Message on establishing hybrid work exceptions for Digital Talent

From: Chief Information Officer of the Government of Canada

To: Deputy Heads and Departmental Chief Information Officers

Subject: Presence for the IT digital community in the workplace

Message:

Hello,

Yesterday a communication was sent out regarding hybrid work across government. Bottom line – to ensure greater coherence across all organizations, the federal public service will adopt a common hybrid work model that will see employees work on site at least 2–3 days each week or 40–60% of their regular schedule. This new model will apply to all of the core public administration, and it is strongly recommended that separate agencies adopt a similar strategy.

There is language in the direction that OCIO will be communicating guidance on IT specific areas where exceptions make sense for recruitment and retention. Exceptions will be applied consistently and would require review from OCIO (e.g., IT Developers). This will allow limited, consistent flexibility for a small subset of skill that are most uniquely positioned for remote by default and avoid inconsistent application of across departments for technology roles that are in higher demand by all of us as a community.

The purpose of this note is to acknowledge that my office has established a small group of CIOs and digital leaders to define any high priority exceptions that may apply to the digital community. This group has met once and will work to a draft that we can share with you early in the new year. If you wish to provide input, please contact Ross Ermel, Assistant Deputy Minister, Digital Talent and Leadership sector, as he will be coordinating this effort.

At this time, as we work to provide recommendations for the digital community, I ask that you as the most senior technical leaders in government support this direction with your teams. We are a large community and your leadership and support of your department deputy is important. This approach is consistent with what we are seeing large global technology firms doing and the value in face-to-face interaction to building culture and community while maintaining the value of hybrid as a new way of working is in our hands as leaders.

The commitment is to provide guidance the week of January 16, 2023, implementation date, to ensure you can prepare for broader messaging across the full digital community complement within your respective organizations. We will work through that in the weeks ahead, appreciating that many are trying to take a break.

Thank you for your continued support and ensuring the best environment for the GC digital community. I wish you all the best of the Holiday Season.

Catherine Luelo (She/her)
Deputy Minister and Chief Information Officer of Canada
Government of Canada