New Direction in Staffing: Message from the Public Service Commission to all Public Servants

In today's fast-paced world, a modernized public service requires a modernized staffing system. The New Direction in Staffing (NDS) is the most significant change to the staffing system we have seen in over ten years. Designed to simplify and streamline staffing, these important changes come into effect on April 1, 2016.

Departments and agencies will now have greater ability to customize their approaches to staffing, based on their own day-to-day realities. Our goal is to ensure that departments and agencies are able to attract talented people, with modern skills, in a timely fashion.

The NDS provides for:

• More variety in hiring processes
• Agile approaches to staffing and policies
• More room for managers to apply their judgement when staffing
• Increased focus on outcomes, including the quality of the person hired, and less on process

The Public Service Commission (PSC) and other organizations have worked together to lay a solid foundation for this new approach. All indications we have received show organizations are ready and able to implement these changes.

For more than 100 years, the PSC has safeguarded merit-based appointments and non-partisanship in the public service and we will continue to do so in this new environment, in a more strategic way.