Health Canada Reviews in Ottawa, ON Area

Pros

From the viewpoint of salary, benefits and carrer opportinuties, Health Canada is very competitive. The wages we are offered are above market averages and our benefits are also amongst the best in the market. Carrer opportunities are also present as they have a professional development program for the occupational group of my position, which takes the PE group employees from level 1 to 3 in about 2 to 3 years, and then to level for after another period of 2 to 3 years. There are also opportunities to go work in other HR divisions/streams part time or for a specific assignment period in order to broaden our competencies. It is also intersting to work for Health Canada at this specific time as the HR senior management is new and has a great desire to innovate, resolve long standing issues and improve HR management within the Department.

Cons

The internal information systems are innacurate and therefore it is difficult to work on the basis of data whose quality is uncertain. There also seems to be limited funds for training, which might hinder progress of employees of certain streams regarding the professionnal development program. I am fairly new to the Department so other than that I am not yet aware of any more downfalls of working at Health Canada. The Department is also a very large organization and problems which arise in some branches might not be present in others so the problems I have listed above do not apply to the workforce as a whole.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior Management is supportive and willing to listen to employees' concerns/ideas.

Pros

Stability
Public Service
Excellent pay for scientists in Canada
Respectable job
Guaranteed incremental increases in salary
Little to no pressure
Work/life balance
Respect for diversity
Excellent benefits and pension
Ability to take up to 3 months unpaid leave every year (income averaging)

Cons

Most people lack significant ambition
Little incentive to work hard
Work gets repetitive after some time
Opportunities for advancement become limited after some point
Management opportunities are not attractive as the amount of work increases dramatically compared to the compensation
No bonuses

Advice to Senior Management

Health Canada needs to provide greater incentives for individuals to work hard and more opportunities for people to grow and develop in terms of training and experiences. Management needs to improve in the following: motivating employees, being transparent with employees, taking an interest in the career development of employees. Health Canada is full of great scientists; they now need to learn how to become great managers.

Pros

Knowing that you will be helping the public - both Canadian and internationally. As a scientist, you are given a fairly open research mandate, and usually with a decent research budget. For the most part, lab staff are stable in their job positions so they are likely to stay in the lab much longer than in academics or industry. Lots of excellent research scientists to interact with; collaborations (internal and external) are encouraged. The vacation time and sick leave are considered very good by North American standards, and depending on the position the benefits can be very good too.

Cons

For research scientists (PhD level), the salary is very poor when compared to industry... very poor. For lab staff, it is generally better than in academics, and the job stability is much greater. Depending on the division, the bureaucracy and red-tape can be overwhelming. Although there is no requirement for writing grants, your budget can sometimes be taken away at the whim of senior management or the sitting gov't of the day. Some basic tasks (such as ordering lab supplies) can be a slow process and usually involves 5 - 8 people. Similarly, getting facilities modified or repaired can be a nightmare or red tape and often takes months to finish. The IT situation is the same.

Did I mention the bad salary?!?

Advice to Senior Management

1. Improve the salaries of research scientists - you're nowhere even close to industry levels and are not able to retain or attract the people you need.
2. Cut out the extreme over-management style, excessive number of reporting requirements, and reduce the civil servant BS and paperwork.