Response from the Chief Human Resources Officer

Ms. Debi Daviau
President
Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
250 Tremblay Road
Ottawa, Ontario
K1G 3J8

Dear Ms. Daviau,

First and foremost, I would like to reiterate my congratulations to your re-appointment as President of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, and express my gratitude for your support and kind words in your welcoming letter and our first meeting. I look forward to working with you and your team in my capacity as the Chief Human Resources Officer, as we work together to support a strong and proud Public Service of Canada.

I appreciated the opportunity to discuss the issues outlined in your letter dated September 11, 2018 and will support the priorities being worked on collaboratively by our respective offices.

As you noted in your letters dated October 15, 2018 and October 18, 2018, the Public Service Employee Survey (PSES) is a valuable tool which provides a holistic view of employee perception of their workforce, workplace and leadership conditions.  I highly value and respect the work of public servants and your support in encouraging your members’ participation is essential and appreciated.

The Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) carefully examined all options to administer the 2018 PSES, and engaged Advanis for the data collection, as this service provider offers timely provision of survey results, and a reasonable administration cost.  Please rest assured that we continue to work closely with Statistics Canada, one of our key partners, to develop technologically advanced tools to provide valuable survey information to departments and agencies.  Statistics Canada has vast knowledge in the domains of survey administration and results analysis, and TBS intends to continue to leverage this expertise and valued long-standing relationship.

To your point on the clarity of terms used in the PSES, I agree that it is important that survey questions be as clear as possible to yield meaningful results. We will continue to conduct focus-group testing for all new and modified questions as a standard practice, and will review all questions and definitions, including those you mentioned, in an effort to provide additional precision in the terms used in the survey.

Once again, thank you for your letters and I look forward to our ongoing collaboration.

Sincerely,

Nancy Chahwan
Chief Human Resources Officer