Staffing and Non-partisanship Survey (SNPS)

Summary of changes

Activity on this program started: 2007

Reference period of change - July 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012 (Cycle 5)

Target population - Since 2012, the SOS also targets members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canadian Forces who have civilian staff reporting to them who are employed under the PSEA.

Instrument design - In the summer of 2012, English and French focus groups that included employees from different departments, at various groups and levels, were held by Statistics Canada's Questionnaire Design Resource Centre to test additional content designed to gather information pertaining to the experiences of public servants who have participated in a staffing process as a manager, and also to Selection of Employees for Retention or Lay-Off (SERLO) processes and priority referrals.

Reference period of change - July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010 (Cycle 3)

Collection instrument - For Cycle 3, the content for Section A which indentifies if a respondent participated in a staffing process during the specific period of interest was reworked. For cycle 3, only specific staffing processes' (i.e.,indeterminant, term, acting or causal positions)would be asked the candidate questions. Focus groups were conducted to validate the reworded questions for Section A in addition to the Political Activities questions, which resulted in a slightly different version of content for this cycle.

Reference period of change - October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009 (Cycle 2)

Collection instrument - The content for Cycle 2 is the same as Cycle 1 with the exception that the survey covers all types of staffing processes instead of being limited to a few specific types.

Reference period of change - October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2008 (Cycle 1)

The survey now targets public service employees who worked in federal departments and agencies with at least 350 employees that fall under the Public Service Employment Act. A similar survey is sent out by the Public Service Commission to a sample of managers involved in staffing processes during the same time period to explore their views and practices with staffing.

Reference period of change - May to November 2007 (pilot survey)

The Survey of Staffing is the newly adopted name for the Survey of Appointments which is conducted semi-annually by the Public Service Commission among all federal departments and agencies that fall under the Public Service Employment Act (PSEA). The survey collects data on appointment processes, staffing strategy, the area of competition and experiences of public servants who have participated in a staffing process in the previous six months.

The previous Survey of Appointments has now been redesigned for the Public Service Commission by Statistics Canada. The redesigned survey will be administered to the large and medium-sized departments. Apart from covering indeterminate appointments, the survey will include staffing processes for term positions as well. It will also collect information from both successful and unsuccessful candidates.