Audit of Staffing Service Delivery: Management Response and Action Plan

March 2021

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Recommendations	Deliverables	Expected Completion Date	Responsibility
Recommendation 1 The Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) of Corporate Services Branch (CSB) should ensure that the Human Resources Services Directorate (HRSD): Increases the transparency of pools for staffing advisors and hiring managers; Clarifies departmental guidance regarding whether hiring managers can restrict access to candidates in their existing pools; and Accurately determines the number of appointments from pools.	Management agrees with this recommendation.
	Implementation of a Pool Management Guide for managers, which provides guidance to hiring managers on the various flexibilities they can exercise in establishing a pool and outlines the requirements for pools to be managed as corporate resources. The Pool Guide advises managers that consideration of existing pools is required in advance of launching a new process.	Complete The Pool Management Guide has been finalised and posted on MySource.	The Executive Director of Corporate Policy, Programs and Mental Health Division is lead for the Pool Management Guide.
	Implementation of a Pool Dashboard, which will be a central repository for all existing pools in place at Health Canada (HC) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Reports can currently be generated from PeopleSoft indicating the number of merit based appointments made from pools. Additionally, HRSD currently manages assessment board reports, which outline all appointments from pools and include information on secondments, deployments and other non-merit based staffing actions linked specific pools.	Complete The Pool Dashboard initiative was launched and communicated to sub-delegated managers in December 2020.	The Executive Director for HRSD's Client Service Division (CSD) is the lead for the Pool Dashboard.
Recommendation 2 Launch initiatives and tools that support the Staffing Monitoring Framework and the Staffing Modernization Strategy To support performance monitoring and action, the ADM CSB should ensure that HRSD collects sufficient information to: Assess the timeliness of all phases of staffing processes; Assess the efficiency of staffing processes from inception to completion; and Periodically identify common errors in documentation submitted by hiring managers.	Management agrees with this recommendation.
	Launch a revised set of automated staffing letters	Complete CSB launched a revised set of automated staffing letters (reduces errors and improves the staffing process) to replace the Staffing Letter Builder Tool, which is being decommissioned by the Public Service Commission (PSC) at the end of fiscal year 2020-21.	The Executive Director of Corporate Policies, Programs and Mental Health Division and the CSD have a shared responsibility in this area.
	Operationalize the PSC flexibilities to ensure the completeness of staffing processes	Complete HR operationalized the PSC flexibilities options regarding Second Language Evaluations (SLE) in order to continue to support the hiring needs at HC and PHAC in support of continued staffing and retaining resources.
	Develop a current and valid inventory of casual workers	Complete Casual Inventory launched to hire casual workers from across Canada with continuous intake process, including a periodic check-in with candidates to confirm their continued availability (supports accurate data and timeliness of available candidates).
	Launch inventories and processes to ensure accurate data and content	Complete Several collective inventories and processes launched to support emergency staffing at both HC and PHAC (i.e., BI-02 to BI-05, CH-02 to CH-05, PM-01 to PM-06, SG-SRE-03 to SG-SRE-07) (supports accurate data and timeliness of available candidates).
	Increase efficiency and improvements in processing times for staffing actions with the implementation of HR-to-Pay Timeliness	Complete Implemented HR to Pay Timeliness. These efficiencies were put in place to ensure that clients submit all of the necessary staffing documentation needed for processing in one completed package, and not by a piecemeal approach, also reducing errors. The process outlines very clear roles and responsibilities for clients and HR and includes a timeline of deliverables for each.
	On the horizon: We anticipate projects that explore how AI can be used to simplify the efficiency of staffing and hiring processes. Exploring how a case management system could automate business processes, capture the necessary information to complete a task, and can support modernized HR services to clients.

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Date modified:: 2021-08-18