Canadian Government Executive - Volume 24 - Issue 03

10 / Canadian Government Executive // May/June 2018 we need to address barriers wherever they may exist, in terms of access to jobs. We need to improve our reach to communities across the country that we want to invite to be part of the public service. Sometimes, that may involve targeted initiatives when we’re trying to improve, for example, the hiring of persons with disabilities or Indig- enous People. We also need to make sure that we address regional diversity; that Canadians from across the country see themselves as being able to participate in employment opportunities in the public service. I’m also particularly concerned about diversity from the perspective of age di- versity. We have an aging workforce in the public service, and we’ve not been do- ing a great job at recruiting millennials. They represent about 21 per cent of our workforce, while they make up about 34 per cent of the Canadian labour force. We clearly have gaps and need to adapt some of our approaches to be able to target and attract millennials to join the public ser- vice. Our student programs are a great way to do that, but they only last for a few months. We need to make sure we follow- up, develop and nurture relationships with those students we want to keep for future career opportunities. We also need to look at a broader defini- tion of diversity that includes the LGBTQ 2+ community. There are some challenges there in terms of addressing the needs of 110th anniversary of the Public Service Commission. We have a proud history, and we’re celebrating the contributions we’ve made over that long history. Some of the foundational reasons for our exis- tence are still there, and they are reflected in our priorities. I talked about maintain- ing a merit-based, professional, non-par- tisan public service. Oxford University’s Civil Service Effectiveness Index ranked Canada number one. Part of the reason for that is because of our professional, non-partisan public service. So maintain- ing that is a priority. We also recognize that we need to mod- ernize our policies, programs, services, and systems to better serve the needs of the hiring manager and candidates. We know there is frustration with respect to our systems or processes that take too long. Candidates quite often wait months or more to hear back after they’ve applied for a job. Managers end up in situations where positions go unstaffed for a long period of time. Part of modernization is also to focus on ensuring that we have the right results in terms of reducing the time it takes to staff positions. We work with hiring managers and the HR community to find ways to streamline our process without compromising its integrity. Diversity is another priority. It is part of our mandate to ensure there is equal ac- cess and opportunity for all Canadians in terms of job opportunities. As part of that, Q: Fascinating. Patrick, can you describe the mandate of the Public Service Commission of Canada for CGE readers and what the priori- ties are for the PSC? We are the organization that helps to en- sure we have a merit-based, professional and non-partisan public service. The au- thorities for staffing and recruitment are delegated or vested by Parliament to the Commission. We then delegate those au- thorities to deputy heads. Of course, we ensure that those authorities are exercised in a responsible way. We have oversight responsibilities as well, which allow us to test whether the system is working appro- priately and ensure that merit is protected. That includes using audits, monitoring programs, surveys from time to time, and we have investigative powers when, at the end of the day, there might be a concern over a staffing process. For example, in sit- uations where there may have been fraud or political interference. We are also responsible for ensuring the non-partisan nature of the public service. We review and provide authorization to public servants who want to run for elec- tions, whether at the Municipal, Provin- cial, Territorial, or Federal levels. We set the conditions that have to be respected to ensure, again, that employees exercise their rights, but that it also doesn’t affect – either directly or indirectly – their impar- tiality when it comes to providing services to all Canadians. Those are some of the key roles we play. To do this, we have systems, policies, pro- grams, and services in place. For example, we run the Post-Secondary Recruitment campaign for the Public Service. We also provide student employment programs that are used across the public service for summer employment as well as co-op placements. We have a number of other programs, and we try to add value to de- partments who, if they were individually to do recruitment, probably would not be cost efficient. We work in a delegated, de-centralized model, and we have the tools to be able to make sure that model is producing the results for Canadians. Of course, I should mention that it’s the INTERVIEW