2016 Report on Public Service Renewal Results: recruitment and onboarding
Recruitment and onboarding
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) values its people; it is implementing and experimenting with new ways to provide on-the-job learning opportunities for employees, enhance its recruitment processes, and demonstrate that ECCC is a great place to work for the public servants of the future. To achieve this goal, ECCC is improving its hiring processes, ensuring that young employee and students are engaged and fully integrated into the workplace, and supporting employee development.
Recruitment and Onboarding Processes
ECCC is striving to simplify processes to bring in talent, through several initiatives. These include: simplifying processes to generate speed in staffing through expanded fast-track classifications, maximizing technology to reduce steps in the student and casual employee hiring process and piloting the use of video interviews to assess candidates more efficiently. To support the public service adjusting to the future labour market, ECCC is mobilizing and maximizing talent through talent management, micro-missions and speed mentoring.
Youth Advisory Committee
ECCC considers engagement of youth to be a key priority for the department, including engaging youth that work within the department. The recently-formed Youth Advisory Committee includes executive and youth representatives from most branches and regions, and seeks to determine what issues are important to youth within the department, encourage and facilitate youth engagement, and serve as a point of coordination and cohesion. It demonstrates that ECCC is open to new ideas, new innovations, new ways of thinking, and diversity in its many forms. Feedback from this committee will be used to provide support and advise several senior level officials in youth related engagement and initiatives.
Environmental Protection Branch Student Network
The Environmental Protection Branch (EPB) student network was started by students for students with the aim of connecting students working at EPB to their peers. The Network also provides students opportunities to engage, eases integration into the workplace by introducing students to senior management, and helps them to understand EPB’s operations. The Network is very active in promoting social connections and building community amongst geographically dispersed students, and is creating an inclusive and open culture.
Environment and Climate Change Canada Action Network
The Environment and Climate Change Canada Action Network (ECCCAN) is a group of dedicated public servants committed to professional development and revitalizing the department’s culture. Members are keen to help employees connect with each other and get the most out of their workplace. ECCCAN holds annual events, like the national Celebration Breakfast, which focuses on peer recognition to put a spotlight on excellence in our work place. ECCCAN also runs an Annual Career Day, held in the National capital region, which brings people together to develop important networking skills that empower them to get the most out of their careers in the public service. This year, ECCCAN worked with the ECCC 2020 Team to deliver both career advice and activities, and the opportunity to hear innovative stories from around the department, with “ECCC Talks Innovation.” Through its various career-focused activities, ECCCAN offers its members the opportunity to attend stimulating learning events, network with colleagues from across the Department and build key professional skills and competencies.
Employee Development
ECCC also aims to provide multiple learning opportunities for employees to develop skills and competencies that the department will require in the future. Introduction to Lean training was offered in both official languages in several locations to help employees streamline their processes to work more efficiently. Micro-missions were offered to provide employees with opportunities to develop skills and competencies that they would not otherwise be able to develop. Coaching is offered to encourage personal and professional development guidance.
Transcript
Philippe Gaignery: Bringing in talent can be quite a process. At Environment and Climate Change Canada, we have simplified, streamlined and are maximizing the use of technology. We're being more innovative and making our tools more user friendly. All this in order to be more efficient and responsive. By focusing on recruitment and onboarding, we are creating capability for the future.
Dilhari Fernando: Respect is about creating a sense of belonging by giving everyone a voice, providing interesting work and giving Canadians a say in how their country is shaped. I was just over the moon when I was asked to be the champion of youth engagement at Environment and Climate Change Canada. Our young employees are an important part of the committee that I chair. We give a lot of thought to what it means to respect the environment, on the importance of helping youth to articulate their vision for a greener, cleaner Canada. Respect is about being open to new ideas, new innovations, new ways of thinking, and diversity in all its many forms. Working with our young employees has taught me a lot about respect, for people, for places, and for traditions - eyes of the next generation.
Simon Ghosh: Hi, I’m Simon. When I was a student, my colleague, Chris Lee, and I started a student network in the Environmental Protection Branch. We noticed there was a lack of engagement opportunities for students beyond their immediate work and that was impacting how they saw the organization. So far we have worked to plan activities to support both student engagement and development. For example, we have been holding weekly lunch and learns with professionals across the department to showcase many of the exciting files and to provide excellent career advice to the students. Being a former student myself, I see the impact made by ECCC actively engaging and supporting student development.
Patrick Spicer: Hi, I’m Patrick, from ECCCAN--the Environment and Climate Change Canada Action Network, a group of dedicated public servants committed to professional development and revitalizing our department’s culture. ECCCAN holds annual events, like our national Celebration Breakfast, which focuses on peer recognition to put a spotlight on excellence in our work place. Our Annual Career Day, held in the National capital region, brings people together to develop important networking skills that empower them to get the most out of their careers in the public service. On behalf of the network, I hope to see you at our next event.
Helen Ryan: I am pleased to be here today to talk to you a bit about the job shadowing that I have going on in the Energy and Transportation directorate. 20 of my employees to date have spent the day with me, and essentially what we do is we meet first thing in the morning, and look at what is on my agenda for the day. We talk a little bit about expectations and then after each of the meetings we regroup again and talk about what went on in that meeting, and I try to provide some insight into what I was thinking and why I was making the decisions or giving the directions that I was giving to staff. At the end of the day, we meet again and we talk about whether or not the employee’s expectations were met, and I’m really pleased to say that so far, we have a perfect score of 10 on 10. We do have them complete an evaluation form, and for me, I think I really benefit from this, because I get to know my employees better, we get the opportunity to exchange on a variety of topics, and I get their insight in terms of how I interact with people, and how they see those interactions. So I think overall for the directorate it’s a win-win-win program.
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