Strategic Context
Planning Context and Key Strategic Issues
The BC Public Service is the largest corporate workforce in the province, servicing over 280 communities across the province. From frontline workers to researchers and analysts, to systems technicians and others, there is virtually no area of expertise unrepresented. Public servants provide a wide range of services to British Columbians including health care, public safety, education, and environmental management, to name a few.
The government’s strategic plan calls for the achievement of Five Great Goals for a Golden Decade in order to realize the long-term vision for British Columbia as a prosperous and just province, whose citizen’s achieve their full potential and have confidence in the future. The British Columbia Public Service is vital to making government’s goals a reality. The ongoing provision of these services is challenged by a number of internal and external factors that are helping to change human resource management policies and practices in the BC Public Service.
Internal Factors
- By 2015, 45 per cent of managers and 35 per cent of bargaining unit staff will be eligible for retirement. Consistent with other employers, the BC Public Service is facing an aging workforce, but unlike other employers, the BC Public Service has a lower percentage of younger workers. People under thirty represent about a quarter of B.C.’s labour force but account for less than 8.3 per cent of the public sector.
- Historically, nine out of ten vacancies in the BC Public Service were filled with internal candidates. Given the number of projected retirements in the next few years, this practice is unsustainable. The BC Public Service is making all of its opportunities available to the broader labour market in order to maintain a vibrant and skilled workforce.
- Between 2001 and 2005, the average age at retirement was 58. Only three per cent of public service employees in British Columbia are 60 years of age or older. Many people are choosing to retire at a relatively early age.
- Projected skills for the future are shifting and the number of public servants employed in more senior positions is increasing. Between 1996 and 2005, for example, the percentage of jobs in the executive cadre rose while the number of junior and mid-level managers decreased.
External Factors
- Research conducted by the Human Capital Institute in Washington, D.C. shows that “the market for talent may already be the world’s most competitive and it is intensifying daily in the face of aging workforces, lower unemployment rates and an inexorable demand for more skills, knowledge, experience and education.”
- In British Columbia, falling birth rates and a growing and changing economy will result in increasing competition for labour in all sectors of the province.
- In 2006, the province’s employed population grew faster than its labour force, causing the annual unemployment rate to fall to 4.8 per cent. This drop of 1.1 percentage points from 2005 to 2006 resulted in the lowest annual unemployment rate in 30 years.
- Over the next ten years, B.C. is expected to have one million job openings — 350,000 more openings than people graduating from high school.
- By 2015, the demand for workers will increase by 50 per cent in some sectors.
- By 2013, the BC Public Service will face 28 per cent more competitors in some fields.
- Based on the demand for skilled resources, candidates can afford to be more selective and will choose organizations that provide an engaging work environment, good opportunities, and competitive salaries and benefits.
- Market research shows that many eligible applicants do not consider public service careers. Enhanced efforts are needed to market public service careers.
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