Branding the Public Service of Canada

December, 2007

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Contents• What are brands, purpose and PS branding• Developing the brand: approach, steps and

timeline• Building the brand• Early initiatives• Next steps• Branding initiatives underway

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Purpose of this presentation

Develop a shared understanding of branding, propose key actions, timelines and next steps in developing a brand for

the Public Service of Canada

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What is a Brand?• A brand is “promise” future employees, employees,

consumers, clients, citizens believe in. – Branding is much more than a logo, a tagline or

a slogan • Branding is:

– A 360˚ look at every aspect of the organization– Every touch point with members of the organization’s

target audiences (external and internal)• Branding requires consistency, clarity and commitment

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Some Facts about the Public Service• Canada’s largest employer – approximately 250K employees• Canada’s most national employer – 1,600 points of service across

Canada• Canada’s most international employer – present in more than 150

countries• Offers over 1,000 different types of jobs • Offers real opportunity for advancement – 36 CEO-equivalent positions

and over 4,500 executives• Works in many different lines of business (economical, social, cultural,

scientific)• Delivers vital services that touch citizens’ lives every day • Has a direct impact in the country and in the world• Average age of a new indeterminate employee is 36 years• Average age of new EXs is 46 years

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• Canada Post Corporation (CPC)• Canadian Blood Services (CBS)• Parks Canada (PC)• Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)• Canadian Museum of Civilization• Business Development Bank of Canada• Farm Credit Canada• CRA, DND, RCMP• Province of British Columbia

Branding in Government Organizations

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Why a Branding Strategy for the Public Service?

• To support government’s plan for a stronger Canada• To support one of the key objectives of the government to

strengthen and promote Canada’s foundational values of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law

• To build employees’ trust and pride, and encourage them to act as ambassadors for their organization, its values, products and services

• To attract and recruit qualified new employees • To reflect government’s efforts in ensuring that the Public

Service meets the evolving needs of Canadians and the Canadian society with excellence in policy development and advice, and professional service delivery

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Why now?• Demographics and labour market urge to position

the PS as an employer of choice • Commitment by Clerk in PS Renewal Action Plan • 100th Anniversary of PSC and 140th Anniversary of

the PS in 2008• Recommendation by the PM Advisory Committee

on PS• Suggestions made by the Senior Level Committee

on Retention and Compensation

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PS Branding and Sub-brands?

Public service branding needs to be flexible to allow for strong complementary sub-brands “customized to suit the particular needs and circumstances of individual departments and

agencies or functional communities”. – Some departments (e.g. CRA, DND, RCMP, etc.) have

developed and are implementing a brand with emphasis varying from recruitment (DND, RCMP) through to business development (CRA).

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Mission (options)

1. Serving the public and the public interest2. Canadians serving Canada with excellence and pride3. Canadians serving Canadian interests4. Serving Canadians5. Serving the public interest6. Dedicated to excellence in public service

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1. Building a strong Canada2. Keeping Canada strong3. Make Canada better 4. Building a country that is a source of pride5. Contributing to Canada’s advancement

Vision (options)

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ApproachThe development of an overall umbrella brand for the PS with brand segments for all four

main components (recruitment, internal, Canadians and Parliamentarians)Branding Model For the Public Service

PS UMBRELLA BRAND

Audience Segment #1Prospective Employees

Audience Segment #2Current Employees

Audience Segment #3Canadians

Audience Segment #4Parliamentarians

Students New Graduates

Mid-Career Senior Management

Members of Equity Groups

Education Institutions

Individual Public Servants

Managers

Individual departments/ agencies

Functional Communities

Unions

APEX

General Public

Influencers

Media

Business Leaders

Community Leaders

Academia

Functional Professionals

Audience Segment #5International

NGOs

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What to Brand for?1. Prospective Employees

Attract qualified prospective employees that share our common values and ethics to join the Public Service of Canada

2. Current EmployeesReinforce a culture of pride and engagement across the PS where each employee can exercise their full potential in a workplace that is healthy, rewarding, high performing, supportive, challenging, professional and adaptive

3. Canadians Strengthen the PS image with Canadians at large to build trust in the institution

4. Parliamentarians

5. International Community

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Approach with our Value Proposition

1. Holistic – cannot be only about recruitment or culture

2. Consistent and coherent

3. Integrated – to resonate with prospective employees, current employees and citizens

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Development Process1. Intelligence gathering, analysis and consultations2. Discuss branding approach, lessons learned, identify key

contacts, etc. 3. Presentation of preliminary findings and approach to DM PS

Renewal Committee and other senior-level committees 4. Public tender and engagement of a professional firm 5. Development of the PS-wide branding strategy

6. Engagement of key stakeholders (DMs, DG Communications, Managers’ Community, Unions, Youth, HRMAC, etc.)

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Engagement and OutreachDevelopment of an engagement and outreach strategy to

include:• Volunteers • Development of a Working Group of DGs representing departments

agencies • Regional Federal Councils• Youth network• Functional Communities• Managers network and Conference• Communications community and Conference• Communications strategy for external audiences• Dialogue with key stakeholders on best practices in branding• Presentations to senior-level committees: DMs PS Renewal

Committee, Communications Council on PS Renewal, DGs Council on PSMA, Regional Federal Councils

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TimelinePHASE ONE

Internal Analysis

Values Intelligence gathering Creation of committees:

- Working Group- Steering Committee- Advisory Committee

PHASE TWOResearch

Research Gap Analysis Confirm branding

objectives Conduct executive

research Conduct employee

focus groups Conduct

stakeholderresearch

PHASE THREEStrategic Planning

Identify the opportunity

Develop brand platform, promise and character

Establish and test PS positioning

Consult with DMs Committees

Develop and test brand identity

Develop implementation framework

PHASE FOURBrand Strategy and complete

Implementation Planning

Develop/finalizebrand strategy

Develop/finalizeinternal/external implementation plan

Implementation

Evaluation

Aug–Sep ‘07 Sep 07– Jan 08 Jan 08 – Mar 08 April 08 and on

C: Start the Implementation, Live the Brand and Monitor

A: Define the PS Brand Approach B: Build the Brand Strategy and launch

a series of early initiatives

Timelines

Early Initiatives

PHASE FIVEImplementation and

Evaluation

PS Renewal Activities

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Issues and Challenges• Brand has to be relevant to our targeted prospects,

our employees and Canadians in general• Diversity of the Public Service • Positioning and Messaging• Managing and sustaining the brand

  

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Managing the Brand

• Requires strategically-driven senior management leadership and commitment (e.g. Clerk and DMs) to ensure success

• An accountability mechanism to make sure “we walk the talk”

• Engagement and buy-in by opinion leaders at all levels across government (including bargaining agents)

• Generate buy-in and bring the organization and its various components into alignment with the brand (I.e. deliver on the promise of the brand)

• Monitoring and assessing the brand performance

Sustaining the Brand

• Holistic and consistent approach• Change of government direction• Timing considerations (e.g.

impact on collective bargaining)• Requires a long-term and

sustained commitment of resources for implementation

• Requires in-place systems to support and facilitate the brand (i.e. recruitment and staffing processes)

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Linkages and partnerships • Central agencies, PSC, PCO, TBS, Finance• Canadians serving Canadians (e.g. Service Canada)• Department and agencies• Unions• CCO and other reps of functional communities• Networks (Youth, Manager Community, HR Council,

HRMAC, DM PS Renewal Committee, etc.)• NGOs (e.g. United Way, YMCA, etc.)

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Benefits • Attract highly skilled workers to the PS• Motivate, retain and engage employees• Strengthening the image of public

servants and public service with Canadians

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Anticipated Results • Establishing “brand equity” for the organization (e.g. goodwill

and “benefit of the doubt”, useful in times of crisis or policy change).

• Communicating a set of values that speak to employees, future employees and Canadians

• Improving the PS and its different entities’ ability to communicate and internalize its corporate vision and mission

• Increasing consistency of internal and external communications

• Provide a strong platform for future policy or program development and services

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Lessons Learned from Others• Branding is a long process, take the time to

brief and re-brief to build support• Branding is still misunderstood, take

the time to brief and re-brief to build understanding

• Use research to “bullet-proof” the branding work

• Identify and work with a champion (a high-level champion)

• Focus on the process (logical, sequential, research-based)Source: CRA MARCOM PresentationJune 07

• Conducted significant research (focus groups and surveys) to clearly understand the values communicated by the institution

• Ensured brand was consistent with policy direction

• Made sure senior leadership was "on-board"

• Ensured consistency through all parts of the organisation

• Make sure brand can be used for all media - Television, Internet, print, others

• Ensure proper budget to give the brand adequate visibility

• Applications for recruitment increased from 22K (Sep 06) to 35K+ (06-07); Web visits increased from an average of 120K/month (04-06) to a record of 1.3M in March 07Source: DND, August 2007

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Actions Completed• Established an action plan for the next 18 months and received Agency funding until end of

Fiscal 07-08. • Prepared Request for Proposal (including a Statement of Work) for identifying firm(s) that

will assist in the development of a branding strategy and implementation planning. The RFP will be published on a public tendering system

• Continued to gather intelligence, consulted and held meetings with senior management and key groups and individuals in various jurisdictions, departments and agencies – Farm Credit Canada, Government of BC, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), Department of National Defence (DND), Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), PSC, TBS, PCO, Service Canada, CPSA etc).

• Developed and updated a strategic Framework that sets out the key issues and a proposed approach to branding the PS.

• Developed a PowerPoint presentation to complement the Framework and made presentations to senior-level committees, e.g. DMs’ PS Renewal Committee, DG Communications on PS Renewal, Human Resource Council, Regional Federal Councils.

• Created three supporting committees comprising a Steering Committee with ADM-level members, a Working Committee with DG-level members, and an Advisory Group made of experts from various non-governmental groups such as academia, private sector, media, Crown Corporations, and held initial meetings

• Developed mission and vision statements

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Next Steps• December 2007

– Gather profiles for the first issue of A Day in the Life/Did you know? Theme: Diversity of positions in PS– Select the company with expertise in branding through the competitive process (RFP)– Final report of market analysis reports– Strategy development for Engagement and Outreach

• January 2008– Meeting with the three branding committees– Meeting with the Functional Communities leaders

• February 2008– Post a Did you Know? – Launch of job shadowing project– Development and finalization of branding strategy

• March 2008 – Second issue of A Day in the Life / Did you know?… Theme: Diversity of locations of jobs in the PS– Testing of Brand promise and character with key audiences

• April 2008– Post a Did you Know?– Completion of strategy and development of implementation and evaluation plans

• May 2008– Post a Did you know?

• June 2008– Soft launch of brand during PS Week– 3rd Issue of A Day in the Life/Did you know?. Theme: Front line services to the public

• September 2008– 4th issue of A Day in the Life/Did you know? Theme Public servants receiving national and international recognition

• June to October 2008– Further development of the brand strategy that will include a PS vision, objectives, positioning, brand analysis, situation/gap analysis, brand

character, brand promise, brand identity, messages, action plan, implementation and evaluation plans• October 2008 and on - Implementation of brand strategy, tracking and evaluation • Ongoing – Engagement of stakeholders, presentations and seminars, outreach, inreach and participation at events such as the 100th

anniversary of the PS Commission and the Public Service week• Ongoing – Continuous tracking and collaboration with various stakeholders to ensure successful implementation and sustainability

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Annex - “Early Initiatives” during planning/development phase

Under development:

• A Day in the Life… - real-life stories profiling public servants on the job • Did You Know?... – interesting facts and figures about the public service • Job Shadowing for students – pilot program to match students with public

servants in their field of study

Other proposed activities:• Be a PS Ambassador Initiative• Use champions to have case studies in Universities/Colleges to ensure students think about PS as a challenging and

interesting place• Contests for High School Students / Debates• Curriculum mini-course in PS (during Spring break)• Use of Statistics Canada Outreach Network to share some early messages for schools• Tell your PS Story Website• Internal Newsletter to all of PS• Bring your Kid to Work Day• GC’s success story online portal• External Newsletter to the Public• Op-Eds on the Public Service• Encourage and show case volunteering efforts by public servants (potential partnership with GCWCC• Public Recognition of Public Servants• Use testimonies from outside executives who participated in Interchange Program.

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Annex – PS Renewal Activities where branding elements can be integrated

Communications• Integration of PS renewal messaging in departmental employee communications;

distribution of integrated plans to all employees; learning plans; A Day in the Life…

Planning• Integrated human resources/business planning;  Roundtables and seminars; Learning

events with senior PS leaders – ongoing; Learning modules and leadership courses; lessons learned dissemination at a national Public Service Executive Conference – January 2008; Recruitment plans and strategies; “Fast Track” staffing model 

Recruitment• Recruitment activities to increase the number of post-secondary graduates appointed

directly to indeterminate positions – March 2008; Collaboration with functional communities and departments/agencies to implement recruitment plans in the area of human resources and Information Services – March 2008

Employee Development• Talent management Plans implemented by COSO and DMs for all ADMs – 2007/2008;

Revised performance management approach for all managers

Enabling Infrastructure• Various activities related to process and infrastructure that can reinforce the positioning

of the brand – March 2008

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Annex – Lessons Learned about Timeframes and Costs

• DND “Fight” (CF Recruit Advertising Campaign)– Cost of Campaign

• Media Buy (06/07): $16M• Prod (06/07): $1,3M

– Timeframe: three years (from development to launch of campaign)• CRA

– Development costs: Approx $1M– Timeframe: From development of Mission, Vision, Values Statement to start of

implementation (mid-07): 18 months.

• Province of British Columbia– Development Costs : Approx $500,000 so far, two thirds of cost for research and

remaining for development of artwork (including logo)– Timeframe: almost one full year so far, and not completed yet