Canadian Government Executive - Volume 21

October 2015 //

Canadian Government Executive /

Motivation

supervisor; respectively) in both Eng-

lish and French; column 6 provides the

question #, while column 7 and 8 outline

the question as stated in the PSES sur-

vey in both English and French; and the

remainder double-row columns with co-

loured rows represent the analysis per-

mutations such as branches/divisions, or

demographic grouping.

The amount of “heat” was based on a

sliding scale, representing the percent-

ages of affirmative responses (“strongly

agree” and “somewhat agree”) applied to

each survey question (Diagram 2). (The

Performance Measurement and Analy-

sis Unit in the Human Resources Branch

used a sliding scale used and recognizes

that it is open to interpretation.) Two

scales were used to address questions

worded both affirmatively and negatively.

The Performance Measurement and

Analysis Unit of the Human Resources

Branch, in collaboration with the Re-

porting and Data Warehouse team in the

Corporate Services Branch of Environ-

ment Canada, also developed an intranet

web-based internal reporting application,

using

the.NET

framework and an Oracle

database, to display and analyze the PSES

2014 results on the intranet (Diagram 3).

This application provided a quick, user

friendly, web-based solution for display-

ing and analyzing the PSES results across

multiple survey years to all employees.

The web-based application gave employ-

ees immediate access to view the PSES

results using a multitude of combinations.

Diagram 3 shows one example of a

Thermal Map that was generated with

the web-based application. This example

provided a department-wide lens on one

sub-theme area. All the questions aligned

to this sub-theme would be listed in the

“question” column (in this example we

show only 1 question). The department-

wide result (81) for 2014 is shown along-

side the public service-wide result (78), the

science-based department result (79) and

the delta (A-C) as the difference between

Environment Canada and other science-

based departments (SBDA). In addition,

the next section of the diagram shows

Environment Canada’s results for the last

three PSES cycles, along with deltas com-

paring two PSES cycles.

The incorporation of simple directional

icons made the identification of changes

and trends between the different survey

results easy to interpret. This application

also allows for future survey results to be

added, thereby reducing the turn-around

time for analysis.

The web-based application allowed for

another view of the profile, but in a com-

parative perspective. In this case, users

could choose a multitude of combinations

from drop-down menus for each com-

parator. (For a full view, see this article on

www.canadiangovernmentexecutive.ca)

To develop the web-based tool, con-

cordance tables were built, question by

question, and organization unit by orga-

nization unit. Concordance tables for the

questions from the three survey cycles

2008, 2011, and 2014 were provided by Sta-

tistics Canada. The concordance tables for

organizational units were challenging to

build because of organizational changes

between the various survey years. For

example, Environment Canada’s Finance

Branch saw multiple units move in and

out over the span of the three surveys.

Diagram 2: Sliding Scale

Diagram 3: Organizational Unit Results

7 EmployeeEngagement

Mobilisationdes

employés

E_Q60 Question 60. Iwould prefer to remain with my department or agency, even

if a comparable job was available elsewhere in the federal public service.

Question 60. Je préférerais continuer à travailler au sein demon ministère ou

organismemême si un poste comparable était disponibleailleurs dans la fonction

publique fédérale.

57 59 60 60 57 58 60 60 62 61 57 56

60 57

The benefit of using the thermal maps

was the ease in which the results were

communicated to employees during the

consultations. This, in turn, provided en-

riched feedback on the PSES related is-

sues and guided the department to devel-

oping a targeted action plan for change.

A number of lessons were learned dur-

ing this initiative. In the past, numerous

tables and graphs were used to display

the survey results by individual organiza-

tions. The thermal maps brought all of the

results for every organization together in

one place. The application of colours to

a rating scale provided a global picture

along different organizational and de-

mographic dimensions, therefore allow-

ing for easy identification of horizontal

issues while leaving room for individual

organizations to identify the specific is-

sues confronting them. Also, in order to

ensure the confidentiality of respondents,

smaller organizations were combined into

larger units. In the future, these combina-

tions of smaller units should be consistent

with previous surveys in order to allow for

trend analysis.

The great advantage of using thermal

maps were that they resonated easily with

science-based professionals. The maps

were also conceptually familiar to most

members of the senior management team

and as such allowed them to immediately

focus on the areas that required their at-

tention. The map and web-based tool

became easy references as they allowed

business units and employees to view the

data in a number of different ways.

Future possibilities for these instru-

ments may focus on combining them to

automate the production of the thermal

maps and to allow for individual user cus-

tomization. These tools could be used to

assess the impact of actions undertaken to

address workforce and workplace issues

and may also serve to strengthen employ-

ee engagement as they convey the results

of management actions in response to em-

ployee feedback.

ohn

ung

is the Manager of the Per-

formance Measurement and Analysis

Unit in the HR Business Transfor-

mation Directorate of the Human

Resources Branch at Environment

Canada;

etty

M. T

urpin

Ph.D., is

a Senior Analyst in the Unit.