Message on the work approach for Digital Talent
From: Chief Information Officer of the Government of Canada
To: Departmental Chief Information Officers
Subject: A message from the CIO of Canada to digital leaders on hybrid work
Message:
Colleagues,
I want to thank you for your excellent work and adaptability to change during this ongoing pandemic. You have moved mountains to ensure that work and service delivery has continued during this time. This is only the beginning.
As you know, Canadians expectations of a digital government has accelerated in the last 2 years with the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, on our digital teams, we have a vacancy rate that is substantially higher than the GC-wide vacancy rate of 4.9% reported by the Clerk in her 29th annual report to the Prime Minister. As you know, this gap in talent makes day-to-day operations of an aging environment more difficult and slows our ability to transform services and realize our goals in Canada’s Digital Ambition. As the Government of Canada shifts towards hybrid work, I want to ensure that the implementation of hybrid work continues to evolve as we experiment and learn and that as Digital Leaders we are enabling all employees in the move to hybrid work.
As I outline below what I am asking of you and what I am committing to do as well, please keep in mind that our relationship with employees is central to all that we do, and of the need to maintain alignment with the Treasury Board policy suite, the National Joint Councils Directives and the GC guidance on optimizing a hybrid workforce.
My requests of you
- Virtual hybrid is here to stay. We need to shape our work to adjust to the present and recognize there is no one size fits all solution. This is not only about thinking of those who are in the office and those who are distributed but also about having an obligation and opportunity to build a diverse, equitable and inclusive public service. This means we must listen to voices from those underrepresented in our community and ensure that the implementation of hybrid has a positive impact. Our community has strong generic work descriptions. Leverage these to facilitate objective, unbiased reviews of roles to ensure we can meet our objectives and outcomes and align with your deputy minister’s objectives.
- Recruit nationally. Work within your department’s current boundaries in this area but push them to the limit of what is possible because we cannot only look to the National Capital Region when we have such a competitive market. Recruiting from a national bench does not have to mean hiring someone from Iqaluit and requiring them to move to Ottawa. We have the digital tools to enable our knowledge workers to remain in their communities.
- Look at your internal processes to determine what adjustments need to be made to better support hybrid work. For example, consider how employees who are working remotely will get IT equipment and IT support.
- Continue the evolution towards digital information communication and management. We are not going back to paper processes. Co-authoring tools, e-signatures, and digital forms are essential for a hybrid work environment.
- Make it easy for employees to meet information management requirements in a hybrid workplace. New digital tools mean information can be in many places; we need to make it easy for employees to transfer the work they are doing through collaborative authoring tools into official document repositories.
- Put in place digital tools and equipment that employees need for hybrid work. We need: rapid plug-and-play at the office, and boardrooms and spaces equipped for hybrid meetings and specific activities (like presenting at a conference) as well as access to digital tools (such as whiteboarding tools) to enable all employees to participate in brainstorming exercises and training. Where possible we should look at clustered or enterprise solutions but don’t wait for them when there is an urgent need.
- Enable digital onboarding tools and fast track requests related to digital onboarding projects. Digital delivery of onboarding information, tools to enable digital introductions, and management of onboarding tasks is essential for new employees that will no longer be handed binders to read and walked around the floors to meet their colleagues.
- Implement the Guidance in Assessing Security Considerations for Working at Locations Other than the Designated Worksite. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat Policy Suite and terms and conditions of employment continue to apply.
- Put in place digital infrastructure to enable hybrid work and ensure it is scalable and responsive to future needs. This will involve working with SSC and with PSPC to ensure we have the digital tools and spaces we need.
What I am doing for you
I have briefed your deputy ministers on the challenge we are facing for retention of our people and recruitment of new digital talent and advised that they look at your Digital teams with this backdrop as we move towards a hybrid way of working across the Government of Canada. Our digital teams have a comfort with technology that puts them in a highly efficient position to complete and exceed their work tasks in a virtual world. Additionally, I advised that increased IT investments have stretched our budgets these last 2 years and asked deputy ministers to invest and support you in implementing the infrastructure, equipment and tools employees need for hybrid work.
As we move forward, please expect more information on:
- How digital ways of working such as experimentation and iteration can be harnessed.
- How digital practices that reflect equality and diversity can be integrated into team norms and team charter exercises.
- How digital tools can be used to level the playing field between those working in the office and those not. How they enable work that is in the open and asynchronous for a more inclusive work environment.
I would ask that as you continue to enable the Government of Canada’s evolution to digital and hybrid work, remember that all employees are users. Listen to them. Please keep experimenting, iterating and sharing. Many decentralized organisations among us built and sourced talent from all corners of the country and learned to work and collaborate virtually pre-pandemic; we can leverage this knowledge.
When looking at what activities could be done by teams in person, be intentional. We don’t want our digital employees sitting in the office on video calls all day. But there will always be a small subset of work that is better completed face-to-face, and we should not shy away from that.
We won’t get everything right the first time when it comes to hybrid. This is ok. Don’t let fear of getting things wrong, stop or slow you down from innovating to make hybrid work best for you, your team, your colleagues and all users.
Catherine Luelo (She/her)
Chief Information Officer of Canada
Government of Canada