So you’re in a budget / hiring freeze? What now?

admin — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 12:39:02 +0000

If you’re working in the federal public service, you may have heard whispers—or outright announcements—about budget constraints or hiring freezes. Whether it’s a pause on external staffing, reduced funding for initiatives, or a mandate to “do more with less,” these situations are becoming more common across departments. But what does this really mean for you, your team, and your ability to get work done?

Let’s break it down:

What is a budget or hiring freeze in the federal context?

A budget freeze means your department or branch is being asked to tighten spending. You might see travel restrictions, training limits, and fewer resources for projects.

A hiring freeze means no new external hiring—and in some cases, even internal movement is restricted or delayed. Staffing actions like term extensions, acting appointments, or backfills for departures may be paused or require higher-level approvals.

What does it mean for movement and mobility?

Mobility—one of the core strengths of the federal system—can slow down significantly. Employees looking to explore new opportunities, take on acting roles, or transition between departments may find their options limited. Managers may struggle to backfill key positions or onboard talent for emerging priorities.

In practical terms:

Vacancies may go unfilled for longer periods. Internal talent development becomes more critical, as external hiring isn’t an option. Cross-departmental secondments or deployments may be harder to negotiate or approve.

How can managers manage with less—without burning out their teams?

Here are some approaches that can help:

Prioritize ruthlessly: Not everything can be a priority. Be transparent with your team about what’s urgent, what’s important, and what may need to pause.

Protect your people: Be mindful of workload creep. Just because a position is vacant doesn’t mean the team can or should absorb that work. Push back when necessary.

Invest in your current team: Use this as a time to grow internal talent. Offer stretch assignments, job shadowing, or micro-learning opportunities to keep morale up and build capacity.

Communicate often: Budget constraints can feel unsettling. Keeping your team informed—even if the message is “we don’t know yet”—helps build trust and reduce anxiety.

Be flexible: Rigid structures don’t work well when resources shrink. Can you shift responsibilities? Share support across teams? Rethink delivery models?

Other things to consider:

Prioritize mental health and well-being: Budget and staffing freezes often come with increased stress and uncertainty. Encourage use of leave, check in frequently, and normalize conversations about well-being.

Discover opportunities for innovation: Limits can force creativity. Some of the best process improvements and tech innovations emerge when teams have to rethink the way they work.

Revisit your team’s mandate: A freeze is a good opportunity to step back and assess whether your current work still aligns with departmental priorities. Sometimes, legacy tasks hang on simply because they always have.

Consider partnerships with other teams or departments facing similar constraints. Shared resources or joint initiatives can spread the load and unlock new ideas.

Advocacy matters: Managers and team leads play a crucial role in surfacing the impact of these freezes. Don’t be afraid to raise the flag when something’s not sustainable.

A freeze isn’t easy—but it’s not the end of progress. It’s a prompt to recalibrate: to zero in on what truly matters, protect your people, and get creative with how work gets done. Yes, it can feel limiting—but it can also be a moment to lead with purpose, clarity, and care.

Remember, the way we manage during constraint speaks volumes about our leadership. Focus on sustainability, transparency, and trust—and when the freeze lifts, your team will be stronger, more agile, and more connected because of it.

The post So you’re in a budget / hiring freeze? What now? appeared first on Amanda Bernardo.

How to rethink operational effectiveness and areas for improvement

admin — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 19:14:15 +0000

With potential operational reviews on the horizon, there’s an opportunity to rethink how government departments assess effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. Traditional approaches to these reviews often focus on efficiency—cutting costs, streamlining processes, and finding quick fixes. But what if we took a different approach? One that puts people at the center of how services are designed and delivered?

This is where service design can play an important role. By mapping out the full picture—how employees, clients, and stakeholders experience government services—we can move beyond surface-level optimizations and uncover deeper systemic challenges. Service design allows us to visualize workflows, highlight pain points, and co-create solutions that aren’t just efficient but also effective and user-centric.

Instead of making changes in isolation, service design engages the people who use and deliver services to understand what’s working, what’s not, and where real opportunities for improvement exist. In this way, we can test and refine solutions before they’re implemented, reducing risk and ensuring that changes actually meet the needs of those they impact.

At a time when government departments are being asked to do more with less, this approach ensures that operational changes aren’t just about cutting but about creating better, more sustainable ways of working. It’s about embedding change management principles, fostering collaboration, and ensuring that innovation leads to real, measurable improvements.

If we focus solely on cuts and quick fixes, we risk creating short-term efficiencies at the expense of long-term effectiveness. Reducing resources without fully understanding service impacts can lead to bottlenecks, lower service quality, and frustrated employees and clients. Quick fixes often address symptoms rather than root causes, leading to recurring issues that drain time and resources later. Worse, rushed changes can erode trust, making it harder to implement meaningful improvements in the future.

Real transformation requires a deeper look—not just at what can be cut, but at what needs to be redesigned to work better.

The post How to rethink operational effectiveness and areas for improvement appeared first on Amanda Bernardo.

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So you’re in a budget / hiring freeze? What now?

Let’s break it down:

How to rethink operational effectiveness and areas for improvement