Welcome to the Human Resources Page
Over the past year The CTDC has been completing a Provincially funded, Ontario Labour Market Partnership (OLMP) project, focused on the Municipal government Employment Sector. In the final pilot stage we completed a series of five focus groups which were facilitated using a Design Thinking framework. During the pilot of this project our focus was Northumberland County and the seven lower tier Municipalities within the County.
Throughout this project our team and staff from the municipalities have developed over 30 resources focused on supporting recruitment, selection, performance, retention, and training in the rural Municipal sector. The resources include user guides (for recruitment and retention), infographics, short videos, handbooks (for training and retention) checklists, and promotional materials targeting awareness of municipal careers to high schools, post-secondary and the community at large.
Recruitment
The 2018 ONWARD study identified an extremely high number of retirements are to be expected in the Municipal sector over the next 10 years.
In this section you will find a variety of resources related to the recruitment of new staff. Based on projections of shortages of workers in the municipal sector, we have developed downloadable resources with ideas on how to recruit. These resources identify a variety of target groups (post-secondary students, high school students and the general public within and outside your municipality) and will give you creative ideas on which type of content appeals most to each audience.
Webinar Part 1: Recruitment
This short video will introduce you to the resources available in this 'Recruitment' resource section.
High School Students
All resources below are downloadable
High school students were identified as a target group for the initial awareness building on municipal careers. Students as early as grade 11 are learning about making career decisions, choosing academic streams and applying to post-secondary programs. Therefore, it's crucial that they are made aware of the number and types of positions available in their local community.
The resources created were designed to appeal to young people and include handbooks that link high school courses that may lead to potential career pathways in the municipal government and resources build awareness on local municipal jobs. These resources can be distributed to local high schools for use by guidance staff, teachers and students
Post-secondary Students
All resources below are downloadable
Post-secondary students are the next workforce who will be searching for opportunities related to a variety of studies linking to municipal careers in regional and local municipal government. Based on input from our participants, they believe there is a general lack of awareness about careers available in their municipal government. The following resources will help governments educate and recruit for this target audience. These resources can be downloaded and distributed to post-secondary institutions and/or posted on municipal social media accounts. Use the resources as-is, or as inspiration to create your own branded material to be used company-wide.
General Public
All resources below are downloadable
Use the following resources to aide in your recruitment efforts outside of high schools and post-secondary institutions. Resources can be printed and distributed in your local community or posted on municipal social media accounts. Use them as-is or as inspiration to create your own branded material to be used company-wide.
Social Media
All resources below are downloadable
We created these resources for municipalities to use as inspiration for content on their social media accounts. They include images and captions.
Videos: Labour Market Disruptors
CULTURE - EDUCATION - HEALTH - DEMOGRAPHICS - GLOBALIZATION - TECHNOLOGY - FOOD - CLIMATE CHANGE
These seven labour market disruptor videos, linked here, are important in emphasizing potential future disruptions to various municipal departments and the growth jobs that will result. Current and future employees will need to understand how the labour force within municipal government is affected by global changes and rapid advancements. These videos can be used internally or externally at the local high schools and colleges to raise awareness of the changing municipal jobs.
Selection
This section provides a number of resources to assist you in determining the best ways to select suitable candidates for a position. This includes a summary of a matching tool, information on developing a competency based job description and information on assessing organizational ‘fit’.
Webinar Part 2: Selection
This short video will introduce you to the resources available in this 'Selection' section.
Job Fit / Organizational Fit
All resources below are downloadable
Determining job fit and organizational fit is a struggle for many organizations. The resources found within these categories are designed to help HR professionals write job descriptions using a competency-based model and to assist departments in how to identify and select the best candidate for a position.
All guides within these categories were sourced by Dr. JP Hatala, an expert in the field of Human Resources. Our interview with him can be found in the Interviews section below.
Magnet
All resources below are downloadable
Assessing potential candidates for a position can be difficult. Magnet has produced software program for municipal recruitment. It will assist in assessing a candidates strengths and weaknesses and help to provide insight in determining if a candidate might be a good fit for a position.
Magnet has provided a summary of the software platform which can be tailored to fit your organization's needs. The summary can be downloaded below.
Retention & Training
Having an excellent retention strategy is key to both attracting and retaining key employees. In this section you will find a number of resources that can assist you in developing or improving your current retention strategy.
Webinar Part 3: Performance, Retention & Training
This short video will introduce you to the resources available in this 'Retention & Training' section.
Career Development & Additional Training
All resources below are downloadable
Retaining and training quality staff is important to the success of your municipality. Research tells us that Millennials may change careers 3-5 times throughout their life. Customizing your retention strategies to support new staff could help your retention. Our municipal focus group identified that a large barrier to filling municipal positions is the requirement for entry-level positions to have experience working in the municipal government. This requirement may prohibit qualified, potential staff from being considered for open positions. To combat this issue, Durham College, a partner in this study has developed a micro-training program. Details below.
Cross-Training & Secondment
All resources below are downloadable
Adopting strategies that allow for internal job development and job-sharing opportunities can keep staff engaged and reduce burnout. Strategies such as cross-training and secondment allow employees to experience different roles and responsibilities. Many employees are looking for opportunities for professional development and career growth. Implementing cross-training and secondment programs within your municipality supports employee growth and corporate efficiency. Resources below include promotional material for promoting these types of programs to staff, sample legal agreements and guides for developing these programs.
Mentoring / Coaching
All resources below are downloadable
Mentorship programs may be an effective strategy to address employee turnover, poor leadership, disengaged staff and negative workplace culture. Understanding how to effectively leverage mentorship and coaching opportunities can help retain quality staff and ensure industry knowledge is being shared. The following resources are intended for internal use:
Performance Review & Succession Planning
All resources below are downloadable
The group identified that succession planning and performance review were two areas of struggle for our pilot municipalities. To assist HR professionals, sample strategies and guides were developed or sourced by Dr. JP Hatala, an expert in the field of Human Resources. These resources will help implement effective succession planning and performance reviews of staff and municipalities.
Performance
Under the “Performance” section you will find tools and guides to help with onboarding staff and managing performance specifically when staff are working remotely.
Webinar Part 3: Performance, Retention & Training
This short video will introduce you to the resources available in this 'Performance' section.
Onboarding
All resources below are downloadable
The term ‘onboarding’ is an umbrella term used to describe all the stages and processes involved in integrating a new-hire within an organization, and its culture. Onboarding is often confused with ‘orientation’, both are necessary but differ in that orientation is a stage of the onboarding process, where employees learn about the company and their job responsibilities. Onboarding is a strategic ongoing process, usually over a 12-month period of building engagement from first contact, until the employee becomes established within the organization
Remote Work
All resources below are downloadable
Companies that are open to having a full or part-time remote workforce often expect happier and healthier employees which typically translates to better engagement and higher levels of productivity. A remote workforce also helps companies prevent the spread of illness, protect public health and avoid lost productivity due to absence from the office.
A global shift to remote work has seen the rapid emergence of new recruitment technologies, allowing companies to speed up the hiring process, improve candidate experience and reduce bias. Recruitment automation tools also remove the need for excessive paperwork.
Cyber Security
All resources below are downloadable
The pandemic has had a radical effect on how our institutions are run as two years of digital transformation were compressed into a period of two months. These changes also made remote employees more vulnerable to cyber threat actors. As COVID related fears spiked, Google tallied more than 18 million malware and phishing emails each day in April 2020 sent by more than a dozen government backed groups*
This is not the time to be overconfident and under-prepared when it comes to cyber security. It is not a matter of if but when a cyber attack comes, and municipalities need to be prepared and assume that they are being regularly targeted by cyber criminals.
*Ref: McKinsey & Company, "A Dual Cybersecurity Mindset for the Next New Normal"
Interviews
We sat down with Dr. JP Hatala, Human Resources expert, and Debbie Johnston, Dean of the Centre for Professional and Part-Time Studies at Durham College to discuss more about this project. We discussed topics including use of the resources, Chalenj, and Durham College’s new Municipal Employment Readiness micro-credential training program.
