Summary of the Evaluation of the Public Service Employee Survey

Internal Audit and Evaluation Bureau, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
July 19, 2017

Survey description

The Public Service Employee Survey (PSES) has been conducted every three years since 1999. It collects public service employees’ opinions on their engagement, leadership, workforce and workplace.
In 2014, 182,165 public service employees in 93 departments and agencies completed the survey.
To deliver the 2014 PSES, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat spent $2.3 million in salaries and services, of which $1.2 million was paid to Statistics Canada, which administered the survey.

The evaluation examined the PSES from its inception in 1999 to 2014 but focused on the 2014 PSES, in particular, program design, activities, outputs and immediate outcomes.
Performance, relevance, and alternative approaches to design and delivery were examined.
The evaluation was based on multiple sources of evidence:
- a review of PSES foundational documents
- a trend analysis of PSES results
- an examination of public service employee surveys in Canada’s provinces and territories, and in the US, the UK and Australia
- interviews with deputy heads, Secretariat executives and other stakeholders
- a survey of primary users (PSES departmental champions and heads of human resources)

Employee perspectives are not represented in the evaluation other than those of union representatives.
Non-participating departments and agencies were represented by one interviewee from a small agency.
Jurisdictions were reluctant to release expenditures.
Changes to response scales limited the trend analysis that could be performed on PSES historical results.

Improvements lead to a high-performing and engaged public service that delivers on government priorities now and in the future.

The PSES fulfills a critical need to regularly assess employees’ engagement and their views on key aspects of their jobs and their workplace.

Ministerial mandate letters support public service effectiveness, productivity and well-being. Budget 2016 supports evidence-based improvements through the use of employee surveys.

The PSES offers valuable insight into employees’ opinions on their engagement, workforce, workplace and leadership, and it helps identify concerns in these areas.
Actions taken to address identified concerns are evident.
Government-wide results show some positive change over time, but they show negative and little to no change in several areas.
The PSES is effectively designed and administered, and there have been continuous efforts to improve it. There are, however, four significant concerns:
- the frequency of the PSES’s iterations
- the time lag between fieldwork and the release of results
- limitations in the analysis of PSES data
- adequacy of government-wide support to address identified issues

The Secretariat should develop a strategy to proactively address government-wide issues highlighted in the PSES results. Such a strategy should include the Secretariat:
- playing a stronger leadership role in government-wide initiatives for change while respecting individual deputy head accountabilities
- bringing greater consequences to departments and agencies regarding their PSES performance, depending on their level of improvement
- taking specific actions to address those issues that could benefit from government-wide intervention.
The Secretariat should develop a plan to enhance the PSES program that addresses the following:
- providing timelier insights to departments and agencies on employee engagement, the workplace, the workforce and leadership issues
- facilitating ongoing consultation with organizations and continual improvement of survey tools and products
- enabling a wider range of analysis, including collecting additional targeted data
- ensuring that the PSES represents the state of the art in survey methodology and remains pertinent to key user and stakeholder groups