Directions for Change

Section 3:
What supporting strategies will enable us?

3.4 Building new strengths in our workforce

To realize our vision of the new institution, we will need to build some new capacity into our workforce.

New capacities

We will need strategic capacity to articulate our policy direction and provide more effective leadership in our national role. We will need enhanced management capacity. We will also need to build capacity in communication, partnering, teamwork, organizational awareness, and innovation. We will need to ensure that LAC has the required expertise for sound implementation of outcome-based performance and risk management.

With our new mandate increasing our emphasis on making Canada's documentary heritage known, we will need to strengthen our pedagogical and interpretive capacity. We will also need broad technological understanding and technical skills across the institution to ensure that we fully comprehend and embrace the possibilities of the digital information environment.

Increased diversity

As we move to strengthen our relationship and relevance to ethno-cultural and Aboriginal communities, we must build greater cultural and linguistic diversity into our workforce. Without the requisite diversity in staff, we will fail in our mission to document the Canadian experience and become a prime learning destination for all Canadians. We will also continue to build official languages capacity, both for our service to the public and to assure a high level of bilingualism in the workplace.

Mechanisms

First, LAC will take a critical look at the skills and competencies we need to fulfill our mandate and strategic directions. There are then several ways to address our gaps, but recruitment and staff development are two key mechanisms. LAC will examine its competency profiles for the type of work we do, and ensure its recruitment and promotion practices focus on competencies that LAC will most need for the future. It will increase its commitment to staff learning and development, sharpening the focus of this investment to ensure this training is honed to our new organizational needs. In our commitment to building a diverse management and staff, we will implement an Employment Equity and Diversity Action Plan, recruit the best talent from across Canadian society, ensure that all staffing actions are fair and merit-based, and ensure that we are perceived as an employer of choice by graduates from various professional fields.

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