'We continue to focus on supporting employees, stabilizing the current pay system and eliminating the backlog of outstanding pay issues'
The federal government is expanding the pilot initiative for the Next Generation HR and Pay program.
The program will be expanded for testing to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard to help Shared Services Canada to better understand the complexities of the HR and pay systems.
"This marks an important step in the government of Canada’s commitment to ongoing progress to finding a future pay solution for public servants,” says Anita Anand, minister of public services and procurement. “At the same time, we continue to focus on supporting employees, stabilizing the current pay system and eliminating the backlog of outstanding pay issues.”
Testing will also include Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED-Q) to ensure an effective user experience in French and confirm a product that works effectively in both official languages.
Public servants and bargaining agents will remain involved throughout the process. Testing will occur in a controlled environment that is separate from the current pay system, and employees will continue to be paid through the current pay system while testing takes place.
In March 2020, the federal government selected SAP for the pilot program. Canadian Heritage was selected for the first pilot because the organization provides a good representation of the government’s human resources complexities.
The exploratory phase of the program took place from October 2020 to April 2021. In that period, more than 890 participants from 20 federal organizations took part in engagement forums including 38 workshops and 90 working sessions.
The changes follow the government’s troubled Phoenix pay system, where a 2017 report found that the government’s failure to fully appreciate the intricacies involved in changing the way it administered payroll led to the problems.
In December 2019, the federal government launched a process allowing former employees to request general compensation for damages caused by Phoenix.
