May 2013 was a difficult month for the Public Service. Letters notifying employees of their “affected” status were given out in some departments with Agriculture and Agrifood Canada, National Defence, Transport Canada, and Foreign Affairs and International Trade taking the large majority of the hit.
To accommodate for the positions that will be lost, various departments are going through their Selection of employees for retention or lay-off (SERLO) processes . In many of the SERLO processes, enough individuals have retired or have left the public service taking one of the options specified in the workforce adjustment directive (for more on the workforce adjustment directive process click here). Due to that reason, many employees who wanted to keep their position were able to do so, or at a minimum, the number of employees to be let go were substantially reduced.
Despite the unfortunate situation that employees in these departments find themselves in, other departments have started recruiting.Statistics Canada has just concluded a recruitment process and the Canada Border Services Agency is presently running a recruitment processes looking for employees at the entry-level.
As older employees are retiring a growing need for new employees is emerging. Even in the department of Agriculture and Agrifood Canada, which was the heaviest hit this year. The entry-levels were spared from the process. As junior employees move up in the ranks, there will be numerous opportunities for others to enter (as we are already seeing in certain departments). Departments are being careful not to commit the same errors that were done in the 1990’s when the lower ranks were cut leaving very few people to move up in the ranks in the following years. The Insider’s Guide will continue monitoring and reporting on important news in the Government.