Question Period Note: PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

INQUIRY OF MINISTRY ON PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

The Department is committed to having a merit-based staffing system that is nimble and a key enabler to a high performing workforce, fosters diversity, inclusiveness, and linguistic duality, upholds ethical hiring practices and is aligned with workforce planning and approved funding levels, to ensure that appropriate capacity is in place to serve the needs of Canadians.

The following provides a workforce snapshot for Employment and Social Development Canada

Portfolio

Indeterminate

Term

Casual

Student

Vacancies

Total

Employment and Social Development Branches

8,322

409

128

94

779

8,953

Service Canada

21,885

8,249

406

91

1,939

30,631

Labour Program

872

16

8

12

100

908

Benefit Delivery Modernization

454

15

5

12

33

486

Other

114

7

2

1

14

124

Employment and Social Development Canada

31,647

8,696

549

210

2,865

41,102

**Data extracted from Peoplesoft, as of October 1st, 2023.

Human resources planning summary for core responsibilities and internal services (full-time equivalents)

Core responsibilities and internal services

Forecast for 2023 to 2024

Planned for 2024 to 2025

Planned for 2025 to 2026

Core Responsibility 1: Social Development

511

488

435

Core Responsibility 2: Pensions and Benefits

7,075

6,679

5,744

Core Responsibility 3: Learning, Skills Development and Employment

16,182

14,379

9,720

Core Responsibility 4: Working Conditions and Workplace Relations

821

817

796

Core Responsibility 5: Information Delivery and Services for Other Departments

3,730

3,719

3,266

Subtotal

28,319

26,082

19,961

Internal services

5,333

5,103

4,693

Total

33,652

31,185

24,654

The overall decrease of full-time equivalents (FTEs) from fiscal year 2023 to 2024 to fiscal year 2025 to 2026 is mainly explained by the following:

Reduction in temporary resources.

Sunsetting of funding for the corporate costs associated with various initiatives.

A decrease of FTEs as a result of passport activities returning to normal. 

INQUIRY OF MINISTRY QUESTION Q-1741

With regard to policies, directives, standards and guidelines enforced by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat concerning people management, broken down by department or agency: (a) on what date was the last staffing review completed and presented to the deputy minister and senior managers; (b) what were the conclusions of the last staffing review, including the (i) number of vacancies, (ii) future staffing needs of the department, (iii) ability to fill existing and future job vacancies; (c) did the department hire third-party management firms to provide recommendations on people management; and (d) what are the details of all contracts with management firms in (c), including the (i) name of the company contracted, (ii) value of the contract, (iii) expected deliverables, (iv) titles of final the reports, summaries, or recommendation lists, (v) deadlines?

on what date was the last staffing review completed and presented to the deputy minister and senior managers: The last staffing report (2021-2022) was published on October 13, 2022.

what were the conclusions of the last staffing review: Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) implemented concrete solutions to make staffing simpler and reduce efforts and time associated with staffing; launched simplified and client-driven tools and services to support hiring managers in recruiting staff in a virtual environment; and improved HR planning, including the availability of data to better support managers.

number of vacancies: The number of vacant positions for the department as of September 28, 2023, is 26,988. This number fluctuates over time due to regular departmental operations and does not necessarily reflect a specific staffing need. For example, over 10,000 of the vacant positions are PM-01 positions that are linked to services to citizens, although they may have different functions. As a result, the decision on which vacant position to staff would be dependent on the business and operational requirement at that time. In other instances, they may be awaiting a transfer out in Phoenix and the position is left vacant until that time.

future staffing needs of the department: For future staffing needs of the department, please refer to ESDC’s Departmental plan for fiscal year 2023 to 2024.  Specifically, Table 18: Human resources planning summary for core responsibilities and internal services (full-time equivalents (FTE)) shows the required FTEs for delivery on the department’s core responsibilities and internal services for the next two (2) fiscal years including the current 2023-2024 year.

ability to fill existing and future job vacancies: Pools of candidates were established by ESDC for effective and efficient hiring. ESDC leverages several staffing and recruitment mechanisms to fill vacancies, depending on current and future operational requirements.

Note: The number of vacant positions were extracted from ESDC’s PeopleSoft system, as of September 28, 2023.

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