Appendix 1. Strategic Context

Vision, Mission and Values

Vision

The BC Public Service Agency is driven by a vision of:

• Connecting with our clients to provide excellence in human resource service that achieves results.

Mission

We achieve this vision by focusing on a mission of:

• Providing leadership in people management and human resource services to support achieving excellence in public service

Values

The Agency performs its business guided by the following values:

• We provide professional and high-quality service and are accountable for our performance;
• Our relationship with our clients will be respectful, open and collaborative;
• Through team work, we trust and support each other and work across divisional boundaries;
• We model the HR practices that we wish to see throughout the public service; and
• Our clients' success is our success.

Planning Context

Shared Services or consolidated models for HR service delivery have been widely used in the private sector to reduce costs and increase the effectiveness of HR support to business operations. Few comparative models exist in the public sector. Although no public or private sector organization provides a perfectly comparable model, lessons can be learned from the experiences of all the organizations that were studied in the development of this organization.

The Internal Audit Division, Ministry of Finance, conducted a baseline study in 2002 to assess the costs for HR programs and services in Government. This was the first time that the cost of HR service delivery was assessed across government. Funding for HR programs and services varied widely across government from $847 to $1,450 per FTE for an average $1,120 per FTE. This variance in funding also resulted in varying practices and HR service levels among ministries.

The transition to one standard for service levels and costs of services across the public service continues to be a difficult transition; some ministries face increased costs while others face a decrease in service levels. The new HR Agency is required to balance the tension between services levels, the costs of services, the clients' ability to pay and client satisfaction.

The implementation of the new HR Agency for the BC Public Service ensured the achievement of one of the three goals established for the previous Public Service Employee Relations Commission. By April 2003, the second goal of workforce adjustment was substantially completed. The last goal — to rebuild and sustain a professional public service capable of providing quality services that meet the needs of British Columbians — will be compromised if proposed funding of the new Public Service Agency cannot be sustained. Most significantly, the Agency supports key government initiatives targeted at increasing overall leadership capacity, enhancing employee performance and monitoring and reporting on organizational health and performance across the public service.

British Columbia's Public Service will face increasing people management challenges over the next few years brought on by an aging workforce and increasing competition for talent in the market. These challenges require forward-thinking, proactive futuristic development of new responses by the Agency to assist in positioning the government's workforce for the future.

As the government moves towards Alternative Service Delivery and other programming changes, the demand for adequate HR resources that align human resources with these key initiatives will increase. The success of these objectives depends on an adequate HR support structure.

The HR Agency initially provided services to a core group of ministries. Following the initial transition, the Agency successfully pursued and engaged several other public service entities. This expanded the client base and will ultimately result in economies of scale and reduced costs.

Business Process Reviews were conducted on all major lines of business for HR. Recommendations have been made that will improve process and technology thereby increasing efficiency. Capital funding for development is required to realize these efficiencies. Detailed business cases are being developed to provide a cost/benefit analysis for the proposed recommendations.

Following the transition year (2003/04), and in the second year of operation (2004/05), the BC Public Service Agency will benchmark its services against other public and private sector organizations to identify opportunities to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. Benchmarking has been completed on other support services in government and has identified opportunities to improve business processes and develop variable pricing methods based on service needs and resource requirements. The Agency will be moving to more sophisticated service agreements and pricing methods that will result in reduced costs and increased client satisfaction.

Highlights of Strategic Shifts and Changes from the Previous Service Plan

This is the first service plan for the BC Public Service Agency. For 2003/04 the Agency was guided by the service plan of the Public Service Employee Relations Commission (PSERC). That plan had been prepared knowing the BC Public Service Agency and the BC Leadership Centre would both be operational on April 1, 2003. It served as a transitional document with some short-term goals required to take human resource services from the business approach of the old organization to that of the new.

The goals of the PSERC Service Plan for 2003/04 to 2005/06 focused on workforce adjustment, public service renewal, and initiatives designed to quickly transition the public service to contemporary workplace and business practices. These transitional strategies were completed in 2003/04. The Agency is now in a position to plan for the longer term. The structure is established so the related objectives, strategies and performance measures of the last service plan have not been carried forward.

This service plan introduces new goals for a new Agency. The objectives for the first three years are ambitious, however, sound strategies will ensure the BC Public Service Agency and BC Leadership Centre's success.

Consistency with Government Strategic Plan

The Government Strategic Plan focuses on positive impacts that programs will have on the economy, people and environment of the province. The goals of the BC Public Service Agency and the BC Leadership Centre focus on achieving positive results for their ministry clients by building human resource programs and tools that increase efficiency and capacity in human resources. The greater the success in achieving these goals, the greater the ability of government programs to achieve their goals for British Columbians. In that respect, the Agency and Leadership Centre Service Plan is supportive of the Government Strategic Plan.

One of the key themes underlying the Government Strategic Plan is that government operations must adopt "an innovative and goal-oriented public service". The strategies of the BC Public Service Agency and BC Leadership Centre directly enable that future and at the same time model an integrated and efficient shared service.