1. integration of hiring and staffing data at the public service commission
A case study where hiring and staffing data is processed and dashboards are created using SAS   
Data Services and Analysis Directorate
Oversight Branch
RDIMS

2. Public Service Commission
The Public Service Commission (PSC) safeguards the integrity of staffing and the non-partisan nature of the public service.
Appoint, or provide for the appointment of, persons to or from within the public service. The PSC provides staffing and assessment functions and services to support staffing in the public service.
Oversee the integrity of the staffing system and ensure non-partisanship.
Administer provisions of the Public Service Employment Act (PSEA) related to the political activities of employees and deputy heads.
The Oversight Branch (OB) provides objective and timely information and data to support this mandate.
OB also supports the PSC's mandate by producing analytical research, statistical information, and disseminating that information.
At the core of all of these tasks are complex data integration algorithms to gather information from various independent sources.

3. Data services and Analysis Directorate (DSAD)
People:
Recruitment focused on statistical and computing skills
training targeted on upgrading SAS knowledge within DSAD and across the PSC
43 Full Time Employees
Technologies:
SAS EG and base SAS for analysis
SAS Enterprise Business Intelligence and Excel for reporting
Processes:
Leveraging existing data systems to address reporting needs including the development of new, direct and indirect indicators
Answering approximately 500 client requests a year
Rigorous quality assurance process to protect the quality and integrity of the data
Application of privacy protection measures to assure confidentiality of personal information

4. PSC’s Human Resources data holdings
Human Resources subjects
Government of Canada Public servants (current and applicants)
Government of Canada job positions
Staffing Processes to these job positions
Main sources of information
Jobs.gc.ca
Pay files
Priority Administration files
Employment equity databank

5. Overview of Staffing activities
20 years of appointment, population, separation data
10 years of advertisement data
In fiscal year :
8360 job advertisements on jobs.gc.ca
applications on jobs.gc.ca
4 533 new indeterminate, casual, students and term appointments
promotions
9 216 separations from the Public Service

6. Data Integration at the PSC
Integration of independent information sources tracking the same subject
jobs.gc.ca as advertisement process information
Pay files have appointment information (temporary and permanent)
Our integrated staffing files link the process to the appointment
Once the data sets are integrated, the value of the whole is greater than the sum of the values of the parts
Benefits
Reduced reporting burden
Expands our knowledge of staffing activities
Focus on analytics
Issues
Fuzzy matching (less than 100% matching)
Quality issues for detailed information

7. Data Integration Initiative on Staffing Activities (1)
Problem statement
Selection process information, without appointment information.
Solution Statement
SAS EG data integration algorithm.
PSC’s first data integration product
Pay files
Priority Information Management System
Jobs.gc.ca
Iteration 1 (2009)
Algorithm between 2 sources only
Resulted in poor coverage
Iteration 2 ( )
Multi-source
Better coverage, better consistency
Continuous improvement
match rate improvements
Combining multiple profiles into a single based on key variables in system
The PSC needed to find an alternative solution to the Quarterly report templates put in place in 2006 in order to report on the use of Advertised/Non-Advertised processes
Departments consider these quarterly templates to be a burden
Required approximately 170 FTEs per year ( 1 FTE per department)

8. Data Integration Initiative on Staffing Activities (2)
Probabilistic joins (Fuzzy matching using SAS EG)
No system generated keys shared between systems
Transitive joins for multi source (if A=B and B=C, then A = C)
Name matching algorithm
Large use of data cleaning functions (compress, translate, etc)
Convert names to numbers (for commutativity)
Use of regular expressions (parsing comments for position numbers)
Edit distances for typos
Business Rules
Discussions with subject matter experts to understand the flow of individuals
A good data analyst needs to be a good business analyst
Results:
Data-driven decision making
Provides enhanced analytical capabilities
Data products
Studies
Source for cross validation (Validation of PSC’s Audit sample)
What’s next ?:
- Full automation into our data warehouse
- Improve quality of data received from the pay system (phoenix)
Provides enhanced analytical capabilities
Links advertisements to appointments
Mobility
Comparison of priority and non-priority appointments
Annual Reports
PSC’s Staffing Dashboard
PSC’s statistical information site
INGENIUM

9. Public Service Commission's staffing dashboard (1)
The Public Service Commission’s (PSC) Staffing Dashboard provides timely and relevant data on staffing activities and trends that will give deputy heads, hiring managers and human resources specialists a broader understanding of staffing within their organizations and the public service.
Context:
The Staffing Dashboard is an integral feature of the PSC’s New Direction in Staffing (NDS), which includes the renewed Appointment Policy and delegation instrument, effective as of April 1, 2016.
These changes came into effect on April 1, 2016
Problem:
How are employees being recruited to the public service, how are they moving within the public service, and how could these be tracked, monitored and compared more frequently within and across the public service.
Solution:
a snapshot of their staffing activities and the ability to identify key trends;
an ability to compare their data to other organizations of similar size, similar mandate or to the entire public service; and
an access to their and other organizations’ data on a quarterly basis to allow them to make decisions based on data that is high quality, timely, relevant and reliable.
The New Direction in Staffing (NDS) is the most significant change to the staffing system we have seen in over ten years. Designed to simplify and streamline staffing.
Departments and agencies will now have greater ability to customize their approaches to staffing, based on their own day-to-day realities.

10. Public Service Commission's staffing dashboard (2)
Solution
SAS EG will provide a snapshot of their staffing activities and the ability to identify key trends;
an ability to compare their data to other organizations of similar size, similar mandate or to the entire public service; and
an access to their and other organizations’ data on a quarterly basis
Process
SAS EG Data Integration program
Data Cleaning, Tabulation
Leveraging SAS MS Excel Add-on
SAS EG provides good documentation options
Challenges
Telling a coherent story using complex data on a large and diverse work force
Limited time frame
Won’t answer all the needs of the various users
Dissemination
Fail fast, fail cheap and move to the next iteration
Guiding principles
Relevant and useful information;
Timing and frequency considerations;
Minimize burden on departments (not intrusive);
Other considerations: Monetary; IT resources; Intuitive and user-friendly; Common look and feel; and Training/Maintenance