6/27/2005 09:56:00 PM
from http://www.psc-cfp.gc.ca/publications/monogra/doc006_e.htm


Whatever you do, avoid another appeal!

Interviewees and focus group participants also said that apprehension about recourse across the Public Service is stifling creativity in selection and making the staffing process overly cautious - in effect, "appeal proofing" is driving the selection process. Managers who become involved in appealed staffing processes subsequently exercise extreme caution to avoid appeals. "Once you've lived through an appeal, you're not going to be innovative any more."

One participant noted that appeals have "forced us to use exams and quantitative approaches to evaluating candidates. ...you're finished if you use your judgement." As a result, managers feel safer using tests and exams than situational exercises (role plays, etc.) which do not have a correct/incorrect answer. Yet participants did not necessarily believe that standardized or numerical tools led to better decisions.

Some participants felt that appeals had created an excessive focus on the "technical aspects" of the process. One participant said, "Before, you could concentrate on finding the best person ...Now you have to go through everything five times and be able to show that you have gone to the 'nth degree to make sure everything has been done by the book.". A number of focus group members said that managers avoid participating on selection boards and that departments are "no longer willing to send their best and brightest to be on a board. ...it takes too much time."

Nevertheless, creative attempts to inform and communicate and to make the process transparent can misfire. One participant gave the example of brown-bag information lunches held by a manager before a competitive process. While the manager's intention was to increase communication and transparency, some employees felt that these lunches were intended to give his employees an edge in the competition.

One of the most serious consequences of launching an appeal or a complaint can be that morale drops and relationships among co-workers and between employees and managers suffer. One employee who responded to our survey said, "Some supervisors take appeals as a personal attack and retaliate by attempting to punish employees for filing appeals." Other respondents said, "Fellow employees ignore me", "the workplace is divided into hostile camps", and appeals "pit the employee who won the competition against those who appealed the decision".

In fucking deed....

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