- Reaction score
- 8,902
- Points
- 1,360
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/05/12/4174981-cp.html
Defence Department scrambles to fill up to 5,000 civilian jobs
By MURRAY BREWSTER
OTTAWA (CP) - Faced with a wave of impending baby boomer retirements within the next year, Canada's Defence Department has launched an aggressive campaign to recruit between 3,000 and 5,000 new civilian employees.
Between now and the beginning of the next fiscal year in April 2008, the department is facing the potential loss of 13 per cent of its 23,000 strong non-military workforce, some of them in critical areas such as ship repair.
It is the tip of a generational transition that's about to hit the entire public service.
To attract replacements, the Department of National Defence has produced a glossy new brochure that seems to have unintentionally ruffled feathers elsewhere in the civil service.
A few lines in the flyer left the impression with some senior public servants that National Defence was prepared to poach employees from other federal departments.
A civilian spokesman for the department, Robert Newman, denied the aim was to recruit from other branches of government.
"There's competition in the labour market, that's a given," Newman said in an interview. "Our intended market is outside of public service as it exists."
Last fall, the Privy Council Office - the federal bureaucracy's nerve-centre - asked for a copy of the brochure, which emphasized the wide variety of career choices at defence.
The draft copy of the advertisement was accompanied by a letter, from the assistant deputy minister in human resources who was responsible for civilian employees, said the brochure "targets civilian public servants."
The document was obtained by the NDP under access to information laws.
The misconception was later corrected internally and the brochure began appearing at Service Canada centres, but it will receive even wider distribution in the coming weeks when it starts showing up at job fairs across the country.
"We're looking to be proactive and replace those individual jobs by attracting new potential public servants," said Newman.
A few weeks ago, Auditor General Sheila Fraser chastised the Foreign Affairs Department, suggesting it was ill-prepared to handle the anticipated exodus.
The defence department's aggressive posture concerns NDP defence critic Dawn Black, who is worried federal departments will start climbing over each other to attract new staff.
"I guess it brings to mind, why do we have a public service commission?" she asked, referring to the central agency that co-ordinates federal hiring.
But Newman denied the department is trying to usurp the public service commission, saying all recruits will still be processed through that agency.
Roughly 3,000 civilian Defence Department employees are eligible to retire this year, which is likely the biggest exodus the department has seen in decades.
There are another potential 2,000 job openings in the current year, but many of those positions are linked to new programs or services that have yet to be finalized. Filling those positions is not a certainty, said Newman.
By far, the biggest concern is the looming shortage of skilled tradespeople, such as welders and other craftsman who populate the navy's dockyards in Halifax and Esquimalt, B.C.
One of the largest hurdles civilian recruiters face at job fairs in the misconception brought about by the name of the department.
"When most people think of Defence, they think of military and wearing a uniform and carrying a weapon," said Newman.
"We're talking about civilian support, non-uniformed personnel, who work behind the scenes."
Hmmm, Mike, I think they need to do some paid advertising here.... ;D
Seriously, I think lots of places are going to have these problems in a few years, well exept for our manufacturer's, because they are all heading to Mexico.
Defence Department scrambles to fill up to 5,000 civilian jobs
By MURRAY BREWSTER
OTTAWA (CP) - Faced with a wave of impending baby boomer retirements within the next year, Canada's Defence Department has launched an aggressive campaign to recruit between 3,000 and 5,000 new civilian employees.
Between now and the beginning of the next fiscal year in April 2008, the department is facing the potential loss of 13 per cent of its 23,000 strong non-military workforce, some of them in critical areas such as ship repair.
It is the tip of a generational transition that's about to hit the entire public service.
To attract replacements, the Department of National Defence has produced a glossy new brochure that seems to have unintentionally ruffled feathers elsewhere in the civil service.
A few lines in the flyer left the impression with some senior public servants that National Defence was prepared to poach employees from other federal departments.
A civilian spokesman for the department, Robert Newman, denied the aim was to recruit from other branches of government.
"There's competition in the labour market, that's a given," Newman said in an interview. "Our intended market is outside of public service as it exists."
Last fall, the Privy Council Office - the federal bureaucracy's nerve-centre - asked for a copy of the brochure, which emphasized the wide variety of career choices at defence.
The draft copy of the advertisement was accompanied by a letter, from the assistant deputy minister in human resources who was responsible for civilian employees, said the brochure "targets civilian public servants."
The document was obtained by the NDP under access to information laws.
The misconception was later corrected internally and the brochure began appearing at Service Canada centres, but it will receive even wider distribution in the coming weeks when it starts showing up at job fairs across the country.
"We're looking to be proactive and replace those individual jobs by attracting new potential public servants," said Newman.
A few weeks ago, Auditor General Sheila Fraser chastised the Foreign Affairs Department, suggesting it was ill-prepared to handle the anticipated exodus.
The defence department's aggressive posture concerns NDP defence critic Dawn Black, who is worried federal departments will start climbing over each other to attract new staff.
"I guess it brings to mind, why do we have a public service commission?" she asked, referring to the central agency that co-ordinates federal hiring.
But Newman denied the department is trying to usurp the public service commission, saying all recruits will still be processed through that agency.
Roughly 3,000 civilian Defence Department employees are eligible to retire this year, which is likely the biggest exodus the department has seen in decades.
There are another potential 2,000 job openings in the current year, but many of those positions are linked to new programs or services that have yet to be finalized. Filling those positions is not a certainty, said Newman.
By far, the biggest concern is the looming shortage of skilled tradespeople, such as welders and other craftsman who populate the navy's dockyards in Halifax and Esquimalt, B.C.
One of the largest hurdles civilian recruiters face at job fairs in the misconception brought about by the name of the department.
"When most people think of Defence, they think of military and wearing a uniform and carrying a weapon," said Newman.
"We're talking about civilian support, non-uniformed personnel, who work behind the scenes."
Hmmm, Mike, I think they need to do some paid advertising here.... ;D
Seriously, I think lots of places are going to have these problems in a few years, well exept for our manufacturer's, because they are all heading to Mexico.
or maybe even :threat: )
....
