Audit of executive staffing

Hiring managers

Overall, CBSA hiring managers receive the tools and support required for compliance with legislative, regulatory and policy requirements directly from their EX Resourcing HRAs on an as-needed basis, when staffing actions are conducted.

• The 43 files sampled demonstrated that the HRAs provide the hiring managers with tools and support. The files displayed HRA correspondence throughout the staffing process, providing advice, templates and services, and documentation of staffing actions.
• The hiring managers interviewed expressed satisfaction and confidence in the quality of advice and services that EX Resourcing HRAs provide to ensure that staffing is compliant with legislative, regulatory and policy requirements.

Human resource advisors

EX Resourcing HRAs have a comprehensive set of tools available to them in a central, accessible location, so that they can support their clients with guidance and tools during the staffing process.

• EX Resourcing has introduced a fully renewed staffing toolbox and wiki, for their staff between January 2024 and January 2025. The toolbox included standardized templates for all aspects of the process, from email communications to preparation of the letters of offer.
• Walkthroughs and the file review confirmed that the tools were actively used. All 43 sampled files evidenced the use of the toolbox templates such as checklists, SOMCs, EX staffing action request forms (EXSAR), and letters of offer.
• In interviews, all three HRAs^{Footnote 4} indicated observing significant improvements in EX staffing tools available over the last year.

Context: In the 2024 calendar year, the CBSA processed 242 EX staffing actions (not including short term actings of up to four months less one day). These were facilitated by 10 HRAs, who supported 47 different hiring managers.

Staffing and financial authorities

To make an appointment, the hiring manager and the sub-delegated person exercising the "Appoint" authority must have both the delegated staffing and financial authorities. Per the CBSA's current staffing authorities sub-delegation instrument, for the hiring of executives, only the President can approve (sign) indeterminate appointments and acting appointments greater than 12 months (referred to as "Appoint" authority). VPs, DGs, and RDGs are hiring managers who are sub-delegated with a "Conduct" authority for their areas of the organization, which allows them to conduct the steps of a staffing action up to the final appointment decision. For acting appointments between 4 and 12 months, the "Appoint" authority is sub-delegated to the DG of CSTM.

The audit assessed compliance with the CBSA's staffing sub-delegation instrument for 43 staffing actions, as well as compliance with the delegation of financial authorities requirements, as each staffing action has an associated financial expenditure. Both staffing and financial authorities must be respected.

• All 43 staffing actions complied with the staffing sub-delegation instrument: they were conducted by hiring managers who had valid Conduct authorities, and the appointment was made by either the President or, in the case of acting appointments between 4 and 12 months, by the DG of CSTM. The 31 appointments signed by the President also met the financial delegation requirements.
• For the 12 appointments signed by the DG of CSTM, approval did not comply with the Treasury Board Directive on Delegation of Spending and Financial Authorities. Though the DG had the staffing sub-delegation, they did not have a valid delegation of financial authority card (that is, a specimen signature card) for the cost centres impacted by the staffing actions, which is required to properly authorize the expenditure.
  • A delegated financial authority does not come into effect without a delegation card approved by a designator and outlining the effective period, type, and level of authority of the delegation. As such, the DG of CSTM did not have valid expenditure and commitment authority for the staffing transactions since the specimen signature card required to activate the DG's functional delegation was not in place due to an administrative oversight.
  • Although this practice is technically non-compliant from a delegated spending and financial authorities perspective, the hiring managers (that is, budget holders) were aware of the staffing actions and had essentially pre-authorized the related financial expenditures by signing off on the selection decisions. However, the process should be promptly rectified to ensure compliance with financial policy; failure to do so would place the agency at risk of continued misalignment with Treasury Board requirements.

Identification and mitigation of potential biases and barriers for employment equity seeking groups

Since July 1, 2023, the Public Service Employment Act requires the identification and mitigation of biases and barriers in assessment methods to ensure disadvantaged persons of equity-deserving groups are given a fair chance to perform at their fullest potential in staffing processes. The [redacted] and [redacted] to mitigating biases and barriers in assessment provides further instruction to HR specialists and hiring managers including the requirement to retain such evaluations in each staffing file. Examples of elements that could be mitigated by using the checklist include qualifications that are narrow or beyond what is required for the position; insufficient time for candidates to prepare and respond; homogeneous or improperly trained assessment boards; or requiring recent, significant, or continuous government-specific experience.

Compliance tests were performed against this requirement on 31 of the 43 sampled EX staffing actions. The remaining 12 staffing actions were excluded from the audit tests because they had begun before July 1, 2023, and were exempt from the new requirement. Testing results indicate that while 28 of 31 files contained a completed PSC checklist, 20 of those 28 were completed and signed on either the same day of the assessment, or after the assessment of the candidates had already taken place (refer to Table 1: Results of compliance testing of sampled EX staffing actions). Given that the PSEA requires the evaluation to take place before the assessment, assessing (or certifying the assessment of) mitigating biases and barriers after candidates are already selected would not ensure that biases and barriers were removed or mitigated in advance of the assessment and is not aligned with the spirit and intent of the PSEA requirement.

Evaluation of biases and barriers in assessment methods

Results of the compliance testing of sampled EX staffing actions are provided in the table below.

Hiring managers and EX Resourcing HRAs consulted as part of the audit indicated that completion of the checklist feels like a "checkbox exercise" and have doubts as to whether it is fulfilling its intended purpose. At the same time, both groups expressed the importance of, and commitment to, respecting EE goals in staffing and a desire to mitigate biases and barriers to disadvantaged groups. While completing the checklist meets PSC requirements, failure to undertake the associated reflection at the onset of the staffing process presents a missed opportunity to truly and meaningfully assess and subsequently mitigate biases and barriers that may prevent disadvantaged persons from being given a fair chance to perform at their best. Ensuring completion of this step early in the process would help the agency better align to the intent and spirit of legislative requirements, as well as enhance its efforts to meet EE objectives.

Merit criteria

The fundamental principle in the staffing legislation, regulations, and policy is that public service appointments must be made based on merit. For all indeterminate and acting appointments greater than four months, hiring managers must:

• establish a SOMC that defines the requirements for the position, and ensure candidates meet or exceed the minimum Qualification Standards for the Core Public Administration
• assess candidates against the merit criteria, maintain all assessment and evaluation results, and demonstrate how the merit criteria is met
• fairly and transparently apply the merit criteria though the staffing process, the priority clearance and notification processes (refer to Appendix D: Definitions)

The PSC Appointment Framework requires that records demonstrating each of these elements are maintained in the staffing file. The 43 sampled EX staffing files were assessed against these requirements.

All 43 files contained the merit criteria; used it consistently through the priority clearance, assessment and notifications processes; and the hiring manager attested that the candidate had met the requirements. Every staffing file included documentation for:

• essential experience requirements (HR, financial, and other executive or management functions)
• applicable official language requirements
• security requirements
• education requirements

In 7 instances, the hiring manager accepted a combination of education, training and experience in lieu of a post-secondary degree. In 4 of those 7 files, the rationale was not clearly substantiated and/or supporting credentials were not on file (for example, documentation to support training taken, education recognized, or professional certification). Accordingly, an opportunity for improvement exists in how hiring managers document their assessments of the education requirements, such as including rationales or maintaining additional evidence. This would improve transparency and accountability when "employer-approved alternatives" are used to determine merit in EX staffing actions.

Qualification standards for executives

Experience

Experience in managing human and financial resources.

Education

At least one of:

• eligibility for a recognized professional designation in one of the provinces or territories of Canada
• graduation with a degree from a recognized post-secondary institution
• acceptable combination of education, training and/or experience (employer-approved alternative)

Demonstration of key leadership competencies

• Create vision and strategy
• Mobilize people
• Uphold integrity and respect
• Collaborate with partners and stakeholders
• Promote innovation and guide change
• Achieve results

Selection decisions

The PSC Appointment Framework requires that the hiring manager articulate, in writing, their selection decision for each appointment. At the agency, the CBSA One | Staffing Policy, CBSA Guidance on Staffing, and the EXSAR template guide the articulation of selection decisions for EX appointments and aim to ensure a consistent and transparent approach to the staffing process.

The audit assessed whether EX staffing files contained an approved selection decision and found that all 43 staffing actions did. We assessed each decision to determine to what extent the guidance on selection decision rationales was followed and found that:

• Since implementation of the EXSAR form in Winter 2024, all staffing actions considered the hiring branch or region's representation gaps for EE-deserving groups when making the appointment decision. The EXSAR form requires that if an EE gap exists and is not being addressed by the appointment, a rationale should be included in the selection decision.
  • Testing results showed 29 cases where the hiring branch or region had an existing EE gap. In 10 of the 29, the decision was to appoint a non-EE deserving candidate. However, none of those selection decisions were accompanied by the required rationale related to EE. While this does not represent a violation of external policy requirements, it indicates inconsistent use of the EXSAR component, represents a missed opportunity to demonstrate transparency and to show meaningful commitment to EE.
• For all 11 advertised appointments in the audit sample, the selection decisions were based on the candidates' success in an advertised process, with additional information to rationalize the fit of and/or need for the specific candidate.
• For the 32 non-advertised appointments in the audit sample, selection decisions detailed HR planning considerations, the business needs and the specific organizational context, talent management, and rationale on how the use of advertised process or existing pool(s) were considered to explain the use of the non-advertised process.

Letters of offer

When a LOO is signed by the sub-delegated person with "Appoint" authority and the appointee, the staffing action is concluded. The PSC Appointment Framework requires that departments keep a copy of the signed letter on file. The signed letter is then sent to compensation to set up the pay file.

For all 43 staffing actions in the audit sample, we assessed whether a valid LOO was on file. All but one file were processed with a signed LOO. For the one file without an LOO, the staffing action was concluded through a "compensation letter," which retroactively authorized compensation for an acting appointment extension that had been fully completed. This acting extension was part of a large backlog of acting appointment requests from 2023. The EX Resourcing Division and CBSA senior management jointly chose to exceptionally use compensation letters to formalize such after-the-fact appointments.

We also assessed whether the LOOs were signed before the effective date of the appointment:

• For the 20 indeterminate appointments in the audit sample, 18 were signed before the effective date. The two remaining staffing actions had mitigating circumstances.
• For 22 of 23 of the acting appointments greater than four months, the LOOs were signed after the effective date of the appointment.

It was noted that the timeliness of the sampled staffing actions improved significantly between 2023 and 2024, with the average delay between the effective date of acting appointment and the signed LOO dropping from 260 days in 2023 to 46 days in 2024.

While retroactive effective dates on LOOs are not prohibited, LOOs are intended to be signed before the effective date of the staffing action. Retroactive acting appointments could increase the risk of negative outcomes for both the appointee and for the agency. While unforeseen circumstances or operational emergencies may require occasional retroactive processing of LOOs, they should be minimized to the extent that is operationally feasible.

Case study: Retroactive acting appointment

While examining one of the staffing files in the sample, the audit team discovered a related staffing action which contained several issues of potential non-compliance. These included issues related to meeting official language requirements, an acting time period extending beyond the allowable timeframe, and potential non-compliance with sub-delegated staffing authorities. The acting appointment's paperwork was initiated retroactively, and given the various issues identified, the staffing action was not processed, which may have affected the employee's compensation.

This case illustrates the importance of ensuring that appointments are approved prior to the start date and that appropriate documentation is in place to support the selection decision. Failure to do so may result in violation of employment laws and regulations, grievances, legal costs, as well as eroded trust and damage to the employee-employer relationship and the agency's reputation.

Process timeliness

Concerns were raised by several hiring managers with regards to the overall lengthiness of the staffing process and a desire for predictability around when staffing actions will be completed.

The CBSA does not have a service standard for processing EX staffing actions. Out of the 43 sampled files, the median time to complete the files after receiving all necessary documentation from the hiring manager was 23 business days, and the range of completion time spanned from 1 to 300 business days.

The EX Resourcing Division is aware of the lengthy approvals process and shares the associated client concerns. They have developed options to streamline the process and shorten timeframes.

Management consideration: Senior Management should consider strategies to optimize staffing workflow from start to finish.

Recommendation 1

The VP of HRB, in collaboration with the VP of the Finance and Corporate Management Branch should ensure that staffing and financial delegations of authority are fully aligned and when necessary, supported with valid specimen signature cards.

Management response: The VP of HRB agrees and will reinforce accountability for financial management delegation in the EX Staffing process. She will proceed with the creation of a new Delegation of Spending and Financial Authorities card for the DG, CSTM restricted to a functional agency-wide staffing authority by the end of December 2025. She will also update the EX Staffing Action Request form to embed delegated financial management authority approval and communicate that this tool is the mechanism to formally exercise EX delegated and sub-delegated financial and HR authorities. This action will resolve the non-compliance noted in the report for acting appointments of 4 to 12 months and will appropriately align financial delegation with the EX staffing delegation.

Completion date: March 2026

Recommendation 2

The VP of HRB should strengthen the following specific processes required for EX staffing appointments by reinforcing stakeholder understanding, accountability, and responsibilities in accordance with policies and legislation, to ensure that:

• biases and barriers in assessment methods are assessed and mitigated prior to conducting candidate assessments
• assessment of education requirements are thoroughly documented and retained when employer-approved education alternatives are employed
• valid letters of offer are signed prior to the start date for acting appointments and retroactive appointments are minimized

Management response: The VP of HRB agrees and will take steps to strengthen EX staffing processes, specifically around equity, diversity and inclusion awareness in the staffing process, education documentation and effective dates in letters of offer.

There is currently mandatory training offered by the CBSA as well as foundational training offered by the Canada School of Public Service related to the identification and removal of bias and barriers. The VP of HRB is committed to ensuring that employees involved in EX staffing complete mandatory and supplementary training and apply what they have learned.

The VP of HRB is particularly pleased to see the overall high compliance in demonstrating and documenting how a candidate meets the requirements of the Statement of Merit Criteria, including educations requirements, and is committed to strengthening documentation of assessments of a "combination of education, training, and experience."

The VP of HRB is committed to Human Resources Planning and supporting hiring managers to work with the EX Resourcing team to facilitate the issuance of timely letters of offer for executives to the greatest extent possible. A report of ongoing EX staffing acting appointments is currently shared with VPs and RDGs to reduce untimely EX staffing.

Completion date: March 2026

Level 1: Internal quality assurance

EX Resourcing is responsible for supporting hiring managers in complying with all applicable requirements. To achieve this, the division checks each file to ensure that it meets key compliance requirements and respects delegated staffing authorities.

The audit found that the Division has established an effective quality control process, which is applied to every staffing action prior to proceeding to approval by senior management. The process supports staffing file compliance with key requirements, including ensuring that relevant documentation is retained and that selection decisions are complete prior to files being routed for approval.

• All 43 sampled files used the "Integrated EX-staffing actions checklist" to facilitate the collection of evidence required for the staffing file.
• Upon completion of staffing file documentation by the HRA and the hiring manager, the file is reviewed by an independent peer reviewer and the Director of EX Resourcing.
• Direct evidence of review and/or corrective actions prior to proceeding to the approval was found in 30 of the 43 files. Given that there is no legislative or policy requirement to demonstrate internal review in the staffing file, this is not a compliance rate but rather an indicator of additional diligence. All 43 files also contained evidence of approval by the Director of EX Resourcing.

Level 2: Approvals workflow

A crucial component of monitoring and oversight, especially for actions and decisions of high importance, is the rigour applied by senior management and approval bodies during their decision-making process.

The audit assessed what oversight was applied for EX staffing appointments at the CBSA, and found that all 43 sampled files followed the prescribed approvals workflow, including:

• 12 acting files approved by the DG of CSTM, in accordance with the CBSA sub-delegation of authority matrix
• review and written recommendation for approval by the DG of CSTM and VP of HRB for the 31 files requiring President approval

In September 2023, HRB established an Executive People Management Committee, co-chaired by the VPs of HRB and Finance and Corporate Management Branch, and with membership of all VPs and RDGs, to promote and enable effective EX organizational and people management. One of their first priorities was to address the backlog of EX staffing actions and to provide additional oversight and transparency to staffing actions, prior to being recommended for approval to the President.

• 12 of the 43 sampled files were deemed high or medium risk by EX Resourcing and were presented to and endorsed by the EXPMC.
• The committee was paused at the end of 2024 since the backlog was largely addressed and there were fewer high risk staffing actions in need of committee review. HRB intends to resume the committee in the fall of 2025 with the intent to focus on strategic-level issues.

The EX Resourcing Division's internal quality control process at level 1, supplemented by senior management and approval bodies' monitoring and oversight at level 2, work together to ensure compliance and timely corrective actions over EX staffing processes.

Level 3: Staffing monitoring plan

To ensure the staffing process continues to meet compliance requirements and objectives, it is important to independently monitor it. The PSC's Appointment Policy requires that departments conduct such monitoring and ensure that appropriate remedial action is taken to address any deficiencies. At the CBSA, this function is applied by the Corporate Staffing Unit of the HRB. The audit assessed how the Unit conducts its monitoring over the EX staffing process by reviewing the Division's plans, assessment tools, and monitoring and reporting results.

We found that the Corporate Staffing Unit established and completed an annual SMP to monitor CBSA's staffing actions (for both EX and non-EX).

• Monitoring under the SMP assessed compliance of staffing activities with the PSC's Appointment Delegation and Accountability Instrument. Specifically, it covered samples of staffing files, using a detailed checklist with 96 tests including merit criteria, priority entitlement, official languages obligations, order of preference, accommodations, employment equity self declaration, and affirmation of Aboriginal affiliation, among others.
• The monitoring allocated its coverage of EX and non-EX files using a risk-based approach.
  • In 2023 to 2024, the final report did not distinguish results between EX and non-EX staffing. Of the 50 staffing files, 4 were at the EX-level. This represented 2% of the total number of EX staffing actions (approximately 203) for the period.
  • In the 2024 to 2025 fiscal year, 6 EX staffing files were reviewed, which represented 3% of the total number of EX staffing actions (approximately 236) for the period.
• The results of 2024 to 2025 monitoring of EX staffing actions were similar to the observations of this audit, for example:
  • high compliance rates in areas of respecting sub-delegated staffing authorities and demonstrating merit
  • existence of PSC biases and barriers checklist and that it is on file, but frequently that it is completed after candidates have been assessed
• The final reports of the monitoring under the SMP were reported to the VP of HRB and the President.

The CBSA has an established Staffing Monitoring Plan to monitor both EX and non-EX staffing files, providing additional assurance over legislative, regulatory and policy compliance.