Blueprint 2020 – CRTC Public Service Renewal Results 2016

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Section 1: Supported a Respectful Workplace

Launched the CRTC mental health awareness campaign It’s OK, Let’s Talk.

• Developed a visual identifier, video, and posters.
• Held a full day all-staff awareness campaign including:
  • Conferences by individuals having faced mental health challenges
  • Conference on mindfulness
  • Conference for people helping people facing mental health issues
  • Quiz on mental health
  • Information booths
  • Art therapy
• Dedicated a section on the CRTC intranet site for posting resources related to mental health.
• Developed messages to employees for the Weekly News bulletin and in-house digital screens.

Named a Wellness Champion for the CRTC.

• Established a CRTC Wellness Committee.
• Implemented a program to provide corporate discounts for various fitness memberships.
• Provided employees with opportunity to attend Yoga on the hill (in partnership with Department of Heritage).
• Participated in interdepartmental exchanges regarding wellness strategies in the workplace.
• Promoted consultation on the Federal Public Service Workplace Mental Health Strategy.

Next Steps

Develop a more comprehensive corporate strategy to support employee wellness.

• Develop metrics to inform senior management discussions involving workplace wellness.
• Expand programs to support employee wellness.
• Develop and promote existing training opportunities in support of wellness.
• Continue to communicate with employees about available tools and resources.
• Expand interdepartmental exchanges.

Section 2: Contributed to Public Service Renewal

Recruited new and diverse employees

• Visited universities and colleges – hired co-op, FSWEP, and part-time students from many backgrounds, including: engineering, law and social sciences.
• Participated in job fairs and educational institution career information days.
• Developed an Aboriginal Work Experience Program.
• Conducted exit interviews with all summer students to gauge their experience and promote the public service as an employer of choice.
• Advertised opportunities on social media, including Facebook and Twitter.
• Proactively used collective internal and external staffing processes.

Welcomed and integrated new employees to help them succeed

• Announced the arrival of new staff and their role through the CRTC Weekly News bulletin.
• Provided new employees with the Office Survival Guide.
• Ensured new employees are introduced to CRTC Commissioners and the Chairman through regular new employee “meet and greets”.
• Held regular CRTC Orientation sessions so that new employees can learn directly from each sector what they do and how they fit into the organization.
• Identified new staff at all-staff meetings with “I am new” nametags.

Supported talent management

• Integrated talent management into the annual performance management process of all employees and considered high performers for special learning and job opportunities to further develop them within the organization or the government as a whole.
• Encouraged participation to the CRTC job rotation program.
• Collaborated with the Law Society of Upper Canada and the University of Ottawa by offering law internships.

Prepare the next generation of leaders

• Used teamwork to transfer knowledge.
• Provided hands-on learning opportunities through participation in key Commission activities such as Full Commission Meetings and Public Hearings.
• Developed and offered online training sessions for Compliance and Enforcement.
• Invited new executives and equivalents to the Senior Management Committee on a rotating basis.
• Developed and provided in-house training to employees in the Legal Sector which is accredited by the Law Society of Upper Canada and Barreau du Québec.

Section 3: Pursued Other Actions to Renew the Public Service

A CRTC 2015 Blueprint 2020 all-staff exercise identified communications bottlenecks as a key concern to innovation and sharing information. As a result, the CRTC set out in 2016 to improve the way information was communicated to staff and ensure that employees are better engaged:

Streamlined internal communications through a modernized Weekly News bulletin

• Developed a new template making the information easier to read with fewer clicks and a logical organization of information

Purchased and installed digital screens in public areas

• Conveyed important information for all staff
• Reduced use of posters, paper and email

Developed an email etiquette one-pager reminding employees how to reduce email clutter.

Created an internal communications committee

• Participation of all sectors

Continued to empower employees by giving them the opportunity to pitch innovative ideas directly to the Senior Management Committee and then to their peers though the annual 7.5 hour challenge. All employees had the opportunity to vote for the proposal that they felt should be implemented.

• The winning project for 2016 addresses a gap unveiled at last year’s BP 2020 all-staff exercise: the need for more collaboration. The winning proposal for an online collaboration tool is being championed by the Chairman and is in its initial testing phase.
• The winning project for 2015, the “Mental Health” campaign, was championed by the Chairman and implemented with great success. The runner-up, the “email etiquette” project, was developed and disseminated to staff.

Our employees were recognized by our peers for our innovative approaches with three prestigious awards:

• The Public Service Award for Excellence in Policy for the innovative approaches taken to engage and consult more than 13,000 Canadians during our review of the Canadian television system.
• The Community of Federal Regulators Award for Service Excellence in Regulatory Program Delivery for our work on the Voter Contact Registry which protects Canadians from rogue and misleading telephone calls during federal elections.
• The Community of Federal Regulators Award for Contribution to Regulatory Openness and Transparency for its assessment of broadband Internet service performance which measures actual broadband internet connection speeds in Canadian homes.

Section 4: Delivered better outcomes for government and Canadians through better consultation, more openness and collaboration

Building on what we have accomplished and reported on through previous BP 2020 reports, we continued to try and put all Canadians at the center of their communication system, and at the heart of the work of the CRTC through smart risk taking and open and innovative communication and consultation approaches. Even though consulting Canadians has always been key to delivering on the CRTC’s mandate, we continued to push to do better through the following actions:

• Continued to host discussions on multiple digital platforms including our website, Facebook, Twitter, and for one of the first times in Government, Reddit.
• Used Facebook Live to promote a public hearing and to invite all Canadians to participate.
• Worked with EKOS to develop a broadband questionnaire that was completed by 30,000 Canadians interested in helping us determine the future of broadband.
• Held broadband focus groups across Canada targeting those Canadians who had limited or no access to broadband Internet services and would otherwise have difficulty participating in our proceedings.
• Actively monitored Twitter and interacted with Canadians in real time.
• Partnered and collaborated with the National Film Board to organize and host the Discoverability Summit attended by experts from across the world to discuss the future of how to discover audio-visual content in a world of abundance.
  • Livestreamed many of the sessions and encouraged participation through Twitter to extend the conference far beyond the walls of the conference rooms in Toronto.
  • Recognizing the importance of youth in this discussion, hosted a separate Youth Summit to learn from Canadians aged 15–18.

We continued to educate and empower Canadians so that they can make informed decisions as consumers and citizens.

• Created and published interactive online maps to:
  • Show Canadians where broadband internet services are available and the technologies used.
  • Identify radio and television stations that distribute emergency alerts.
• Developed and published an online tool to help Canadians find phone, mobile, Internet and TV service providers and to empower them to find the services that suit them best in terms of quality and affordability.
• Measured actual broadband speeds in the homes of Canadians and reported back to them on the results

We continued to collaborate with partners to deliver better outcomes for government and Canadians:

• The CRTC awarded the first ever CRTC prizes for Excellence in Policy Research to encourage a new generation of researchers to contribute positively to the development of public policy.
• Signed memoranda of understandings with ten enforcement agencies from across the globe to fight unlawful spam and unsolicited telecommunications.
• Held an international workshop with policy and enforcement communities from across the globe to exchange views and experiences in policy, regulation, and enforcement of spam and nuisance communications.

Moving the Blueprint 2020 vision forward

The CRTC endeavours to implement Blueprint 2020 principles in all that it does. The need to hear from Canadians in order to make informed decisions, and to inform and educate them, means that we are constantly trying to find innovative ways to connect with as many Canadians as possible.

We know that technology is moving fast and that a modern and high-performing workforce is essential to staying ahead of the curve. However, it is difficult to maintain morale and focus on our core business when employees can’t rely on the centralized systems which support them. In particular, CRTC employees continue to struggle with some of the existing public service transformation initiatives, including:

• Phoenix, the centralized pay system. Employees continue to experience pay issues. Now that systems are integrated, we must depend on the pay system and Pay Center to process information. This has impacted our ability to efficiently and effectively pay employees and solve emerging pay issues.
• The centralized performance management systems. Information has been lost and employees have had to re-enter their information on several occasions. Some employees have begun to keep hardcopies of their agreements in parallel with the automated systems to ensure accuracy.

In addition, legacy government policies and procedures with respect to contracting and purchasing make it difficult for employees to innovate and quickly implement solutions in a reasonable amount of time. Moreover, the Core Control Audit focuses on respect for archaic rules rather than focussing on Public Service values and actual outcomes.

While issues will surely arise when taking new and innovative approaches, and when taking risks, we must endeavour to ensure that issues are resolved as quickly as possible so as not to disrupt morale and the appetite for taking future risks. This is critical to live the Blueprint 2020 vision.

Date modified:

2017-03-28