even further. They have developed
"Meeting the Recruitment Challenge: An Action Plan"
(Appendix C).
The action plan sets out three years of recruitment efforts toward
renewing the Public Service. In particular, it aims to increase the
representation of youth and equity group members, particularly members
of visible minority groups. The plan also aims to recruit more equity
group members into executive positions. The central agencies will work
in partnership with departments to implement the plan, share innovative
practices and take collective action to remove barriers.
The action plan sets out five recruitment priorities:
- Recruitment programs, policies, approaches and strategies will be
reviewed and enhanced so that they are aligned with targeted needs. This
will mean more use of Post-Secondary Recruitment and attention to
current occupational shortages. It will also mean identification of and
action on obstacles to effective recruitment. The Sub-Committee strongly
endorsed this priority and further recommended that a pool of generic
positions be created into which young professionals could be hired.
- Diversity will be a major focus, consistent with the commitment to
create a more inclusive, more diverse Public Service. This will centre
on efforts to increase the appointment of people from equity groups,
including at the EX level, by reviewing current practices and processes
to address possible impediments to this commitment.
- Awareness and capacity building will focus on ensuring that the
information and skills are in place for hiring managers and human
resource specialists to fully understand and take responsibility for
recruitment.
- Workplace-of-choice efforts will centre on marketing the Public
Service among potential recruits, especially on-campus, and among
priority functional communities. This will require reviewing and
changing all forms of communication and interaction with potential
recruits, such as Web sites, letters, and presentations. Links should be
made with central agency tools and those that exist in departments so
that the brand name is consistent and recognizable.
- Strategic Planning will help to clarify Public Service recruitment
needs for the next three to five years, with specific business cases for
key recruitment challenges. Over time, this will lead to recruitment
planning as an integral part of doing business for all managers. As part
of overall support for decision making, the Treasury Board Secretariat
will consider re-establishing the capacity to make external salary
comparisons that were formerly carried out by the Pay Research Bureau.
The Public Service Commission is establishing a centre of expertise
to assist departments in developing demographic processes and conducting
workforce studies. The Commission will do more to analyze current hiring
patterns and the views of students hired as summer or co-op workers.
This will require a better integration of human resources systems across
the Public Service.
The Public Service Commission is prepared to work with departments as
they rethink their existing approaches to Post-Secondary Recruitment,
COOP/internship, and summer employment activities (including those for
high school students). This would
- lead to a much more strategic method to identify, evaluate and hire
young permanent employees;
- add important word-of-mouth credibility to support other recruitment
efforts; and
- create a vehicle for departmental executives to identify barriers to
improved recruitment and retention.
The Treasury Board Secretariat is examining the pension plans for
federal public servants to determine if there are obstacles to the
recruitment of new, or retention of, older staff and, if so, to propose
amendments to remove such obstacles.
As part of the ongoing renewal of the Executive group, development
programs will be enhanced to meet specific recruitment needs,
particularly with regard to diversity.
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