Perceptions and Realities of Today's Public Service

Remarks by Kevin G. Lynch
Clerk of the Privy Council, Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Public Service
to the Embassy of Canada in Berlin

May 6, 2009
Berlin, Germany

Introduction

I appreciate the opportunity today to share some thoughts on the state of the Public Service of Canada, and hear from you, the staff in one of our larger Canadian embassies around the world, who are both at the implementation edge of Canada’s foreign and security policies and, as public servants, a long way from home.

Let me start by quoting Thomas Friedman: "... in the globalization system ... one of the most important and enduring competitive advantages that a country can have today is a lean, effective, honest civil service". He was articulating that there is a strong correlation between a country's competitiveness and prosperity and the quality of its public sector. And, this correlation holds whether the country is developing or developed; whether it is poor or rich.

In short, what public servants do, delivering public services, matters; and how they do it, matters even more. I believe Canada has long been well served by a non-partisan, professional, competent public service.

Yet, today, there seems to be some scepticism towards public service. Criticism of the public service is not new, and it is not always without merit, but when it is based on misperceptions, it cannot go unchallenged.

Today, I would like to share with you both some perceptions and realities of public service in Canada, and highlight several areas where, I believe, there is a gap between perceptions and reality.

First the reality. The reality in Canada is a public service that is certainly not perfect, but is in no way broken. A public service that is strongly rooted in the values of serving the public in a non-partisan, professional manner. A public service that, like the rest of Canada, is under constant pressure to embrace change, not the status quo, to live up to our potential to make a difference. Now some perceptions.

Perceptions and Reality

Many in the public at large, reading negative stories in the press about public officials, elected and non-elected, have very mixed emotions about public service.

The reality is that the public service cannot be error free, no large organization can. We will make mistakes, be accountable for them and learn from them. But the truth of the matter is that most of the time, we will provide good public services, day in and day out, to millions of Canadians, and occasionally do amazing things.

The public service is certainly different today from its former self, because it needs to be, to reflect how much the world has changed. The reality is that the public service is Canada's largest, most complex institution, with over 260,000 employees, more "lines of business" than any Canadian private sector organization, more "points of service", both nationally and internationally, and ongoing pressures to revamp our "product lines" in response to the demands of a changing world. But, we need to do a better job at explaining the breadth, scope and complexity of today’s public service in Canada.

Demographics and the increased complexity of our work are driving the need for change.

For the first time in our history, the public service has more employees over 45 than under. The demographics of ageing are even more pronounced in our executive ranks: the average age of public servants is over 44, executives is 51, our assistant deputy ministers is just shy of 55, the age when many public servants are eligible for an unreduced pension. Indeed, almost 50% of executives and 25% of all public servants will be able to retire by 2012.

This is our demographic reality. But it is also an opportunity. It should provide the catalyst to engage the best of the next generation of Canadians in public service and, through this, reshape the public service to better reflect the diversity that is Canada and infuse it with new ideas and energy.

And we’re doing just that through Public Service Renewal. New, targetted recruitment programs were begun in 2007-08 and more than 8,000 post-secondary graduates have been recruited into indeterminate positions. Recruitment will continue, despite the recession, because of our demographic pressures and the key role the public service needs to play in implementing the government’s economic and financial policies and programs to respond to the global crisis.

The reality is that we can recruit and retain the-best-and-brightest to public service but only as long as we remember our strength. The strongest argument for a public service career is the unique nature of what we do and why it matters. What we do is different than the private sector, and our bottom line is making a difference.

What we offer is challenging work. Work which touches the lives of Canadians in meaningful ways. Work whose scope engages a broad range of issues of public importance over the course of a career. Work that serves the the public interest, not a company's interest. Work that is based on values and commitment and personal and professional satisfaction that comes with making a difference to your community, your country, the world.

To leverage these advantages, we need a clearer, sharper brand. Public servants and Canadians want to know what we do, what we stand for and why it matters. I believe that brand for the Canadian public service has to stress just that, that we serve Canadians, and we strive for excellence in everything we do --- no one wants to join or work in an average institution or company. Join us, we're excellent and what we do makes a difference, is a good recruitment slogan, a good retention motto, and helps build our brand. An example of how we are attempting to rebrand ourselves is the video “My Canada, My Public Service”, available at www.pco-bcp.gc.ca.

First and foremost, it is useful to remind ourselves that public servants don't make policy decisions, elected governments do. The job of the public service is to provide governments with analytically rigorous, professional, unbiased policy options and recommendations. And that job is certainly a challenging one today, with a synchronized global recession, an international financial crisis, war in Afghanistan, security issues affecting Canada at home and around the world, minority Parliaments, and changes in the global order.

Second, I believe these policy challenges of today are more complex than in years past. Our policy capacity has to be world class in new areas such as globalization, security, productivity, ageing, competitiveness, and climate change, to do the work expected of us.

A third observation is that the public service should not have a monopoly on policy research and advice. The more independent, non-governmental think tanks doing high quality, analytic policy work in a country the better.

Risk aversion is imposed not inherent in public services.

We have mired public servants in a complex, and often conflicting, web-of-rules that encourages risk aversion over taking responsible risks, and discourages innovation in favour of the status quo. This is amplified by a "gotcha" mentality in the press and at times in Parliament, where error free government, not risk management by government, has become the benchmark for success or failure.

Innovation in public policy thinking and in public service delivery is not possible without risk taking, based on rigorous risk management systems.

6. Perception six is that in the public service management is too often not a priority.

As Peter Drucker has wryly observed, "so much of that we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work". That applies to the public service as well. The reality is that we can and must do better in embedding best-of-class management practices in the way we operate, the way we think, the way we evaluate performance.

Fundamentally, we have to make management a core part of every executives’s jobs, not someone else’s. We are strengthening performance management, including dealing with poor performance. This was highlighted in my Annual Report on the Public Service of Canada, tabled in Parliament at the end of March, 2009, which described how the performance management system for senior executives has been made more rigorous and transparent. But, more must be done throughout the executive cadre and beyond. There is nothing more damaging to morale and a healthy workplace than poor performance that is left unaddressed.

This sense of a solitude between the public and private sectors, is both real and wrong. Real in the sense the perception exists. Wrong in that it is based on the false assumption that the two sectors have little in common and few areas for meaningful collaboration.

In this world of pervasive globalization, public and private sectors need to work more not less together. We need to interact, not disengage, to ensure we have business strategies and public policies that are designed to take advantage of our country’s relative strengths, for the betterment of all.

Conclusion

I would like to leave with you three thoughts on public service.

First, public service matters. As the 2007 Report of the Prime Minister's Advisory Committee on the Public Service stated: "...a well-functioning and values-based public service is critical to the success of every country in today's complex and interconnected world.” But we need a better public understanding of the important role the public service plays in the ongoing success of our country.

Second, at no time has the Government needed a professional, non-partisan public service more than today, as we face the most difficult international economic circumstances in recent history. In such circumstances, ideas, advice and implementation experience from the public service --- from every department and agency with policy or program capacity relevant to the difficult situation facing this country --- are essential. I am proud of the contribution being made by so many of our fellow public servants.

Third, public service renewal matters. It will require individual public servants to take ownership of it. As John F. Kennedy once asked: "If not us, who? If not now, when?" Public sector renewal needs all of us, all the time.

Thank you, and keep up the excellent work here in Germany.