Using Wellbeing to Reimagine the Workforce of the Future

The acceleration of digital technologies, along with the need to embed wellbeing and other elements into a continuous learning approach, means that formal classroom learning is no longer the accepted practice. Capabilities such as co-design and community engagement are really important now, so much so that formal learning is no longer enough to provide the level of responsiveness and adaptation needed to meet the challenges of constant change. When embedding wellbeing into organisational culture, it is not enough to have this wellbeing be just for employees. For a successful implementation, the whole system, including the leaders of the organisation need …

Reimagining the Future of Human Resources in the Public Sector

During the height of the pandemic, people worked remotely because they had to. In the future, “we need to reimagine how our organizations will work,” and how the people within those organizations can remain at the core. Anyone who works in HR or people management now has a “huge opportunity to drive significant change in how organizations will operate going forward.” For instance, whilst remote work was mandated for most people, “it was lived very differently for those functions that were about to lend themselves better to working remotely.” It certainly didn’t and couldn’t apply to frontline workers or those …

Designing the Future Workforce through Reskilling and Upskilling

There is a commonly held belief, especially in business circles, that if you are not moving forwards then it is as if you are moving backwards. In other words, innovation, creativity and continuous improvements are necessary in order to succeed. As much as this might apply to business, it certainly applies to learning and development (L&D) too. In fact, L&D are sometimes the most necessary traits when it comes to moving forwards because both learning and development are underpinned by the latest trends and the most up-to-date information. If the goal of a business is to constantly move and improve, …

Strategic Workforce Planning

At the recent Strategic Workforce Planning event, we heard from Jeanne Weissl, Director, Strategic Human Rights, BC Ministry of Children and Family Development as she dived into how to align your workforce with the future direction of your organization. A people plan, a people and culture plan or an HR plan are all part of the same thing. Yet some organizations claim that they “don’t have time for such a plan, or it’s too much work.” It is true that the process to create a plan can be lengthy, but it is equally true in almost all cases that not …

The Future of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Public Sector

At the recent Diversity and Inclusion event, we heard from Suelyn Knight, Manager, Equity, Inclusion, and Human Rights as she dived into how to bridge the diversity gap through allyship. These conversations may be a bit difficult or triggering for some people, but in order to truly advance the needle on these issues, within the Toronto Police Service, we are having these difficult conversations and we are showing up for our members. Hopefully that will also translate into our ability to recruit and retain members who are diverse, and who add to the very the fabric of our organization. To …

5 Minutes of Self Care at Your Desk

Government Innovator Spotlight Q&A: Michaela Geronima Doelman - CHRO, Washington State ESD

I’m the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) for the Washington State Employment Security Department (ESD). I kind of got here by accident. Although public service was always where I wanted to be, HR wasn’t even on my radar of options, I just knew I wanted to help people like my parents did in their public service jobs. After graduating from college and working in Mexico for a couple of years, I moved back to the US in 2007 and wasn’t in the position to be picky about what job I could take, I just wanted one that paid the bills …

How SafeWork SA went from surviving to thriving with the help of The Oranges Toolkit

In 2017 when Martyn Campbell became Executive Director of SafeWork SA, the government agency responsible for workplace health and safety regulation and enforcement in South Australia, it was experiencing significant challenges both internally and externally. Martyn needed to lead a cultural change program across the organisation that caused major upheaval and uncertainty. To effectively enable change adoption amongst the established workforce, he recognised the need to build resilience, trust, and create psychological safety. He chose to engage the services of The Oranges Toolkit to build mental and emotional agility through its wellbeing workshop program and credits the unique program as …