Beyond2020 blog

Strengthening our capacity and ability to work in flexible, digital environments will position us to adapt to even more agile, inclusive, and equipped approaches to Public Service through, and beyond the time we are currently living through.

Canada’s Public Service is among the best in the world. Through good and challenging times, public servants work tirelessly to deliver services and ensure that the government upholds its duties to Canadians. This National Public Service Week is an opportunity for us to celebrate our talented and committed public servants, and thank them for the work they do every day to make our country a better place to live, for everyone.

Beyond2020 is about rethinking our mindsets and behaviours. It’s also about engaging and empowering employees. There is no button or magic wand to do this, but there are communications skills and tools that can help. Mobilizing employees happens when there is trust and when we are mindful of how we work together every day.

In order to make sure we truly serve all Canadians, we need to make sure the diversity of Canada is reflected in the design, implementation and delivery of these services. That is what Beyond2020 is all about.

The Next Generation (NextGen) Travel Program is embarking on a journey to reimagine the future of GC travel to deliver an innovative and intuitive solution that focuses on the needs of public servants.

According to the 2018 Public Service Employee Survey, 42% of federal public servants indicated they do not have confidence in senior management and 41% described their workplace as being psychologically unhealthy. We should be concerned about these results; especially in relation to Google’s research showing that psychological safety is the number one factor that makes a team great.

By working together and collaborating with our partners, SSC 3.0 will prepare us to leverage new digital technologies to the fullest across the GC and to deliver the best possible services to Canadians.

Nowadays, many policy documents in government start with something like this:

“Highly complex challenges, fundamental demographic, economic and environmental shifts, disruptive technologies, and changing customer and citizen expectations demand increasingly agile, adaptive, data-driven and measurable responses from public and private service providers.”

In order to become more nimble, the federal public service needs to make its internal processes faster, easier and simpler.

NextGen is building the next generation of pay system for public servants by engaging users directly and openly. It’s a valuable lesson for how we should engage employees too.

While much of Blueprint 2020 was focused on rewriting rules and policies, the central focus of Beyond2020 is to rethink our collective mindsets and behaviours. It’s not just about engaging employees on how to invoke change, but empowering them to do so — wherever they are.