President meeting with Simon Kennedy, Deputy Minister, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada December 19, 2019

Introduction

Deputy Head

Mr. Simon Kennedy was appointed as the Deputy Minister, Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) on September 3, 2019.

Deputy Minister University Champion

Mr. Kennedy is not a Deputy Minister University Champion.

Deputy Minister Community of Practice Champion

As the Deputy Minister Champion for the Advanced Policy Analyst Program (APAP), Mr. Kennedy plays a key role in building relations between the Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC) and the policy analysts’ community.

The APAP June 2020 intake is part of the current Public Service Post-Secondary Recruitment Campaign, managed by the PSC.

Organizational Context

Mandate

The ISED helps Canadian businesses grow, innovate and export so that they can create good quality jobs and wealth for Canadians. The Department works with provinces, territories, municipalities, the post-secondary education system, employers and labour to improve the quality and impact of its programs that support innovation, scientific research and entrepreneurship, in order to build a prosperous and innovative Canada.

The ISED works with Canadians in all areas of the economy and in all parts of the country to improve conditions for investment, to enhance Canada’s innovation performance, and to make Canadian firms more productive and competitive in the knowledge-based economy. The Department works on a broad range of matters related to industry and technology, trade and commerce, science, consumer affairs, corporations and corporate securities, competition and restraint of trade, weights and measures, bankruptcy and insolvency, intellectual property, investment, small business, and tourism.

The Deputy Minister of the ISED is also responsible for the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy of Canada (OSB), which is a separate entity under the Financial Administration Act that hires under the Public Service Employment Act. However, for many years, the OSB has been managed as a “Branch” within ISED.

Challenges

The ISED reviewed their process for conducting staffing.  They used the LEAN approach to reduce administrative burden and to improve time to staff which has dropped below the public service’s time to staff median.

The LEAN approach was adopted as part of a human resources (HR) transformation exercise spanning over 3 years and aimed at improving efficiencies. In 2019, the ISED has started a new transformation exercise over the next 3 years, with the goal of improving synergy in HR. The creation of a Staffing Centre of Expertise will be considered, as well as looking at a different options for administrative functions. HR, including the Staffing Policy and Monitoring Section, will be asked to prepare a risk assessment of the different types of staffing actions/activities.

The ISED has faced challenges reaching out to potential candidates around the world. They have tried different assessment methods such as video interviews, including real time (such as Skype and other platforms alike) and video-interview tools (such as vid-recruit) which allow for long distance outreach of candidates.

Experimentation

The organization is striving towards a more efficient and effective staffing system. They are using the collective staffing approach to its fullest and are sharing existing pools of qualified candidates. This allows manager and HR to capitalize on efforts of past processes before deploying more resources on running processes for similar positions and requirements.

While the ISED is experimenting with the use of video-conferencing and video-interview tools for staffing assessments, they have not yet adopted this approach permanently. During their experimentation, they have faced challenges with language accessibility of available programs and platforms.  Most programs can support interviews in both official languages. However, instructions for using the programs and online assistance is only available in English, which is not compliant with official languages requirements.

Population and Staffing Activities

Population

The ISED is a large organization that has a population of 5,461 employees (as of March 31, 2019).

Staffing Activities

In 2018–2019, the ISED processed a total of 3,280 staffing actions:  1,640 appointments to the public service (including casual and students);

• 825 promotions;
• 306 acting appointments; and
• 509 lateral and downward movements.

Tenure of appointments:

• 2,016 indeterminate;
• 218 terms;
• 593 casuals; and
• 453 students.

Please refer to Annex A for additional details.

Time to Staff

The ISED has a median time of 161 days for internal appointments, which is lower than the median of the public service, which is 176 days.

The ISED has a median time of 147 days for external appointments, which is lower than the median of the public service, which is 186 days.

This notably lower median is the result of efforts to rationalize the staffing process by capitalizing on efforts of past processes before deploying more resources on running processes for similar positions and requirements. They use collective staffing and share existing pools of qualified candidates to their full extent before launching new appointment processes.

Staffing Framework

New Direction in Staffing Implementation

The ISED was one of the early adopters for the New Direction in Staffing (NDS) and they have been active in looking at more efficient ways to do their staffing.

The ISED has reviewed its staffing policies and practices with the optic of adopting a Lean staffing process: ensuring that understanding managers are mobilized and engaged from the beginning of the process, identifying their requirements and making sure that all those involved are working from the same premise. The documentation is limited to what is essential and the steps of the process are not repeated.

Appointment Delegation and Accountability Instrument Annex D Reporting

Use of the Public Service Official Languages Exclusion Approval Order and the Public Service Official Languages Appointment Regulations

The ISED reported that the organization made 8 appointments using the Public Service Official Languages Exclusion Approval Orderand no use of the Public Service Official Languages Appointment Regulations for the period of April 1, 2018, and March 31, 2019. All appointed candidates (8) have learning plans, for which management has allowed or will allow for the employee to go on full-time language training.

Approved Deputy Head Exceptions to the National Area of Selection Requirements for External Advertised Appointment Process

The ISED reported that the Deputy Minister did not approve any exceptions to the National Area of Selection.

Results of Organizational Cyclical Assessment

The ISED is doing ongoing monitoring of their staffing system with a compliance component, and will be using part of this information to support their cyclical review report. The ISED confirmed that they will submit their cyclical Assessment in May 2021.

Inquiries and Trends

The majority of inquiries from the ISED are related to the assessment process and to the monitoring and reporting functions. Other noteworthy areas of inquiries include guidance on the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer people management policies, the use of advertised and non-advertised appointments and student hiring. This spread of inquiries is similar to activities from comparable organizations.

Oversight

Audits

The ISED volunteered and was included in the completed System-Wide Staffing Audit, for which the final report was published in December 2018. The organization is among the 30 organizations selected for the Audit of Employment Equity Representation in Recruitment that is currently underway.

Investigations

Between August 26, 2016, and August 25, 2019, the PSC received 7 requests for investigations on staffing actions at ISED, 4 on external appointments, and 1 on an internal appointment, at the Deputy Minister’s request, as well as 2 on potential fraud. There were also 2 cases that were ongoing at the beginning of the period, for a total of 9 cases being managed during the period under review.

• 1 case was referred by the organization on an internal process
• 6 cases were closed or not accepted:
• 5 on external processes; and
• 1 on potential fraud.
• 2 cases are ongoing:
• 1 on internal process, at the Deputy Minister’s request; and
• 1 on potential fraud.

Note: The numbers may not add up as discontinued cases, cases resolved via early intervention and rare cases are not included in this table.

New Community of Practice for Investigators

The ISED is not part of the new Community of Practice for Investigators.

Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey Results

• 52.5% of ISED employees completed the 2018 Staffing and Non-Partisanship Survey (SNPS), compared to 47.6% for the public service in general.
• Overall, the findings form the ISED 2018 SNPS are more positive that for organizations of similar size, and the federal public service.65.5% of employees agreed that people hired can do the job, compared to 52.3% in organizations of similar size, and 53.8% in the federal public service.
• 73.7% of managers agreed that the NDS has improved the way they hire and appoint persons to and within their organization, compared to 54.4% in organizations of similar size, and 56.1% in the federal public service.
• 81.0% of managers agreed that within their organization, the administrative process to staff a position is burdensome, compared to 88.6% in organizations of similar size, and 87.9% in the federal public service.
• 51.7% of managers agree that staffing options available within their organization allow them to address staffing needs as quickly as required, compared to 35.5% in organizations of similar size, and 37.6% in the federal public service.
• 74.0% of managers agree that staffing options available within their organization provide them with the flexibility to appoint persons who are a good fit within their work unit, compared to 58.2% in organizations of similar size, and 60.0% in the federal public service.
• 73.7% of managers agree that NDS has improved the way they hire and appoint persons to and within their organization, compared to 54.4% in organizations of similar size, and 56.1% in the federal public service.

Diversity Profile

The workforce availability estimates in the public service for 2019 have been updated in the Workforce Profile although they have not been officially released yet. Based on 2017-2018 data, ISED exceeds the workforce availability for the visible minorities designated group, is just slightly lower than the workforce availability for women, and is lower than the workforce availability for aboriginal peoples and persons with disabilities.

Source: Employment Equity in the Public Service of Canada 2017– 2018 Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

Priority Entitlements and Veterans

From April 1, 2018, to August 31, 2019, the ISED appointed 4 persons with a priority entitlement (PPE).

One of the PPE’s was permanently appointed to a lower level position changing their priority entitlement to that of a reinstatement priority. The Priority Information Management System, does not count such an action as a priority appointment, but it should be acknowledged that the ISED provided continuity of employment for the individual.

Since the coming into force of the Veterans Hiring Act, the ISED made 2 appointments of persons with a Canadian Armed Forces Priority Entitlement (both regulatory), between July 1, 2015, and July 31, 2019.

Non-Partisanship in the Public Service

The Designated Political Activities Representative (DPAR) for the ISED is Michel Alarie, Director, Labour Management Relations. The DPAR acts as a liaison with the PSC on matters related to political activities and non-partisanship.

Since April 2006, the PSC granted in total 21 permissions to seek nomination, and be, a candidate in an election from ISED employees: three (3) at the federal level, one (1) at the provincial level and 17 at the municipal level. Currently, there are no employees elected at the municipal level, and there were no requests for permission for the 2019 federal election.

The SNPS indicated that employees of the ISED are aware of their obligations for engaging in political activities. They are at 79.8% which is similar to the public service at 80.1%.

The PSC delivered an awareness session on employees’ rights and responsibilities related to political activities to the employees of the Science and Research Sector on June 13, 2019.

PSC Initiatives

The ISED participated in the Job Advertisement Pilot project led by the PSC in 2017 and were one of 5 departments and agencies to participate in the redesign and modernization of Government job ads. Building on leading practices from both the private and public sectors, new advertisements were posted using plain accessible language. The posters explored new ways of capturing job requirements and featured more information on the hiring organization’s culture. To extend the reach of the advertisements, various social media platforms were used to promote the opportunities.

Recruitment Programs

In 2019, the ISED used the recruitment programs for persons with disabilities and for Indigenous students as follows:

• Federal Internship Program for Canadians with Disabilities: 4 positions identified for the (AS-01, AS-02, AS-04 and PM-02 level). Discussions are in preliminary stage. No appointment made yet.
• Employment Opportunity for Students with Disabilities: 13 request resulting in 5 hires.
• Indigenous Student Employment Program: 12 request for 6 hires.

Staffing Support

Public Service Commission Representatives and Organizational Contacts

The Staffing Support Advisor (SSA) assigned to this organization is Yannick Fortin.

The Head of HR is Jean-Philippe Lapointe, Director General, HR Branch.

The primary organizational contact is Katherine Gendreau, Manager, recruitment and Staffing Centre of Expertise.

PREPARED BY:

Yannick Fortin,

Staffing Support Advisor

Annexe:

• Annex A - Data on Population and Staffing Activities

• Regional distribution excludes unknowns

• Includes indeterminate and specified term appointments
• Excludes lateral and downward movements, deployments and acting appointments of less than 4 months
• Includes only appointments where the staffing process type is known (70% to 80% of appointments)

Key findings - Staffing and non-partisanship survey (2018)

• 65.5% of employees agreed that people hired can do the job, compared to 52.3% in organizations of similar size, and 53.8% in the federal public service
• 73.7% of managers agreed that the New Direction in Staffing has improved the way they hire and appoint persons to and within their organization, compared to 54.4% in organizations of similar size, and 56.1% in the federal public service
• 81.0% of managers agreed that within their organization, the administrative to staff a position is burdensome, compared to 88.6% in organizations of similar size, and 87.9% in the federal public service

Hiring of former students includes indeterminate and term hires with experience in a federal student recruitment program within the last 10 years.

Technical notes:

• The Time to Staff - Internal Appointments (TTS-IA) is the median number of calendar days between the opening date of an internal advertisement and the date of the first Notice of Appointment or Proposal of Appointment (NAPA) from the Public Service Resourcing System for internal term and indeterminate positions. As NAPAs are not required for all internal staffing actions, this measure is limited to reporting on internal promotional appointments.
• The Time to Staff - External Appointments (TTS-EA) is the median number of calendar days between the opening date of an external advertisement and the date of the first estimated appointment of an individual from outside an organization subject to the Public Service Employment Act for term and indeterminate positions. Because data between systems is linked using a probabilistic match, errors in data linkage are a potential source of measurement error.
• Only estimated term and indeterminate appointments/notifications are included (deployments, casual and acting appointments are excluded).

Sources:

• Hiring and staffing activities data are derived from information received from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat Incumbent File.  The Incumbent File is extracted from the Public Services and Procurement Canada’s pay system.  The data constitutes an estimate of hiring and staffing activities to and within organizations.
• Information from the Priority Information Management System and the Public Services Resourcing System is also used to determine if staffing actions are advertised or non-advertised as well as for calculating time to staff.
• The data are not expected to match an organization’s human resources data, due to methodology and timing differences.
• The Time to Staff - Internal Appointments (TTS-IA) is the median number of calendar days between the opening date of an internal advertisement and the date of the first Notice of Appointment or Proposal of Appointment (NAPA) from the Public Service Resourcing System for internal term and indeterminate positions. As NAPAs are not required for all internal staffing actions, this measure is limited to reporting on internal promotional appointments
• Only estimated term and indeterminate appointments/notifications are included (deployments, casual and acting appointments are excluded)
• The Time to Staff - External Appointments (TTS-EA) is the median number of calendar days between the opening date of an external advertisement and the date of the first estimated appointment of an individual from outside an organization subject to the Public Service Employment Act for term and indeterminate positions. Only estimated term and indeterminate appointments/notifications are included (deployments, casual and acting appointments are excluded)
• Because data between systems is linked using a probabilistic match, errors in data linkage are a potential source of measurement error.
• Hiring and staffing activities data are derived from information received from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat Incumbent File.  The Incumbent File is extracted from the Public Services and Procurement Canada’s pay system.  The data constitutes an estimate of hiring and staffing activities to and within organizations.
• Information from the Priority Information Management System and the Public Services Resourcing System is also used to determine if staffing actions are advertised or non-advertised as well as for calculating time to staff.
• The data are not expected to match an organization’s human resources data, due to methodology and timing differences.