- From the top
- POLAR’s people
- Learning and performance
- Updates
- Workplace notices
From the top
Preparing for your 2021-2022 performance agreements!
All 2020-21 Performance Assessments, 2021-22 Performance Agreements and Learning Plans must be discussed, signed, and submitted to Human Resources by April 16, 2021.
If you haven’t already, you will be speaking to your manager to discuss your performance for the past year against your work objectives and competencies. To ensure you get the most of these conversations, here are a few tips to help you prepare.
Tips for employees
- Review the comments made by your manager. If the comments are not clear, ask for clarification during your discussion.
- Assess your performance against your work objectives and core competencies.
- Ask yourself:
- What are my achievements?
- What went well?
- What didn’t go well?
- What could I have been done better or differently?
- Were there any obstacles to achieving my work objectives or demonstrating core competencies?
- What are my strengths?
Use this meeting as an opportunity to highlight your achievements and to ask for any support you need before signing your assessment.
Tips for managers and supervisors
- Review the employee’s performance agreement.
- Review any performance feedback that you may have provided throughout the year.
- Consider circumstances, such as challenges or changed priorities.
- Identify areas that may need strengthening or a different approach.
- Determine whether there is clear, demonstrable evidence of success in achieving objectives and competencies.
- Remind employees to review their performance agreement in advance.
- Schedule a suitable time for the conversation and inform employees that they should prepare.
During the discussion, make sure to ask open-ended questions; consider the employee's input and amend your analysis accordingly. Remember to highlight their achievements and take the time to talk about things that might not be working well. Make sure that you can propose solutions and offer the necessary support to help them do a better job.
View HR's PMA resource folder for more details and supporting documents for this year's discussions. If you have questions about the performance review process that your manager is unable to address, please contact Human Resources.
Canada School of Public Service events
EXecuTALK: Successfully Leading High-Performing Virtual Teams
The shift to working remotely has been steadily increasing among public servants over the past several years, but the sudden onset of COVID-19 in Canada forced most government employees to convert to remote work in a matter of days. A year later, many teams have adjusted to this new reality and have found ways to maintain their productivity. Yet some teams have clearly navigated the transition more successfully than others. What is their secret?
Date and time: March 29, 2021 | 1:30 pm to 2:00 pm (ET)
Registration deadline: March 29, 2021, 10:00 am (ET)
Language: English, with interpretation in French
Location: This event will be delivered virtually. A link to the live broadcast will be provided to registered participants.
Audience: Executives
Register for webcast
Indigenous Policy Making in Canada
This event will look at the history of Indigenous policymaking in Canada. It will also look at the Federal Government's agenda for advancing reconciliation through respect, cooperation, partnership, and by recognizing Indigenous rights.
Learn more about Indigenous policymaking and the need for a holistic policy development process rooted in nation-to-nation, Inuit–Crown, and government-to-government relationships.
Date and time: April 8, 2021 | 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm (ET)
Registration deadline: April 8, 2021, 10:00 am (ET)
Language: English, with interpretation in French
Location: This event will be delivered virtually. A link to the live broadcast will be provided to registered participants.
Audience: All public servants at all levels
Register for webcast
Please note, prior to registering for an event, you must request permission from your supervisor.
POLAR’s people
Ian Hogg co-authors new paper
Ian Hogg co-authored a paper in the Biogeosciences journal linking Antarctic biodiversity and soil geochemistry. In Antarctica’s extremely dry terrestrial environments, windblown salts build up to toxic levels in the soil because there is no precipitation to wash them away. Over time, these habitats become inhospitable to soil invertebrates, including nematode worms and tiny springtails.
This study was conducted near the Shackleton Glacier in Antarctica’s central Transantarctic Mountains, which have some of the continent’s most inhospitable soils. Ian and his colleagues developed models that may be able to predict which areas support soil-dwelling animals.
Antarctic studies are crucial to building understanding of Earth’s biodiversity.
Learning and performance
Inuktut word of the week
The Inuktut word of the week is: ajunginniq| ᐊᔪᖏᓐᓂᖅ. It means, ability, mastery.
Pronounce it like this: ah-yoong-een-niq
Listen to the pronunciation here:
Have a word you would like to see in Inuktut? Send us an email: polarxpresspolaire@polar.gc.ca
Are you ready to Talk the Talk?
Updates
Key outcomes from Executive Team Meeting (ETM)
Here are the key outcomes from the March 17 2021, ETM:
- Finance provided an overview of end year financial processes, emphasizing key reporting dates for “closing the books” for the fiscal year.
- The current financial status and the procurement log were reviewed. The President emphasized the importance for all budget managers to review and validate their remaining open commitments and update the procurement log against key and approved FY 2021-22 activities.
Workplace notices
New Teams backgrounds!
Hide your background during video calls with one of POLAR’s new Teams background images. Use a picture from POLAR’s files on your next call. These Teams backgrounds are available for download.
How to use a custom background
- Before joining a meeting, a page will appear "choosing your video and audio options."
- Under the video preview, select "background filters." This will open your background settings.
- Click the "+ add new" button at the top.
- Follow the file path to the stored photos, click "open."
- The uploaded photo swill appear at the bottom of the "background settings" page.
- You can now select any background you wish and preview it before joining the meeting.
** Note: In the video preview, the background will appear to be mirrored; however, viewers will see the image correctly.
CHARS campus hallway leading to the private working areas. The Integrated floor art is by Inuk artist Tim Pitsiulak.
Sea ice in late September off the coast of Nunavut, taken by Northern Scientific Training Program (NSTP) student Cassandra DeFrancesco.
Purple Saxifrage on the Nunavik tundra near Umiujaq, taken by NSTP student Isabelle Lussier.
Taken by NSTP student Jordan Hawkswell at 11:30 p.m. at the Haughton River Valley camp on Devon Island, Nunavut.