RCMP - Non Commissioned Officer Promotional Cycle
NCO 2003 - 2004 Study Session #6

January 8, 2004 1400 -1600 hrs Richmond City Hall - Council Chambers

Topic 1400 - 1500 hrs - Preparing Your PRP by Cpl Betty Gilholme.Cpl. Gilholme will provide the group with a detailed overview on how to packag your experiences and skill sets into a PRP for the NCO promotional process.

Topic 1500 - 1600 hrs - Insp. Paul Nadeau (Recent Div. Rep)
PRP - Structuring Examples for Promotional Boards
Including the evolution of the promotion system, the current system, the assessing of the PRPS , the structured resume and " do and don'ts" of the PRP prep.

PRP 101 - By Insp Paul Nadeau

The following tips are just to help you in preparing your PRP. There are no tricks or trade secrets. These are all things that have been disclosed in the past. If you take a good approach to how you structure your PRP examples, you will make it easier for the board member to rank you with the other candidates. Some of the information provided was taken from the NCO Promotion Process Selection Committee Guide.

#1 - Make a list of your work accomplishments. For the time being you can forget about the core competencies and the descriptors. Just write down situations, files, investigations etc. you are proud of. Any example older than the last 5 years will not be considered by the board members.

#2 - Take each accomplishment and break it down into the following areas: your role, the situation or task in which you were involved, the action you took to deal with the situation and finally the result of your action. It may be helpful for you to approach each point as a separate paragraph. Some candidates have actually put headers at the start of each paragraph (ie "Role", Situation", "Action" and "Result"). Unfortunately, many of the PRPs I have reviewed have failed to cover these basic and necessary points.

#3 - Once you have completed this step, you can sit back, read the descriptors of the core competencies and then read your examples. As you read them you should see what core competency is best exemplified by the given example. Don't make the mistake of falling in love with the descriptors to the point where you stick little jingles in your examples (ie. "I was able to mobilize and attract talents to work toward shared objectives...").

#4 - Watch out for those false examples. They may include feelings and opinions ("I did a really good job on this investigation"), theorical or future oriented statements ("The next time I'll make sure things are done better") and vague statements ("I completed the task in record time").

#5 - If you have examples that relate directly to the position being filled, make use of them. Some people seem to think that once they have submitted a PRP they cannot change it for later boards. Not true. You should review your PRP for each board to make sure it is the best product you can provide to the board members. Page 21 on the attached Guide talks about "Other Considerations...". These include: Significance, Recency, Trends and Job-relatedness.

#6 - Once you finish writing it you should read it again and again and again. Have other people read it (your partner, your husband / wife, your father or mother in law). I promise they will notice things that you have missed.

#7 - Give your supervisor enough time to review and comment on your PRP. The night before it is due to be turned into Staffing is a little bit tight. If you fail to give enough time to your supervisor, you will not be in a very good position to complain because his/her comments are not as detailed as you think they should be. At the same time your supervisor should insure he/she provides you with proper input.

#8 - If you don't get it the first time don't get discouraged. Reality is that only one person on the board will be promoted. Meanwhile keep on trying to improve yourself. Maybe an opportunity to take on a project that will test your leadership and organizational skills will come along next week. Don't miss any chance to add to your PRP and resume. You will not find the feedback from the board to be very enlightening but be aware that Ottawa is presently trying to improve that aspect of the process.

As I said before all you can do is put together a product that will give the board members an opportunity to rank you in comparison to the other candidates.