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 …

Governance, Risk and Compliance - Canada

The profile of many workplaces all over the world has changed as a result of the pandemic. Most organizations previously conducted risk assessments and planned for the future, but a global pandemic was generally unforeseen and has forced many businesses and public sector institutions to re-assess and re-prioritize some of their practices, and to better incorporate risk into their planning. For instance, Beth Robb, the Director of Enterprise Risk Management at Alberta Health Services (AHS), says that risk now, more than ever, is about “ensuring that you’re taking a holistic view of the environment and the context in which your …

Communications and Information Systems for First Responders - Canada

With that in mind, a number of government, first responder and digital agencies came together in 2014 to develop what has since become known as the Public Safety Broadband Network (PSBN) and to form the PSBN Innovation Alliance based in Ontario, a not-for-profit legal entity to advocate on behalf of the PSBN. Ultimately, according to Anthony Odoardi, the PSBN is an “always-available broadband spectrum for emergency responders to use in their lifesaving missions.” It is a network that only first responders have access to, and is a “dedicated, resilient, reliable, cybersecurity mechanism to ensure that data critically arrives at the …

Public Sector in the Cloud: Practical Solutions to Common Challenges

Pascale Duguay, Organizational Transformation Leader, IBM Mark Dymond, Senior Partner, Hybrid Cloud Services Canada, IBM

Forensics - Canada

The field of fingerprinting is a microcosm of the rest of the discipline and shows how much things have changed and are changing. For many years, the standard fingerprinting identification was the “ACE-V scientific process, which consists of analysis, comparison and evaluation to determine a verification.” However robust, scientific and objective the process might be, much like in medicine, “the expert opinion is based on observation and the conclusion is therefore invariably subjective.” It might still hold up in court and has worked for a long time, but there was always room for improvement. LR is already being used in …

Data & Analytics in Local Government- Canada

Local governments manage large sources of information and data and are involved in a wide variety of work, much of it underpinned by data. In fact, data often allows various local governments to collaborate and was crucial during the height of the pandemic. Jazz Pablo, the Director of Information Services at the City of Kelowna in southern British Columbia, says that in order “to solve common problems,” particularly the large ones “that we see across the country” like homelessness and other forms of inequality, “we need to come together. It’s all about relationships. COVID has taught us that.” Data is …

Process Excellence- Canada

Lyne Lacroix, the Process Improvement Lead for Major Projects within the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) at Shared Services Canada, says that though COVID-19 was one of the major spurs, their “process improvement division was created in late 2020.” Putting the pandemic to one side, the division was created because some employees noticed that “there are serious problems with the process” within the organization, thus “our vision is to really enable and empower employees through the improvement of the challenging processes that stop them from doing their work.” Since they are at the start of their journey, this …