Strategic Context
Planning Context and Key Strategic Issues
The government Strategic Plan for 2005/06-2007/08 calls for the achievement of Five Great Goals for a Golden Decade in order to realize the long term vision for British Columbia as a prosperous and just province, whose citizens achieve their full potential and have confidence in the future. The British Columbia Public Service is vital to making government’s goals a reality.
To ensure success, the public service needs to have the right people in the right place at the right time, and we must do so in the face of significant challenges.
Strategic HR Challenges
Thirty-five per cent of all senior executives in the BC Public Service will be eligible to retire by 2010. Thirty-two per cent of middle managers (ML6-8) are positioned to leave the organization within the same time frame. Competition for talent is increasing across the public and private sectors in the face of aging workforces, lower unemployment rates, and an increasing demand for more skills, knowledge, experience and education.
In the face of this challenge, we must continually assess our ability to recruit and retain highly-skilled people and make the adjustments necessary to better position the public service to compete.
Our policy environment must be updated to ensure our human resource management practices are in line with other progressive organizations.
It means aggressively pursuing changes that will lead to improved employee engagement1 ratings as recommended by the Auditor General. The Public Service will take on the responsibility to survey annually and to report on progress as part of the service plan report.
It also means that we need to continue to shift to a “results-focused” organization and reward performance accordingly.
| 1 | Employee engagement is a measure of an employees' commitment to the organization and their level of job satisfaction. |
HR Shared Services Model
A shared service model for human resources (HR) was established in 2003. The implementation of the new model resulted in the standardization of practices across ministries, cost savings and improvements to processes and services. In 2006/07 the Public Service Agency will strive to improve client service and will focus on addressing the strategic imperatives facing the public service.
To meet this need, the Agency will become more focused in assisting ministries to achieve their strategic objectives and in helping them ensure that they are able to develop a workforce that is client-centred and known for exceptional public service.
