Last year, the premier's council on aging and seniors' issues recommended the provincial government take a "leadership role" in "making it easier for older people to continue to work if they want." But it appears the Campbell administration may be having some trouble filling that part. When bureaucrats were asked back in July what actions they've noticed the administration taking to improve conditions in the service, just 69 selected "opportunities for retired employees." By comparison, 132 noticed "more jr. employees" in government. This, according to an online poll posted on the public service's intranet site. Even more problematic, though, was the fact 141 said they hadn't noticed any of the government's promised improvements - the most frequent response. But, in an email to Public Eye, community services communications manager Marc Black cautioned, "these polls aren't meant to be scientific - they're just meant to provide a pulse on what people think and to generate some dialogue about what's happening in the public service." The following is a complete copy of that survey.

The Results are in!

Poll Results: Building Our Internal Capacity

For our poll on the first goal of the Corporate HR Plan - Building Our Internal Capacity - it looks like there were enough votes on each “what you should notice” item that we can tell you're starting to see evidence of our goals in action. But there were also a lot of votes by people who haven’t seen evidence of any of them, and that’s not entirely unexpected.

While things are beginning to happen, it's only been eight months since the HR Plan was released and it was never intended to be a one-year project. It's an ongoing thing, but taking the pulse of our progress is an important part of the process and it’s something we’re going to want to do regularly. In the meantime, we’re going to keep working hard to make these goals a reality for you and so that we can get more of you out of the "none of the above" category.

Which of the things on the "what you should notice" list for Goal 1: Building our Internal Capacity have you noticed?

More short-term opps 62
More moving between ministries 66
Limitation on consultants 69
More jr. employees 132
More awareness of "at risk" skills 57
Job shadowing 34
New learning and training opps 55
Orientation programs 109
Opps for retired employees 69
Advanced as people retire 57
None of the above 141