Insights

Strategic Workplace Wellness

The importance of looking after employee’s mental health The wellbeing of employees, and particularly their mental health, has been put into the spotlight since the beginning of the pandemic. In fact, since many offices closed and remote work became the norm for some, it has become such a big issue that governments at all levels are investing millions of dollars to ensure that employees are looked after, whilst effects of lockdowns and workplace restrictions might take years to be fully realised. The focus is largely on managers – though available for all – because “a Deloitte survey found that 97% …

People, Processes & Public Service: Executive Q&A with CalHR’s Chief of Administration, Brendan Murphy

With a career spanning nearly 20 years across both the public and private sectors – CalHR's Brendan Murphy has been a leader at spearheading effective change and ensuring that his team remain motivated and engaged. With a background spanning Finance and Emergency Management – Brendan has experience and expertise that seems tailor-made for our current crisis. Originally, I was drawn to public service to help people. I started in public safety on law enforcement and corrections assignments. The draw for me was really to keep people safe, however as I understood the system more I saw the chance to impact …

Using Wellbeing to Reimagine the Workforce of the Future

The acceleration of digital technologies, along with the need to embed wellbeing and other elements into a continuous learning approach, means that formal classroom learning is no longer the accepted practice. Capabilities such as co-design and community engagement are really important now, so much so that formal learning is no longer enough to provide the level of responsiveness and adaptation needed to meet the challenges of constant change. When embedding wellbeing into organisational culture, it is not enough to have this wellbeing be just for employees. For a successful implementation, the whole system, including the leaders of the organisation need …

Reimagining the Future of Human Resources in the Public Sector

During the height of the pandemic, people worked remotely because they had to. In the future, “we need to reimagine how our organizations will work,” and how the people within those organizations can remain at the core. Anyone who works in HR or people management now has a “huge opportunity to drive significant change in how organizations will operate going forward.” For instance, whilst remote work was mandated for most people, “it was lived very differently for those functions that were about to lend themselves better to working remotely.” It certainly didn’t and couldn’t apply to frontline workers or those …

Designing the Future Workforce through Reskilling and Upskilling

There is a commonly held belief, especially in business circles, that if you are not moving forwards then it is as if you are moving backwards. In other words, innovation, creativity and continuous improvements are necessary in order to succeed. As much as this might apply to business, it certainly applies to learning and development (L&D) too. In fact, L&D are sometimes the most necessary traits when it comes to moving forwards because both learning and development are underpinned by the latest trends and the most up-to-date information. If the goal of a business is to constantly move and improve, …

Strategic Workforce Planning

At the recent Strategic Workforce Planning event, we heard from Jeanne Weissl, Director, Strategic Human Rights, BC Ministry of Children and Family Development as she dived into how to align your workforce with the future direction of your organization. A people plan, a people and culture plan or an HR plan are all part of the same thing. Yet some organizations claim that they “don’t have time for such a plan, or it’s too much work.” It is true that the process to create a plan can be lengthy, but it is equally true in almost all cases that not …

The Future of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Public Sector

At the recent Diversity and Inclusion event, we heard from Suelyn Knight, Manager, Equity, Inclusion, and Human Rights as she dived into how to bridge the diversity gap through allyship. These conversations may be a bit difficult or triggering for some people, but in order to truly advance the needle on these issues, within the Toronto Police Service, we are having these difficult conversations and we are showing up for our members. Hopefully that will also translate into our ability to recruit and retain members who are diverse, and who add to the very the fabric of our organization. To …

5 Minutes of Self Care at Your Desk