Regional Occupational Health and Safety Advisor

Important messages

When answering the screening questions, remember that the assessment board cannot make assumptions about your experience. It is insufficient to say that you have the required qualifications or to list your current or past duties. Rather, using this tool, candidates must demonstrate how they meet the education and experience criteria listed in the job opportunity advertisement by providing clear and concrete examples.

Clear and concrete examples are defined as illustrations in which you fully explain the actions, considerations and steps you completed in order to gain the experience you are describing. This detailed contextual information will be used by the board members reviewing your submission to assess whether you have sufficient experience in a relevant field to complete the tasks which will be assigned to you should you be considered for this position. This is similar to what would be expected of you when asked to provide a concrete example of a particular situation in the context of an interview. Such examples usually require a minimum of ½ page to describe and a maximum of 2 pages. In order to facilitate this process, you may wish to start your submissions with a sentence similar to: “A clear and concrete example of a situation where I did X is a situation which occurred on Y date and my role in this activity was to...”.

Resumes will be used as a secondary source of information and strictly to validate the concrete examples you will have described in this tool.

Also, when reading the experience criteria for staffing processes, please pay close attention to action words contained within and ensure the examples you chose to include speak to all of them. Similar attention should be given to punctuation and connector words such as “commas”, “and” and “or” as these have a different function when used to describe an experience criteria. As such, action words or activities separated with a “,” and connected with an “and” must all be demonstrated with concrete examples as in this case, they are all deemed essential by the hiring manager. Conversely, when action words or activities are separated with a “,” and connected with an “or”, candidates may provide concrete examples for only one of the activities listed in the criterion as in this case, the hiring manager is looking for someone who has experience in at least one of the activities but not necessarily all of them.

For example, when responding to a criterion which reads: “Experience reading, writing and publishing instructions for a competitive process.” you must provide concrete examples of situations where you read instructions, concrete examples of situations where you wrote instructions as well as concrete examples of situations where you published instructions for a competitive process. These may be part of the same example however, you must ensure to provide sufficient details to cover the three actions as they are all critical.

On the other hand, when responding to an experience criterion which reads: “Experience reading, writing or publishing instructions for a competitive process” you must provide concrete examples for a minimum of one situation where you either read, wrote or published instructions for a competitive process as experience in a minimum of one activity is critical. This being said, when this structure is used, you may also provide concrete examples for all action words or activities as this approach will provide board members with additional information to assess the breath of your experience.

Finally, if the examples you provide speak of experience that was acquired in a team setting, please be specific as to your exact role within this team as it is your experience the board will be looking to assess and not that of your team.

Intent of the process

We are currently seeking to staff two indeterminate positions however, a pool of qualified candidates may be established and may be used to staff similar positions with various tenures, language requirements and security requirements. All federal organizations listed in Schedules I, IV and V of the Financial Administration Act may use this staffing process to appoint a candidate to its organization in a similar position if a pool is created.

Positions to be filled: 2

Information you must provide

Your résumé.

You must meet all essential qualifications in order to be appointed to the position. Other qualifications may be a deciding factor in choosing the person to be appointed. Some essential and other qualifications will be assessed through your application. It is your responsibility to provide appropriate examples that illustrate how you meet each qualification. Failing to do so could result in your application being rejected.

In order to be considered, your application must clearly explain how you meet the following (essential qualifications)

ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS:

EDUCATION:
A secondary school diploma or employer-approved alternatives (note 1)

Notes:
1.The employer-approved alternatives to a secondary school diploma are: ◦A satisfactory score on the Public Service Commission test approved as an alternative to a secondary school diploma; or
◦An acceptable combination of education, training and/or experience.

Candidates who already meet both of the following criteria must be accepted as meeting the secondary school diploma requirement:
a.Candidates who have achieved a satisfactory score on the Public Service Commission test approved as an alternative to a secondary school diploma; and
b.Candidates who have been appointed or deployed for an indeterminate period to a position in the AS classification.

The opportunity to be assessed by at least one of the two employer-approved alternatives must be offered to candidates who have not previously met the secondary school diploma requirement.

Candidates who were appointed or deployed on an indeterminate basis using an acceptable combination of education, training and/or experience meet the secondary school requirement for the AS classification only and must be reassessed for entry to other classifications on the basis of this alternative.

Degree equivalency

EXPERIENCE:

Recent* experience in developing health and safety policy instruments.
Recent* and significant** experience in managing activities related to an occupational health and safety (OHS) program
Recent* experience in developing or delivering training materials
Recent* and significant** experience in providing OHS advice and guidance to managers, regional and/or workplace OHS committees or representatives as well as employees

*Recent experience is defined as within the last five (5) years.

**Sufficient experience is defined as experience associated with having performed a range of related activities which could normally be acquired over a period of approximately one (1) year.

If you possess any of the following, your application must also clearly explain how you meet it (other qualifications)

ASSET QUALIFICATION:
EDUCATION:
Diploma or Certificate from a recognized post-secondary institution in Occupational Health and Safety or a Certificate, accreditation or Designation in safety management, such as the Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP) Designation.

Degree equivalency

The following will be applied / assessed at a later date (essential for the job)

Bilingual - Imperative (BBB/BBB)
We are currently seeking to staff two bilingual imperative BBB/BBB positions but a pool of qualified candidates may be established and may be used to staff similar positions with various tenures, language requirements and security requirements.

Information on language requirements

Second Language Writing Skills Self-Assessment
In order to help you decide if you should apply to a bilingual position, an optional self-assessment of your writing skills in your second official language is available for you to take before completing your application.

For more information, please consult:
Unsupervised Internet Test of Second Language Writing Skills

KNOWLEDGE:
Knowledge of the Canada Labour Code part II and other Canadian regulations governing Occupational Health and Safety.
Knowledge of accident investigation and inspection protocols.

ABILITIES:
Ability to communicate effectively orally.
Ability to communicate effectively in writing.
Ability to conduct presentations.
Ability to interpret policies and legislation related to Occupational Health and Safety.

PERSONAL SUITABILITIES:
Problem solving
Client service orientation
Judgement
Initiative
Dependability

Other information

All information obtained throughout the selection process, from the time of application to the conclusion of the process, may be used for evaluation purposes.

Reference checks may be sought.

An interview may be administered.

A test may be administered.

You must provide proof of your education credentials.

Persons are entitled to participate in the appointment process in the official language of their choice.

A random and/or top down selection of candidates may be used in the determination of those to be given further consideration in the assessment process.

The Public Service of Canada is committed to building a skilled, diverse workforce reflective of Canadian society. As a result, it promotes employment equity and encourages candidates to indicate voluntarily on their application if they are a woman, an Aboriginal person, a person with a disability or a member of a visible minority group.

The Public Service of Canada is also committed to developing inclusive, barrier-free selection processes and work environments. If contacted in relation to a job opportunity or testing, you should advise the Public Service Commission or the departmental official in a timely fashion of the accommodation measures which must be taken to enable you to be assessed in a fair and equitable manner. Information received relating to accommodation measures will be addressed confidentially.

Preference

Preference will be given to veterans and to Canadian citizens, in that order.

Information on the preference to veterans

We thank all those who apply. Only those selected for further consideration will be contacted.