Workforce Planning Environmental Snapshot

Adapting to the New Work Environment and the Future of Work

• The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation and is driving increasingly complex health, economic, and social impacts.  Health impacts have fallen most heavily on seniors, racialized populations, people living with disabilities and women.
• Uncertainty concerning the future course of the pandemic remains high.  Mental health needs are growing and risk of burnout is high due to family, work and societal pressures.
• Focus on physical and mental well-being at work and management of an increasingly hybrid (on-site and remote) and distributed workforce are of critical importance.
• Flexibility to work remotely based on the nature of work task may continue to influence the future state of work after COVID-19.  Increase in remote work and new service delivery models has also led to greater potential to leverage employee mobility by removing geographic barriers to attract and retain diverse and bilingual talent.
• Shift in the traditional employer-employee relationship driven by increases in shift work, part-time hiring, contracts and project work increases in the "gig" economy.
• Based on the "new operating normal", businesses must rethink the employee and talent experience.

Rapid Technological Change

• Automation, digitization and advancements in artificial intelligence will profoundly influence the nature of work and service delivery, i.e. what, where and when work is performed and by whom, leading to requirements for reskilling and upskilling.
• Deconstruction of work into a series of smaller jobs and assignments and re-bundling work tasks by redesigning jobs to take advantage of new technologies.
• Essential needs for big data, "cloud", analytics, as well constant increase in data processing speeds and bandwidth, as well as nonstop invention of tools for creating, sharing and consuming and integrating data.
• Digital literacy, systems thinking, strategic foresight, business acumen and change management are increasingly essential skills. 
• Social media will increase need for regulation, data, privacy as well as digital communication trends.

Diversity and Inclusion

• Canadian businesses continue to face the challenges of an ageing workforce and the increasingly short supply of skilled labour.
• In early 2020, virtually all the growth in Canada's labour force was coming from immigration, resulting in Canada increasing its immigration targets, forecasting more than 1 million immigrants over the next three years.
• Statistics Canada's 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability found that 15.6% of the Canadian workforce (aged 25 to 64) is made of up by persons with a disability.
• As Generation Z (consisting of those born between 1995 and 2015), now enters the labour market, many workplaces are composed of five generations.
• This exceptional time comes with high expectations from employees for change and action to improve employees' lived experiences and the importance of developing and fostering trust.
• Increased focus on disability inclusion, removing barriers to accessibility, working inclusively and co-creating an environment where all perspectives are considered.

Clerk's Priorities

• The Twenty-Seventh Annual Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canada highlights the work of the Public Service in supporting the government's response to COVID-19 and providing critical services to ensure the health, safety, security and economic well-being of Canadians. Increasing diversity and nurturing deeper inclusion across the Public Service are identified as top priorities. It also identified the need to embrace risk, become more agile, and explore new ways of working.
• The Clerk's call to action on anti-racism, equity and inclusion in the public service, sets out federal expectations for current leaders.

Government-wide priorities

• Public Service Renewal: Beyond2020 focuses on rethinking our collective mindsets and behaviours that will result in greater agility, deeper inclusion, and a better-equipped workforce.
• Four high-level themes outlined the government's agenda in the 2020 Speech from the Throne: fighting the pandemic, supporting people and businesses, rebuilding a stronger Canada, and the defense of Canadian values.
• Continuing efforts towards reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Canada, development of Canada's first ever Disability Inclusion Plan and youth policy.
• Additional priority commitments have been set out in the form of Supplementary Mandate Letters.
• TBS has published commitments to foster greater diversity, inclusion and accessibility in the public service.

Innovation and Digital Government

• TBS initiatives include Digital government, GC Cloud-First Strategy, Modernizing the Workplace (GC Workplace), Greening Government, NexGen HR and Pay System, GC Talent Cloud, Enabling innovative use of Transfer Payments, Experimentation Works, Improvement of Services.
• The digital government agenda seeks to improve digital services, online security, information technology, artificial intelligence, behavioural insights, workplace innovation and open data.

Legislative and policy changes

• Renewal of the Employment Equity Act to advance work on equity, diversity and inclusion for women, LGBTQ2, Indigenous Peoples, Black and racialized Canadians, persons with disabilities and other underrepresented groups.
• Recent implementation of policies that impact processes and delivery (TBS Policy Reset Initiative, TBS Policy on Service and Digital, Policy on People Management, Public Service Accessibility Strategy.
• Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations and amendment to Canada Labour Code, Bill C-65 to take effect Jan 1, 2021. Mandatory training for employees and managers will be developed and rolled out across the department.
• Modernization of the Official Languages Act. Amendments to Official Languages (Communications with and Services to the Public) Regulations will expand requirements to communicate with and provide services to the public in both official languages.
• Implementation of the new Pay Equity Act targeted for end of 2021.
• Increase transparency and accountability of government spending and Open Government.
• TBS launched first review of Canada's access to information process on June 18, 2020.

Classification renewal conversions (PA, IT and CT Groups)

• Classification renewal conversions
• Job descriptions for these groups will require review and update for conversion. In light of COVID-19 circumstances, implementation timelines are being reassessed.

Delivery of critical services to Canadians and Response to COVID-19

• Health and safety of employees and clients, support to managers as well as active employee engagement, among other factors remain at the forefront of business resumption planning.
• Continued changes to programs and service delivery and increasing workload are exerting pressure on existing workforce. 
• Need for agility and greater integration in how work gets done
• Significant growth and shift in the composition of the labour force has implications on workforce management and planning.

Service Transformation

• Multi-year business transformation agenda will affect the delivery of programs and services to make them more accessible and easier to use and the workforce in terms of competencies for the future of service delivery functions, capacity, organizational structure, and/or work environments.
• E-services have become the norm. Benefits Delivery Modernization (BDM) has accelerated and ESDC employees must gain the necessary skills in response to the rapid technological change.

PMB Collective Priorities

• Accessibility
• Management Development and Support
• Efficiencies and Process Improvements including a focus on reducing time to staff

Corporate Priorities

• Supporting the physical and psychological health of employees including the prevention of harassment and discrimination.
• Fostering diversity and inclusion -linked to DM Corporate Commitments for Diversity and Inclusion. ESDC's Employment Equity (EE) representation is below the Canadian workforce availability for persons with disabilities (PWD). As part of the new Public Service Accessibility Strategy, ESDC has committed to hiring PWD.
• Supporting the Department in building and maintaining a competent workforce by providing learning offerings based on ESDC Learning Priorities, which includes Mandatory Training Curricula*
• *New Mandatory Curricula will be launched in April 2021.

Stabilization of pay for ESDC employees

• Ensuring that all employees are paid accurately and on time, remains a key priority and is linked to the enterprise-wide Corporate Commitments for Executives.

Data & Evidence-Based Decision Making

• Development of the Artificial Intelligence Strategy and a renewed ESDC Data Strategy is underway.
• Talent Marketplace tool will also be refined to equip business lines with key workforce analytics to support evidence-based decision-making regarding the workforce.