Key Guiding Principles – Official Languages And Human Resources Planning And Staffing Activities

Here are some tips to help you, as a manager, ensure that the development of human resources strategies and action plans pertaining to your organization include official languages considerations. These implications will all have an important impact on departmental obligations and employees' rights.

Language Requirements of Positions

Consult the departmental Guidelines on Language Requirements of Positions and Staffing of Bilingual Positions (PDF, 363 KB)

  • Identify the language requirements of positions objectively.
  • Use imperative staffing as the norm and have the appropriate level of approval for non-imperative staffing.
  • Ensure that employees in bilingual positions meet the language requirements of their positions and receive the bilingualism bonus.
  • Remember that exclusions from meeting position language requirements and incumbent's rights for appointments, including reclassifications, fall under the new Public Service Employment Act (PSEA) and Regulations, and the Public Service Official Languages Exclusion Approval Order (PSOLEAO). In the case of non-imperative indeterminate appointments, the exemption period for language training of two years must be respected and exclusions from meeting language requirements of positions are very restrictive. (Consult the Departmental Procedures on the Application of the PSOLEAO.) Obtaining a training plan for the employee at the onset of the exclusion period and releasing them as soon as their training plan is available are key.
  • Remember that exclusions from meeting position language requirements and incumbent's rights for deployments and the re-identification of the language requirements of positions and the raising of linguistic profiles fall under the TBS Directive on Official Language for People Management.

Language Training

  • Help employees to develop, maintain and improve their second language skills by encouraging them to use online second language learning resources, such as:

Obligations for Equitable Participation

  • Integrate official languages considerations into your human resources plans, such as recruitment strategies in minority official language post-secondary institutions to create pools of bilingual candidates.

Only the Most Recent Second Language Evaluation Test Results Are Considered Valid

For human resources and professional development planning, it must be noted that even if employees occupying a bilingual position on a continuous basis do not need to be assessed again when their Second Language Evaluation (SLE) scores are dated five years or more, managers, with the help of employees, must regularly review their staffing needs in terms of maintaining their competency in their second language. It is important for managers and employees to be aware that it is an individual's most recent SLE test results that are considered to be valid.

Reference:

For more information about official languages, consult the Manager's Toolkit on OfficialLanguages intranet site.