It is a given that it is easier to hire within because most federal public servants understand the culture, the environment, and the expectations of departments. They are also familiar with the bureaucratic “language”, procedures and “chain of command” that exist. If the individual is not easily found, they will an internal competition is held through the federal government’s job site
entitled: Publiservice for internal candidates.
All that being said, when a job posting in held externally, you have a far higher percentage of getting inside the government. In addition, the fact that a large majority of Federal public servants only look at internal competitions, provides you with an opportunity with less competition from federal employees.
To demonstrate how job positions are filled in the Government of Canada. Below I outline the 21 step procedure :
1) Manager has a position(s) to be filled.
2) Manager looks internally, to identify if someone in the department fits the need of the position. A deployment (a lateral move) or an acting (working at a higher position for a pre- determined time period) is done. If someone cannot be found, the process continues.
3) A discussion is made with a human resources advisor to determine the manager’s needs as well as if the competition should be internal/external or both.
4) Compose and approve a job poster in English and French
5) Publish the job poster (at www.jobs.gc.ca or on departmental websites that do not make part of the public service commission).
6) Initial candidates are screened – this is done through matching competencies of job applicants to those of the statement of merit criteria (see chapter 5 for more details).
7) Hiring managers usually conduct a second round of screening on the initial screened list.
8) Screened candidates are notified that they have been screened in (usually candidates that do not continue are also notified).
9) An assessment guide is made for both the oral and written exams. This is only provided to hiring managers and determines how to assess candidates as per the job position’s requirements.
10) Candidates are invited to be assessed in the language of their choice-candidates are notified after each assessment if they have passed or not.
11) Reference checks are performed.
12) A finalized list of candidates is determined
13) A pool of qualified candidates are established
14) Candidates are informed that they make part of a pool
15) Language exams are administered and/or verified (depending on the needs of the position)
16) Obtain reliability or additional security clearances (as per needs of the position)
17) Send the results of the exams to candidates
18) Contact candidate and propose job offer
19) Send letter of offer
20) Negotiate starting date
21) Determine resources needed for employee (i.e. special accommodations for physically disabled).
Note that during this time, priority candidates (employees on leave or employees that are reinstated amongst other reasons) may be assessed at a minimum once, before the job poster is made and once before a job offer is made.