Managing the Workforce Impact in a Government Transformation The Government of Canada Experience to date Margaret Van Amelsvoort-Thoms Executive Director, Office of the Chief HR Officer Government of Canada April 4, 2013

Overview Overview of the Government of Canadas Budget 2012 announcement Managing the Workforce Impact of Budget 2012 – What worked well Managing the Workforce Impact of Budget 2012 – Opportunities for improvement Success Factors

Leading up to Budget 2012 Announcement Budget expected to transform government operations and impact the existing workforce. Strong indication that significant program and workforce changes were imminent: –Comprehensive assessment of government program spending –Administrative Services Review –New service delivery models applied (Shared Services, consolidation) –Operating budget freeze (coming from Budget 2010) Details unclear. Pre-planning efforts had to begin and had to leverage an integrated approach that focused on: –Enhancing communications between central agencies and departments. –Gathering recent, relevant and reliable data. –Enhancing collaboration across Government. –Reaching out and working with key stakeholders (i.e. Unions)

Budget 2012 Announcement Transforming government operations with emphasis on reducing program expenditures to enable a more productive, efficient, and responsive Government. Achieving this transformation will be done through: –Refocusing government and programs. –Making it easier for Canadians and businesses to deal with their government. –Modernizing and reducing the back office (HR, Finance, IT). Expected Outcomes (announced in Budget 2012): 1.Balanced budgets by 2015/16 2.Achieve ongoing savings of 6.9% in program spending (2011/12 baseline) Efforts to begin in April 2012.

Workforce Impact Resulting from Budget 2012 Announcement As of March 2012, there were 278,092 Federal Public Servants serving more than 35 million Canadians Announced that the Canadian Public Service workforce would be impacted: –Reduced by 19,200 or 4.8 per cent by 2014/15. 12,000 positions affected, the remainder (7,200) will be eliminated by attrition Of those 19,200 positions, 600 are executive positions. This represents 7.4 per cent of the Executive population. People Management Governance – Department Heads have the authority to make decisions about their own workforce planning and management based on their organizations mandate.

Managing the Workforce Impact of Budget 2012 – What Worked Well What worked well in managing the workforce impacts resulting from the transformation: Pre announcement of Budget Established key principles for an integrated approach early on: –Evidence-based, comprehensive approach –Enterprise-wide coherence –Collaboration and mutual support –Fair and transparent decision-making 2.Governance –CHRO met with departmental leaders weekly –Collaboration across Central Agencies –Nimble, able to respond quickly

Managing the Workforce Impact of Budget 2012 – What Worked Well (cont.) 3.Promoted planning and understanding of current and future organizational needs 4.Ongoing Communications –Constant info sharing with Senior Officials –Hosted info sessions for key internal players (HR, Managers, Executives) 5.Importance of reliable data Know your inflows/outflows Share the data with leaders / decision-makers 6.Advice directly to front-line Managers Handbook for Managers 7.Alternate solutions Redeployment or guaranteed reasonable job offer Alternation / Job swapping 8.Union Engagement – up front and early on

Managing the Workforce Impact of Budget 2012 – What Worked Well (cont.) Post-announcement of Budget Communications – a massive effort to get information to line managers quickly (Budget announced March 29, 2012; workforce impacts began mid-April) 10.Recruitment continues – cannot stop bringing in talent 11.Crowdsourcing – leveraging the community 12.Innovation and Creativity –Virtual Career Fair to enable continuous employment –Alternation Forum

Managing the Workforce Impact of Budget 2012 – Opportunities for Improvement What could we have done better in managing the workforce impacts resulting from the transformation: 1.Planning capacity is key to allow for informed decision-making 2.Maintain up to date and accurate aggregate data 3.Determine what you will need as key competencies for your workforce of the future

Workforce Planning and Management: Success Factors Establish and communicate leadership/vision Create and sustain integrated governance oStrong partnerships between the Central Agencies oEnabling rather than directing departments Recent and relevant workforce data and information, available at the right time Integrated approach to resolve issues HR and Management capacity to deliver Innovation and creativity Communications oMulti-level, cascading and targeted

Questions? Thank you!