FSWEP 2.0: Recruiting a Motivated Civil Service

FSWEP 2.0: Recruiting a
Motivated Civil Service
Blueprint 2020
Patrick Obendoerfer
Anisa Vangjeli
Russell B. Ferguson
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Existing in a period of increased scrutiny and evolving challenges, the Canadian Civil
Service must develop innovative and cost effective approaches to recruit quality
personnel. This proposal undertakes this challenge by recognizing and capitalizing on the
current Federal Student Work Experience Program’s enormous recruitment potential.
Through an altered assessment process and the addition of a second tier titled FSWEP
2.0, we propose a strategy to better align qualified applicants with jobs that match their
interests. Ultimately, this will increase the chances that students will be satisfied with
their employment and continue working with the civil service into their careers. INTRODUCTION
As the civil service approaches the year 2020, it exists in an era of unprecedented
challenges related to increased globalization, greater attention from media, and a
relentless pressure to cut costs while maintaining services. In response, the civil service
must develop creative strategies to attract and engage new talented employees to face
these challenges, and advance as future leaders. This paper will propose an innovative
and cost effective program to achieve this goal, titled FSWEP 2.0. Rooted in the concept
of Public Service Motivation (PSM), the program will consist of a second tier added to
the current Federal Student Work Experience Program (FSWEP) designed to capitalize
on the intrinsic motivations that are correlated with attracting and engaging effective
public servants. This proposal will briefly introduce the concept of PSM, then discuss
FSWEP and its shortcomings, and finally describe the structure and benefits of FSWEP
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2.0. Ultimately, it will contribute a cost effective and innovative means of attracting
young quality professionals and future leaders into the civil service.
In order to develop a strategy to attract quality personnel, it is necessary to explore
which factors motivate individuals to join the civil service and contribute to their
retention. Motivation, generally defined, is “the forces that energize, direct, and sustain
behavior” (Perry and Porter, 1982: 29). However, the concept becomes more complex
when applied to the civil service, as civil servants experience a disproportionate amount
of intrinsic motivators, such as a desire to make the world a better place, alongside
traditional extrinsic drivers such as salary (Crewson, 1997: 516). As a result, traditional
models of motivation that focus exclusively on extrinsic motivators remain incomplete.
Further, because they are not directly correlated to pay, the direct cost of capitalizing on
intrinsic motivators can be low, and as we will establish, simply be a means of
reorganization. The most widely used construct that recognizes both types of motivation is
“Public Service Motivation” (PSM). Developed by Perry and Wise, PSM was created as a
public service response to traditional rational motivation theories (Perry and Wise, 1990).
They theorized that intrinsic motivations are an essential component to understanding
why individuals join the bureaucracy and how they stay engaged. PSM refers strictly to
the intrinsic motivators that are unique to the public service. Under this construct, the
total motivation of a public servant can be seen as traditional motivators plus PSM.
Individuals can be attracted to government because of PSM, and their levels of it can shift
based on workplace culture and practices (Moynihand and Pandey, 2007). Since the 1990
publication of Perry and Wise’s seminal work, over 125 studies have been conducted on
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PSM. However, little has been done on this concept in Canada, with governments instead
using the related concept of engagement (Kernaghan, 2011: 10). Because our goal is to
capitalize on intrinsic motivation in the recruitment of civil servants, PSM is more useful
construct as intrinsic motivations are more explicitly conceptualized. Intrinsic motivators are identified by Perry as: attraction to public policy making,
commitment to the public interest, civic duty, social justice, self-sacrifice, and
compassion, which will be important elements of the proposed model (Perry, 1996: 1).
Levels of PSM have been correlated with efficacy in job performance, and if aligned with
the proper job positions, high retention and job satisfaction levels (Bright, 2008: 163). As
such, it follows that the federal government should develop a student job program that is
tailored to align interested employees with jobs that satisfy those with high levels of
PSM. If this can be attainted, there will be an increased likelihood that students in the
program continue to work within the government, and a greater chance they will become
effective civil servants. This is the purpose of FSWEP 2.0. As an initial step, it is necessary to explore what kinds of jobs features satisfy
those with high levels of PSM. First, jobs must demonstrate that the government has the
capacity to affect positive change and that the work done by the individual is perceived as
meaningful. A primary frustration that workers with high levels of PSM experience is the
notion that their work is being lost in the regulations and vastness of the bureaucracy
(Moynihan and Pandey, 2007: 43). Jobs should be selected to illustrate that civil servant
employment can directly contribute to the greater good. Second, positions should exist within a positive and supportive working
environment. Research has indicated that levels of PSM can shift based on the culture of
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a workplace (Pandey and Stazyk, 2008: 106). If levels can be satisfied and sustained,
there is a stronger chance that quality individuals will choose to work in the civil service
going forward. Last, the students working in the program must be interested in the work they are
tasked with. As the purpose of the program is to place individuals with high levels of
PSM on a trajectory toward a career in the civil service, it is important that they are
passionate about the work they do. Ultimately, if the federal government can design a
student work program that can capitalize on intrinsic motivations by more efficiently
aligning employees with jobs that will satisfy levels of PSM, it will be in a better position
to attract and retain quality career civil servants. THE FEDERAL STUDENT WORK EXPERIENCE PROGRAM (FSWEP)
The Federal Student Work Experience Program (FSWEP) is the primary means
by which students in Canada are hired to federal organizations. The initiative recruits
students at both the undergraduate and graduate level, providing them with valuable work
experience, an opportunity to fund their education, and exposing them to a wide variety
of jobs in the public service. Though FSWEP provides an important base for a student job
program, it does not efficiently assign its employment opportunities to qualified and
interested employees as to capitalize on internal motivations.
The first primary flaw with FSWEP is its application process. Recruitment for the
existing program takes place from October of one year until the following October.
Students create their applications to the program through the Public Service Commission
(PSC) website, where applications are randomly selected once education, language, work
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location, experience, and skills have been accounted for (Canada, Public Service
Commission). When completing the employment application, students are met with an
expansive checklist that solicits listing of their skills and educational background. Due to
the fact that many students are simply looking for any short term employment, a common
strategy is to claim as many interests and skills possible as a means of increasing their
chances of being drawn for an interview. Such an approach is encouraged on informal
websites and blogs that provide tips to FSWEP applicants (Teacher Man, 2014).
The primary issue with this “shotgun approach” is that it decreases the chance that
the PSC will be able to align qualified and interested students with their best-suited jobs,
and as a result, capitalize on PSM levels. Fundamentally, the current system creates
perverse incentives for those who apply. On one hand, they are asked to genuinely
indicate their skills and interests, and on the other students are advised that the more
boxes they check, the greater chance they have of attaining a job. Because job candidates
are randomly drawn from the pool of qualified and interested students, those who indicate
only the areas and skills they actually have are relatively unlikely to be chosen.
Second, the managers of the students selected to work in the programs are not
asked to assess the employee’s performance upon the completion of the work term.
Therefore, if the student reapplies to the program, there is no additional information on if
the individual was an effective and enthusiastic employee. As a result, the federal
program does not have the capacity to assign jobs that are most likely to satisfy high
levels of PSM to those who have demonstrated high levels of PSM in the past.
Last, the PSC does little to determine which positions within FSWEP could be
identified as the most fulfilling, and which are less engaging or dull. FSWEP employees
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do little with respect to accessing workplace culture and experiences aside from a brief,
mostly voluntary survey. In short, even if the current program was able to determine
which students had the highest PSM levels, it does not currently have the capacity to
determine which of its thousands of federal positions would satisfy such internal
motivators.
Though the program has fundamental flaws, FSWEP has proven incredibly
useful. For over two decades, the program has supported post-secondary students with
employment opportunities that are important to the public service and provide valuable
work experience. However, given that the program attracts 50 000 student applications
annually, it also provides a unique opportunity for public service to attract quality young
individuals that the current program simply does not capitalize on (Canada. Public
Service Commission).
FSWEP 2.0
In response to the shortcomings of FSWEP, we propose the addition of a second
tier to the program titled FSWEP 2.0. The aim of FSWEP 2.0 is to contribute to public
service modernization through an efficient alignment of quality students with satisfying
positions that capitalize on intrinsic motivations. The design and implementation of this
program will be described in a three-step process. Ultimately, this program will serve as
an innovative and cost effective recruitment tool for the civil service. First, the PSC must gather information on FSWEP positions and employees that
can be used in the job alignment process for future years. This will be collected through
compulsory surveys given to managers and students upon the completion of an
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employment term. Specifically, the surveys will inquire about the experiences of students
in their jobs by assessing characteristics relevant to PSM, such as the quality of the
working environment and the sense of fulfillment students acquired from their work. In
addition, they will be asked to share their own interests by naming three subject areas or
departments within the civil service that they would be most interested to work in. This
approach will be more accurate than FSWEP’s initial online assessment in determining
interests, as it does not allow or incentivize the commonly used “shotgun approach” which delegitimizes results. Second, departmental managers will be required to complete a performance
assessment of the FSWEP employees, which evaluates students based on their
capabilities, productivity, and passion for the job. The performance assessment plan
measures varying types of qualities that are indicators of successful civil servants
according to the PSM construct. Students will be given a job assessment score that will
also be used in the job alignment by the PSC. Last, after completion of the two initial steps, the PSC of Canada will be tasked
with organizing the job opportunities it receives from the civil service into either FSWEP,
or FSWEP 2.0. The commission will use general job descriptions alongside prior
student-worker evaluations to evaluate which jobs are most likely to satisfy those with
high levels of PSM. The civil service jobs that have the most PSM satisfying
characteristics will be assigned to FSWEP 2.0, and all others will remain in the current
FSWEP program. Students that have completed a term in FSWEP and are reapplying with high
managerial assessments scores, or are enrolled in graduate school, will be eligible for the
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positions in FSWEP 2.0. When a job opportunity becomes available, applicants with the
necessary qualifications and experience are drawn from the FSWEP 2.0 pool. However,
instead of randomly picking names from those that are qualified, the group is further
narrowed by matching the nature of the position to the specific interests that FSWEP 2.0
students indicated on their surveys. This process drastically increases the chances that the
best potential civil servants will find satisfaction and interest in their jobs. This, in turn,
increases the chances that they will continue with the civil service during their higher
education, and into their careers. It is worth noting that students who are eligible for FSWEP 2.0 will also be
eligible for jobs in the first tier. This allows qualified students to have an increased
chance of attaining positions that interest them, but does not decrease their general
chance of attaining a job in the program. In addition, graduate students who have not had
past FSWEP experience but are still eligible for FSWEP 2.0 will be asked to rank their
top interests during their application. The model we have described only contains civil
service jobs in the FSWEP 2.0 tier, as it is developed specifically to modernize and
improve civil service recruitment. The additional tier could be expanded using the same
method to include the greater breadth of federal government jobs included in the original
FSWEP program. CONCLUSION In a period of increased scrutiny and pressure, the Canadian Civil Service must
develop innovative and efficient strategies as a means of recruiting quality personnel.
FSWEP 2.0 recognizes the enormous recruitment potential in the current Federal Student
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Work Experience Program, which draws from a pool of 50 000 students every year.
Through an alteration of assessment practices and the addition of the second tier, FSWEP
2.0 capitalizes on the internal motivations of the most qualified students by aligning them
with jobs that are most likely to satisfy their levels of PSM. In so doing, the program
offers a cost effective approach toward Blueprint 2020’s guiding principle of “mobilizing
the diversity of talent to serve the country’s evolving needs” (Canada, Clerk of the Privy
Council). 9
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2014. http://www.clerk.gc.ca/local_grfx/d2020/Destination2020-eng.pdf.
Accessed November 30, 2014. Canada. Public Service Commission. Jobs.gc.ca. Overview of Federal Student Work
Experience Program. [Ottawa, ON], 2014. http://jobs-emplois.gc.ca/fsweppfete/index-eng.php. Accessed November 30, 2014. Crewson, Philip E. "Public-service motivation: Building empirical evidence of incidence and effect." Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 7, no. 4 (1997): 499-518. Kernaghan, Kenneth. "Getting engaged: Public-­‐Service Merit and Motivation Revisited." Canadian Public Administration 54, no. 1 (2011): 1-21.
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(1996):5-22. Perry, James ., and Lois Recascino Wise. "The Motivational Bases of Public Service." Public Administration Review (1990): 367-373. Perry, James and Lyman Porter. “Factors Affecting the Context for Motivation in Public Organizations”. Academy of Management Review, 7(1) (1982): 89-98. Teacher Man. My University Money. FSWEP Summer Jobs in Canada. (2014). Accessed
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