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.

The role of HR in retaining talent

admin — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 18:21:00 +0000

In the public service, proving oneself to secure growth opportunities or promotions can often involve a lot more steps than those finding themselves in the private sector. We hear it all the time: “Private sector companies can see talent and promote it, public sector requires an eight month competition or longer – among other factors.”

That said, in principle, we know why these HR hurdles are designed … to ensure transparency, accountability, and fairness in decision-making. However, as a result, we are slowly creating systemic challenges in recruiting, retaining and developing talent, thus inadvertently hindering our ability to grow the public service with the diverse skill set and perspectives needed.

Like the private sector, we do have mechanisms to see talent and promote it – the non-advertised appointment is one of them. The challenge, these alternative means are the exception and not the norm. And yet, we all know such alternatives are being used for some but not others, depending on the hiring manager or organization. But why couldn’t we use it with existing proof points already in place – other than competitions?

Each year, managers assess their employees using the PMA cycle.

“Performance management is an ongoing process that involves planning, developing, coaching, providing feedback and evaluating employee performance.” – TBS

Why couldn’t we then use successful PMAs, and indicators that employees are ready for advancement, to support their growth in lieu of forcing additional competition to demonstrate further proof? The PMA is meant to speak to work experiences and competencies but in many organizations it has become another process whose purpose is lost on paper. Some organizations are using them to do exactly what I am proposing here, however, many more are not, and many others are not leveraging them equitably across the board. So, the circle brings us back to the need for competitions instead.

When we talk about a fair, equitable and modern workforce, we need to think about the role HR plays in that in order for us to continue to retain talent. While this post explores options, HR broadly across government needs to be reviewed and updated to meet today’s realities.

Horizontally we manage talent at the executive level but maybe we need to start considering ways to manage the rest of the public service in a similar manner so that we can identify talent, help to grow it, and more importantly, keep it in the GC. If one department can’t offer the right opportunities, send them off to another. Surge capacity during the pandemic proved how powerful this interchange of talent can be.

Ultimately, we must prioritize HR to meet the present and future needs of Canadians. But like technology in government, perhaps HR needs an improved enterprise approach as well.

The post The role of HR in retaining talent appeared first on Amanda Bernardo.

human resources Archives - Amanda Bernardo

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

Let’s break it down:

The role of HR in retaining talent