Sixteenth Annual Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canada

Annex B: Human Resources Governance Changes

Table of Contents

Context

Changes in Human Resources Governance

Context

As the country faces increasingly complex global problems and economic uncertainty, the need to ensure that the federal public service remains a professional, non‑partisan organization, able to tackle new challenges in new ways, only increases. The public service must continue to be able to attract and retain strong employees, while ensuring that they are managed in an effective manner to support excellence in public service.

Effective management of human resources is critical to achieving public service excellence. Recognizing this, the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service has focused on management issues. In its February 2008 report, the Committee noted that the existing human resources governance regime is “overly complex, with multiple players and a resulting burden of duplicative and often unnecessary rules”. The Committee strongly recommended changes in the human resources governance structure to make it simpler, more streamlined and more coherent.

In response to the recommendations of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee, my 15th Annual Report to the Prime Minister agreed with their diagnosis and recommended three steps to guide a restructuring of human resources governance and accountability. First, there should be no ambiguity about deputy ministers having primary responsibility and accountability for managing their employees. Second, central human resources agencies should only undertake those roles that must be carried out corporately, and the overlaps and unclear accountabilities among these agencies needed to be sorted out. Third, implementation of this realignment of roles and responsibilities would permit a shift of resources from these central agencies to departments.

Consequently, a restructuring of the governance of human resources management in the public service was set as a key priority in the 2008‑09 Public Service Renewal Action Plan. At the same time, the Treasury Board Secretariat initiated a horizontal strategic review to determine whether investments in human resources management activities by the central agencies were effective and efficient, and to ensure that roles and responsibilities for human resources management were properly aligned.

As well, a Deputy Minister Committee on Human Resources Governance was established in April 2008 to provide recommendations on how specifically to redesign human resources governance and to provide external advice to the Treasury Board regarding the horizontal strategic review.

Changes in Human Resources Governance

On February 6, 2009, the Prime Minister announced changes in the structure of how we manage human resources in the Public Service of Canada. The Prime Minister noted that these changes follow from the recommendations of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service.

These changes will simplify, streamline and improve our management of human resources. First and foremost, deputy ministers, who are now responsible for leading the achievement of business goals, will have the primary responsibility for human resources management as well. The new human resources management structure will achieve this by providing deputy ministers, their management teams and human resources professionals with the clear responsibility to manage their people fully and effectively, and the flexibility to do so.

Second, effective March 2, 2009, the Canada Public Service Agency and the parts of the Treasury Board Secretariat that deal with pensions and benefits, labour relations and compensation were consolidated into a new Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer. It is housed within the Treasury Board Secretariat, similar to the Office of the Comptroller General.

These changes will result in better delivery of policies and services and more effective human resources management by:

• enabling deputy ministers to take effective responsibility for human resources management in their own departments; and

• simplifying and streamlining the roles of central human resources agencies.

As part of these changes, the central agencies will now focus only on those activities that must be carried out corporately:

• The Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) will represent the Government of Canada as the “employer” on human resources issues and provide strategic leadership on human resources management. The CHRO will chair a restructured Human Resources Management Advisory Committee, will become the chair of the Canada School of Public Service Board of Governors, and will provide leadership to the human resources community.

• The Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer will be responsible for all aspects of compensation including pensions and benefits, labour relations and compensation operations. It will now develop broad framework policies with clear indicators of performance, conduct analysis of basic data on the public service and support cohesive senior leadership development.

• The Canada School of Public Service will focus solely on learning and leadership development services to the public service and will no longer have a policy role.

• Support for the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service, and the Deputy Minister Committee on Public Service Renewal will be consolidated in the Privy Council Office.

As a result of these governance changes and the strategic review of functions in the central human resources agencies, there will be a reallocation of resources to assist small departments and agencies in implementing their new responsibilities. There will also be some savings from this reduction of overlap and duplication.

There is no change in the mandate of the Public Service Commission, which will continue its role as guardian of merit and non‑partisanship in the Public Service of Canada. Similarly, there are no changes in the mandates of the Public Service Staffing Tribunal and the Public Service Labour Relations Board.

To recognize the primary responsibility of deputies for human resources management, a fundamental rethinking was required of the central human resources agencies’ approach to their roles and how they were organized to meet those roles. Our conclusion was that the central agencies must be unified and streamlined, modest in size and committed to providing guidance and frameworks that are enabling.

The previous human resources structure and the new one are illustrated below.

Previous Human Resources Governance Structure

* PSMA: Public Service Modernization Act

The human resources governance changes will make the Public Service of Canada more effective by streamlining the way we do business and putting accountability for managing human resources in the hands of deputy ministers. It is an essential element of renewal. All employees, managers and human resources professionals must see human resources management as the key business enabler that it is.

New Human Resources Governance Structure

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