Strategic Context

The government strategic plan 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 citizen's 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.

Drivers of Change

Three years ago it was important for the Agency to drive down costs and improve transactional services. Today, the Agency is faced with an additional set of expectations and performance measurements driven by factors such as demographics, global competition for talent and changing customer demands.

• One-third of all public sector employees are expected to retire by 2015.
• Thirty-five per cent of all senior executives in the BC Public Service will be eligible for retirement by 2010. Almost the same number of middle managers is positioned to leave the organization within the same timeframe.
• The projection of skills needed for the future is shifting. The number of public servants employed in more senior positions is increasing.
• Recruitment, talent identification, engagement and flexibility in responding to employee needs and leadership succession are routinely reported as top priorities by executives across the country.
• With regard to human resource services, clients are demanding choice and the ability to pick and choose their services and the means to access them. Clients are interested in 24/7 service and better phone access to routine enquiries. Ninety per cent of the Agency's customers accessed the BCPSA website in the past year and sixty-one per cent said they would prefer to receive information directly by email.

Strategic Direction

To address the challenges facing the public sector, the Agency's efforts over the next three years will focus on four broad, integrated areas:

1. Talent Management — a strategy to acquire, deploy, develop, engage and retain human resources across the public service in order to achieve outstanding results.
2. Modernizing Human Resource Policy — implementation of modern human resource policies that support the recruitment, motivation, development and retention of a high performing public service.
3. Labour Relations — seeking creative ways of labour planning and bargaining to facilitate the strategic changes necessary to achieve public service excellence and by making specialized labour relations knowledge available to enable managers to manage their operations effectively.
4. Client Services — a client-centred service delivery strategy to ensure improved human resource services that position our clients and customers to be successful in the management of their human resources and to realize their business objectives.