Classification & Organizational Design Bulletin – Q1 & Q2 – Bulletin
Activities during the April 1 to September 30, 2020 period
New employees
We would like to welcome new employees to the Classification Team.
- Alexis Perrier:
- PE-05, Manager, Centre of Expertise, since April 1, 2020
- Matthew Lafleur:
- PE-01, HR Adviser, since April 1, 2020
- Joselle Thivierge:
- AS-02, HR Services Officer, since August 30, 2020
- Laurence Boivin:
- PE-02, HR Adviser, since September 8, 2020
- Mélanie L’écuyer-Bédard:
- AS-02, HR Services Officer, since September 14, 2020
Congratulations to Cynthia Brisebois, who gave birth to a lovely baby girl, ROMY, on August 3, 2020. She is now on maternity leave and will be back next summer.
Promotion
- Véronic Gauvreau:
- AS-02, Projects Officer, since July 27, 2020
- Samantha Moniz-Andrade:
- AS-02, HR Services Officer, since August 3, 2020
- Valerie Klassen:
- PE-04, HR Adviser, Centre of Expertise, since April 6, 2020
Statistics
- Requests received via the portal:
- 2303
- Requests received via the portal processed:
- 2087
- Number of actions completed in PeopleSoft:
- 13,967
Classification News
Since April 1, the Organizational Design and Classification Centre of Expertise (ODCCE) has been handling EX and non-EX positions as well as corporate classification. This significantly increases the capacity to process EX requests and shorten the associated time frames.
Manager’s duties and responsibilities with respect to classification: The on-line course, Introduction to Organization and Classification – P930 is mandatory for all managers with delegated financial authority.
The Department organization charts were produced in September and posted on the clients’ SharePoint sites to allow them to access them. The ODCCE team is currently working with the PeopleSoft and IITB team to develop a tool that clients can use to extract organization charts. We are in the testing phase.
The Departmental ID cleanup (Dep’t. IDs) continues. We have done several branches (HRSB, TISMB, Legal Services, IAB, POB, PASRB, Labour Program, IITB, Corporate Secretariat, CFOB, Learning and SEB). Everything went smoothly; the next branch will be ISSD and CSB in October.
The review of the HR Coordinator job description (AS-02) was part of a pilot project that consisted in reviewing job descriptions for conversion. We implemented a work plan in order to assess all of the stages required for a review, such as this one. The review of job descriptions resumed in August with the project management series. Service Canada and the Service Excellence Workforce Framework (SEWF) wrote up a draft and consultations with management and employees are completed, but consultations are continuing with ESDC in order to look at the possibility of having departmental standardized job descriptions.
The ADMs will receive an update of their conversion dashboard in October and will receive an update every quarter. Next year, Classification will also produce a dashboard for each branch (Director General [DG] level). It should be noted that because of the COVID pandemic, we put dashboard production on hold because of the high number of positions created. A strategy for reducing the increased number of vacant positions will be drawn up.
The administrative team is working with the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer (OCHRO) at the Treasury Board Secretariat (as well as with the Position and Classification Information System [PCIS] team) in order to share our standardized job descriptions with other departments. All of our updated job descriptions are now available on the website so that they can be shared with the classification community. This is also being done by other departments.
In April 2020, the new Policy on People Management came into effect and it has an impact on the classification of non-EX and EX positions:
- The new Directive on Classification states that all Classification Committee chairs must be certified. Following a discussion with the OCHRO, a change will be made to the directive to allow uncertified human resources advisers working in the ODCCE to chair Classification Committee meetings.
- Low-risk activities may be approved by uncertified human resources advisers working in the ODCCE.
- In the future, certified consultants may be delegated by the Department’s Deputy Minister. This will help significantly during conversion periods because all job descriptions must be assessed by a committee.
In preparation for the classification conversions, the OCHRO published a new Job Description Writing Guide. You will notice that the new Guide is a complete tool in that it covers a lot of the material related to the drafting of job descriptions in a new format. In fact, the Guide clearly describes the following:
- Links with other HR disciplines;
- Duties and responsibilities of managers, organization and classification advisers, and employees;
- The drafting and use of standardized job descriptions;
- How to fill out the job description template;
- Effective dates;
- Management of job descriptions (keeping them updated);
- An overview of the drafting of standardized job descriptions;
- Drafting advice.
It is a practical tool for managers and a good source of information for employees that you will find on iService!
Follow-up on vacant positions
A quarterly review of positions that have been vacant for more than two years will be carried out in October. According to the TBS Directive on Classification, organizations must manage their vacant positions by conducting regular reviews in order to keep the number of vacant positions to a minimum at all times (i.e., 10% to 15%). The management of vacant positions is also an activity that will help us with various upcoming conversions (PA, IT and CT positions).
Reminder: That vacant positions will not be converted.
| Branch | Occupied | Vacant | % of Vacant | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CFOB | 1046 | 300 | 22% | 1346 |
| IAERMB | 48 | 25 | 34% | 73 |
| Corporate Secretariat | 163 | 78 | 32% | 241 |
| ESDC DM’s Office | 26 | 19 | 42% | 45 |
| HRSB | 1298 | 569 | 30% | 1867 |
| IITB | 2341 | 820 | 26% | 3161 |
| ISSDB | 510 | 208 | 29% | 718 |
| Learning | 413 | 125 | 23% | 538 |
| Legal Services | 75 | 43 | 37% | 115 |
| PASRB | 236 | 95 | 29% | 331 |
| SEB | 655 | 375 | 36% | 1030 |
| SSPB | 574 | 260 | 31% | 834 |
| Commissioner for Emp. | 4 | 1 | 20% | 5 |
| Comm Work | 3 | 1 | 25% | 4 |
| Branch | Occupied | Vacant | % of Vacant | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| COPD | 636 | 176 | 22% | 812 |
| PDRIA | 155 | 83 | 35% | 238 |
| SIG | 29 | 15 | 34% | 44 |
| DM Labour | 5 | 4 | 44% | 9 |
| Branch | Occupied | Vacant | % of Vacant | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BDSB | 1146 | 537 | 32% | 1683 |
| COOO | 15 | 15 | 50% | 30 |
| CSB | 496 | 203 | 29% | 699 |
| ISB | 431 | 200 | 32% | 631 |
| POB | 450 | 184 | 29% | 634 |
| TISMB | 110 | 58 | 35% | 168 |
| Atlantic Region | 3239 | 1503 | 32% | 4742 |
| Quebec Region | 4462 | 1978 | 31% | 6440 |
| Ontario Region | 7161 | 2848 | 28% | 10,009 |
| West Region | 6123 | 2511 | 29% | 8634 |
| Transformation Mgmt. | 1 | 1 | 50% | 2 |
| Branch | Occupied | Vacant | % of Vacant | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASC | 26 | 29 | 53%% | 55 |
| Branch | Occupied | Vacant | % of Vacant | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | 31877 | 13264 | 29.4% | 45141 |
** Note an increase in vacancies due to the many new positions created during the pandemic to better serve clients. No review of 2-year vacancies was done during this period.
The Classification Team wants to assure you that everything will be all right!
IT Conversion
The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBCS) decided to postpone the conversion of IT positions to 2021 because of the Covid-19 situation. The new date will be announced once the OCHRO has finished the validation with departments.
Union consultations relative to the next conversion were held and a proposed consultation approach was accepted.
The TBCS will organize additional WebEx sessions on the topic of conversions for classification employees. The Classification Committees have resumed their activities and are assessing the OCHRO’s standardized job descriptions (SJDs). In the case of job descriptions already assessed (Infrastructure/Operations, Enterprise Architecture and Business Line Support Services), we entered data in the Classification Information System (CIS) conversion tool. We are the first department to have put our job descriptions into it.
Brief update on the conversion of IT positions:
The Computer Systems Occupational Group (CS) will become a new occupational group called Information Technology (IT). The conversion of the IT group will affect 6% of ESDC positions. There are 2653 CS positions.
The ODCCE is currently working with management on the review of all CS positions:
CIO Suite of Generic Products: 95% of positions have now been updated using the TBS’s interdepartmental SJD suites. A number of projects are under way to update CS positions outside the IITB and develop SJDs for the missing duties of the CIO suites. The SJDs will be shared with the community as well as with a number of departments in order to make them interdepartmental.
- Unique job descriptions: Look at the current job descriptions and make them consistent with the appropriate interdepartmental standardized job descriptions (ISJDs) (work stream, level and organizational model). If none applies, review and update the unique job description, which will require the ODCCE Director’s authorization.
- ISJDs: Confirm the work stream and level. If it does not correspond, apply the appropriate ISJD (work stream, level and organizational model).
- Information on the CIO Suite of Generic Products is available on the GCpedia site.
The conversion of IT positions is an opportunity to maximize the benefits of the CIO Suite of Generic Products!
PA Conversion
Updates on the planned classification conversion of positions in the PA occupational group.
Project to review departmental standardized job descriptions (SJDs) under way
The ODCCE asked management to update the job descriptions of positions in the PA group that are no longer current. According to TBS OCHRO policy and the conversion principles adopted at ESDC, updates must be done from SJDs where possible. Unique job descriptions will be processed on an exceptional basis in accordance with the ODCCE Director’s approval.
Communications products developed for the consultations
To reduce management’s workload, the ODCCE began holding consultations with management and employees to promote the use of current SJDs or the drafting of new SJDs. To that end, the ODCCE provides managers with the necessary tools for their consultations with employees, in accordance with the consultation agreements with the unions concerned.
Initiation of partnerships with other departments
To reduce workloads across the public service, departments are called upon to share their SJDs in the Classification Information System (CIS+). In addition, Shared Services Canada (SSC) has asked departments to coordinate the activities of departments in order to reduce duplication of work (for example, if a department is working on a series of jobs, other departments can benefit from that instead of working on the same series of jobs).
Preliminary evaluation of PA group job descriptions in relation to updated SJDs
The ODCCE has started evaluating current standardized job descriptions in relation to the new PA group job evaluation standard. In addition, all jobs attributed to the PA group, whether new or submitted for updating, will be evaluated in relation to the applicable current standard as well as with the new PA group standard.
To make any suggestions or propose topics, please contact us at our generic inbox: nc-nwdb-bdtn-gd@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca.