The Power of Policy: Driving Talent Outcomes Through Data and Metrics

This is the story of how we did policy differently to build digital capacity across the Government of Canada—proving that when you treat policy like a service and apply modern practices, you can deliver real transformation fast.
Too often, policy gets developed in isolation from the people who have to make it work. We recognized this creates duplication, inefficiency, and poor implementation, and we committed to doing it differently.
This is one of the fastest directives ever developed at TBS, driven by a shared understanding that while Canadians expect high-quality digital services, government lacked the in-house digital talent to design and maintain them. It wasn't just about new technology: it was about having skilled people to build and improve these services from the inside out.
We also knew we could not settle for a one-off fix, and it required a foundational shift to support digital talent across the entire public service.
After just 10 months, we launched the Directive on Digital Talent in April 2023: a practical framework to help departments recruit, develop, and keep the digital talent they need. Workforce planning was treated as a core part of delivering services, not just an HR exercise.

The impact is real:
99% of the government’s IT workforce in the Core Public Administration is now captured in our data, giving the clearest view yet of digital skills across departments.

Departments can see where demand is growing, like software development and infrastructure operations, and act on it — shaping hiring, training, and planning right now.

Collaboration is stronger because we built the directive with practitioners, ensuring it works in the real world and can evolve as needs change.

What looked like an internal HR policy turned out to be critical service delivery infrastructure, giving government the digital capacity to deliver better, faster, and more cost-effectively for Canadians.

In this session, we’ll break down the “how”: how we delivered quickly, used evidence to solve a long-standing data problem, and share a behind-the-scenes look on how workforce planning is increasingly becoming the key driver of better, faster government services.