Objective The Public Service Employee Annual Survey is a short survey that complemented the more comprehensive survey that is done every three years. The annual survey provided departments and agencies with evidence on key people management issues, allowing them to address these issues in a timely manner.

Timing The Public Service Employee Annual Survey was conducted between February 27 to March 24, 2017 . In 2017, employees received two surveys, because the comprehensive three-year survey was scheduled for August and September 2017 .

Survey administrator The 2017 Public Service Employee Annual Survey was administered by EKOS Research Associates Inc. on behalf of the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. EKOS Research Associates Inc. is a trusted and leading supplier of public opinion research for the federal government. As part of its privacy policy, EKOS Research Associates Inc. abides by the terms of Canada's two federal privacy laws: the Privacy Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

Eligibility to participate All employees in the core public administration and in participating separate agencies, including indeterminate, term, seasonal, casual and student employees, and Governor in Council appointees were eligible to participate in the survey. Ministers' exempt staff, private sector contractors or consultants, and employees on leave without pay were not eligible.

Confidentiality of responses Survey responses are protected under the Privacy Act. No data that can be traced to respondents will be released. To safeguard respondents' identity and to ensure the confidentiality of responses, responses are always grouped, and no data are made available for groups of fewer than 10 respondents. Individual responses are never published or shared with government departments or agencies.

Question about gender The federal government formed a working group on gender identity that explored how we can be more inclusive when gathering information about gender. The recommendations of the working group have been taken into account in the wording of the gender question and its response options in the comprehensive Public Service Employee Survey, which was conducted in August and September 2017 . In the 2017 Public Service Employee Annual Survey, the question on gender reflected the wording used in previous surveys.