1 Public Sector Leadership Challenges in Today’s World Profession in Perspective 2010 Presentation by Maria Barrados President Public Service Commission September 7, 2010 Dublin, Ireland Check against delivery RDIMS #

2 Setting the Context Economic downturn o Reductions, cutbacks o Impacts on public servants Politicization of public services o Changing institutions o Changing relationships between public servants and elected officials

3 People Management “Getting people part of the organization right” “First get the right people on the bus, then figure out where to drive it” “’Who’ questions come before ‘what’ decisions” Good to Great, Jim Collins Growing influence of HR in organizations o Workforce planning linked to business strategy and outcomes

4 Valuing and Managing Talent In Canada o expecting tighter labour market, accelerating retirements, shortage of critical skills. Valuing Your Talent – HR Trends and Metrics (June 2010) o Report by Conference Board of Canada o Top challenges: Retaining critical talent, grooming future organizational leaders  Acquisition,  Development  Leadership Development  Engagement

5 Acquisition = recruiting, selection, hiring Canada’s aging workforce; shortage of critical skills 20% - difficulty in recruiting quality candidates Close to 80% - difficulty recruiting candidates with critical skills (key tasks) and hot skills (high demand). –Challenge similar for both private and public sector Internal job postings, corporate internet sites and third-party web boards are the most effective methods of recruiting for all jobs except the top jobs.

6 Acquisition – Canada’s public service In Canada’s public service: Values – merit, non-partisanship; fairness, transparency, access, representativeness in terms of reflecting our diverse population Challenge is to have representative, bilingual public service

7 Acquisition – Public Service Commission Better planning to identify areas of critical shortage. Identifying areas of critical shortage. Targeted outreach and recruitment – universities, career fairs Post Secondary Recruitment Program –Specific career streams Clerk of the Privy Council’s objective - hiring 4000 post-secondary graduates – largely met With help from PSC’s post-secondary recruitment drives Pools of partially and full qualified candidates for high demand and high turnover areas in the public service

8 Acquisition – attracting talent - Jobs.gc.ca Very easy and better to locate jobs. Thank you! CCG Videos promoting Coast Guard College! A single window for Canadians to apply to the Government of Canada! A Huge Success !!!!

9 Development Conference Board Report: Shift from formal training to development Downward trend in spending on formal learning o Higher in public sector Clearly defined competencies o 79% of public sector, vs. 68% of private sector 59% have formal learning and development plans; higher in public sector – (60% ) Increasing reliance on segments for determining development opportunities. Managers formally accountable for people management

10 Development, Training, in Canada’s Public Service Need to demonstrate clear linkages between individual and organizational needs Canada School of Public Service delivers centralized training –Targeted to specific levels and communities Learning plans developed for every employee –Goal is 100% completion rates for learning plans and performance feedback reports Performance Management is now embedded at senior levels. Professional development communities –National Managers Community Professional Development Forum Engaging and facilitating dialogue and the sharing of best practices. –Young Professionals Network

11 Leadership Development and Succession Planning Conference Board Report: Organizations facing leadership crunch. Succession Planning : Public sector lagging behind private sector –81% of private sector have identified key leadership positions for succession planning, vs. 63% of public sector

12 Leadership Development and Succession Planning Increased succession pools for second-level executives and senior managers More organizations are identifying mission-critical positions – non- executive jobs, vital to the organization’s performance. Diversity “representation falls as people in diversity groups climb the career ladder” “the integration of diversity management practices across all facets of talent management, particularly development should have higher priority.”

13 Leadership Development, Succession Planning – Canada’s Public Service Challenges not getting easier. Leaders of tomorrow’s public service are within our departments today. Talent management in place for all executives, moving toward some non-executive levels. Leadership Development Framework in place  responsibility for leadership – with department s  focus on work-based learning.  broadening experience and knowledge, vs. accelerating their progress up the ranks Moving forward: more systematically integrated with business and HR planning, including succession planning and filling identified organizational needs.

14 Leadership Development – Canada’s Public Service Continuing role of corporate leadership development: Advanced Leadership Program o Highest level program for senior executives ; increase awareness of social, global issues Fellows Program : o short-term exchanges with business, academia, not-for-profit organizations and other levels of government. Public Servant in Residence Program o Placed in Canadian universities to conduct research and/or teach. Living Leadership Program o Experiential leadership program –practical application of leadership skills

15 Succession Planning - Canada’s Public Service At executive level and in key skill shortage areas. Good data needed Tied to plan for identifying critical positions Ensuring pools, strategies are in place Also tied to values – and to ensuring we have representative, bilingual public service

16 Employee Engagement Conference Board Report

17 Employee Engagement Conference Board Report Employee engagement one of top HR priorities cited in Conference Board Report Surveys used more frequently in public sector Prevalent employee concerns are: recognition, career opportunities, effectiveness of management, and development opportunities Wellness, voluntarism and social networking – can enhance engagement and benefit employees, and organizations. Wellness, work-life balance initiatives are increasingly part of the corporate agenda – more so in public sector Community involvement, voluntarism allow organizations and employees to express and act on shared values in a concrete way Social networking 43% of private sector organizations offer unlimited access to social networking vs 23% of public sector organizations

18 Employee Engagement – Canada’s Public Service Canada’s public service All public servants have role to play Overcoming risk-aversion by building trust; through dialogue. Federal Public Service Employee Survey – every three years - online first time in 2008 –Departmental surveys –PSC – five surveys to date – developed action plan, posted to the web. Voluntarism - Government of Canada’s Charitable Workplace Campaign –Strong participation –This year included activities related to healthy living and wellness Social networking, wellness : Clerk of the Privy Council has made renewing the workplace a priority. –web 2.0 technologies –GCpedia – Government of Canada’s wiki –PSC – fostering innovative uses of social media President’s blog.

19 Conclusion Importance of human resources - Majority of organizations surveyed (three quarters) believed that HR is more influential than it was 5 years ago. Value of people management – underscored in Canada by Clerk of Privy Council’s emphasis on PS Renewal. Renewal - strengthening the capacity of the federal Public Service to meet the needs of Canadians and deliver on the business of Government. Clerk reported in the Spring on the Public Service Renewal initiative Highlighted progress on recruitment, as well as on integrated HR and business planning. –Departments, agencies taking a more strategic and coordinated approach to recruitment, building on integrated business and HR plans.

20 Workshops  What lessons can we learn from the private sector in relation to leadership development?  What good practices in leadership selection and development can we share from our own respective countries?  What are the new and emerging competencies for effective public sector leadership?