Ensure public servants are paid accurately and promptly.

What success looks like

Public servants are paid in a timely manner and without errors.

Government's narrative on progress

The government is committed to stabilizing pay, and ensuring that public servants are paid accurately and on time, understanding there are no quick fixes. The government is committed to doing better. The Clerk of the Privy Council Office instructed all Deputy Ministers to take a personal interest in seeing that employees are supported; they should not feel that they are facing these difficulties alone. To continue progress on stabilizing the current pay system, Budget 2019 provides an additional $21.7 million in 2018–19 to address urgent pay administration pressures and proposes to invest an additional $523.3 million over five years, starting in 2019–20, to ensure that adequate resources are dedicated to addressing payroll errors. In addition, over the next two years, the government will work with experts, unions and technology providers on a way forward for a new HR-to-Pay system. The government is implementing a suite of measures as part of an integrated plan, informed by recommendations from the Office of Auditor General of Canada, as well as the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, to stabilize the pay system so that transactions are processed quickly and accurately. As part of this approach, Pay Pods, which group together compensation employees assigned to specific departments or agencies, are being rolled out to help ensure that pay issues are resolved and employees receive better service. Pay Pods work with departments and agencies to process new transactions first, then work on the outstanding transactions in an employee’s pay file, in contrast to the current approach of addressing pay issues by transaction type. This new approach results in a more comprehensive resolution of an employee’s pay file, leading to a reduction in backlogged cases. As of March 4th, 2019, Pay Pods have been implemented for 34 departments and agencies, representing approximately 150,000 employees. The government also announced enhancements to the Client Contact Centre, where staff now have access to a variety of tools so that they can provide more real-time, accurate information to public servants. Progress towards reducing the number of outstanding pay transactions continues. Progress is reported regularly through the monthly public Dashboard, the Pay Bulletin and other online content to ensure transparency and accountability. Since January 2018, the queue has decreased by over 163,000 transactions. At the same time, a significant number of collective agreements have been processed, providing more than $1.6 billion in retroactive payments to employees. In support of the stabilization efforts, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) is using a variety of procurement vehicles to access private sector expertise. The sourcing strategy aims to engage with the broader private sector community in order to leverage innovative strategies to help stabilize the pay system. Over the course of the fall, PSPC launched six Requests for Information (RFIs) in the areas of: automation of pay centre processes (request automation), HR processes, lowering the queue, enhanced user access management, Improving User Experience and training. PSPC also launched an Invitation to Qualify (ITQ), for all 6 of the RFIs. The qualified ITQ suppliers are being invited to participate in the Request for Proposals (RFPs). In addition, a key pillar of stabilization is the ongoing work with IBM under the application managed service model to increase capacity and leverage expertise while ensuring value for money. This model provides PSPC with a service provider that focuses on repetitive, operational, transactional work that enables PSPC experts to focus on the analysis and strategic improvements to Phoenix and its processes, such as simplifying system usability, thereby reducing the high number of errors generated by either the system or the user. To foster a culture more agile and open to change management, an HR-to-Pay Change Leadership Committee has been implemented with key stakeholders from Pay Centre and non-Pay Centre organizations to support the implementation of a Change Management Framework that will aim to achieve increased timeliness and reduced data errors, in support of accurate and timely pay for employees. Among its first activities is the launch of the HR-to-Pay Playbook, an instruction manual detailing departmental best practices for more efficient HR processes and operational and strategic decision guides based on data. In August 2018, the Treasury Board Secretariat announced steps to move away from Phoenix and develop a pay system that will meet the needs of employees and function with the complexity of the federal government’s human resources and pay structure. The government recently launched its innovative agile procurement process to seek potential vendors for the next generation human resources and pay system.

Note: this is the government's own description, not an independent assessment.