Agency Role and Services

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 teamwork, 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.

The Agency's values play an important role in guiding staff in their everyday work and are applied through ongoing accountability mechanisms including client and customer surveys, service level agreements and building and enhancing relationships with our clients and customers.

Agency Overview, Core Business Areas and Structure

Agency Overview

The BC Public Service Agency was established in April 2003 to provide government-wide consolidated services for human resource management to reduce costs, increase client satisfaction and shift accountability for people management to leaders and managers. It is accountable to the Deputy Ministers' Council through a memorandum of understanding and to individual ministries through service level agreements that are negotiated each year.

In June 2004, government established a Shared Services Board of Directors, comprising of Deputy Ministers, to promote and champion the government mandated shared services initiative within the BC public service. Shared services models are based on consolidating common services to achieve financial savings and service improvements. The Deputy Minister of the BC Public Service Agency is accountable to the Minister for the provision of human resource management policies and programs and is responsible to both the Minister and the Shared Services Board for the provision of shared HR services.

The government-wide Corporate HR Plan provides guidance for ministries and agencies involved in the development of their specific human resource and people strategy plans. It sets out specific accountabilities for the Agency, ministries and employees. Individual Deputy Ministers and heads of agencies are responsible for human resource management within their respective organizations and for supporting corporate human resource priorities, policies and practices.

The Agency supports its clients (government ministries/agencies, etc.) in achieving the goals of the Corporate HR Plan, their ministry-specific human resource needs and improving overall effectiveness of the public service. Client supports include the delivery of front line advisory services and transactional (processing) services related to all areas of human resources. In addition, the Agency supports workforce development through the development and delivery of training, leadership and succession management processes; delivers a comprehensive classification and compensation program; acts as an advocate for the employer and line ministries on a variety of labour matters and conducts strategic recruitment on behalf of Deputy Ministers and senior leaders across the public service.

The Agency supports and responds to government priorities and initiatives related to the public service, and represents the government in negotiations with public service unions and professional associations. The Agency also negotiates plans with benefit service providers and ensures the provision of services through organizations such as Pacific Blue Cross and Great West Life.

Legislation governing human resources in the public service that the Agency has responsibility for include the Public Service Act, Public Service Benefit Plan Act and Public Service Labour Relations Act.

The BC Public Service Agency has offices located in Victoria, Nanaimo, Vancouver, Abbotsford, Burnaby, Kamloops, Nelson and Prince George.

Core Business Areas: The following provides an overview of the Agency's core business areas. Detailed information regarding actual operating expenditures and full-time equivalents is found in the Report on Resources section.

Governance and Strategy

The Governance and Strategy core business provides government-wide human resource strategy and planning.

• Facilitates business transformation within the human resource function in order to enhance client satisfaction, improve efficiency, reduce costs and increase innovation.
• Provides policy and legislative advice and interpretation, as well as recommending and drafting legislative changes and human resource policies.
• Develops and maintains job evaluation and compensation plans for use across government and is responsible for ensuring the plans are implemented equitably in all ministries and agencies that are governed by the Public Service Act.
• Provides comprehensive negotiation and labour relations services and ensures that government's objectives in negotiation with public service unions and professional associations are met. It also represents the Employer on pension-related issues.

Actual operating expenses were $6,083,000; full-time equivalents were 56.

Client Services

Client Services provides a broad range of human resource services and programs on a regional basis, through Agency offices across the province, to ministries and other government organizations helping to meet their business needs in organizational design, compensation, staffing, labour relations, disability case management, and occupational health and safety. Client Services plays a significant role in supporting corporate alternative service delivery (ASD) initiatives by providing human resource support systems and advice to ensure smooth transition of services to their new method of delivery. In addition, ongoing efforts are provided to place staff as a result of workforce adjustment and ASD initiatives.

Actual operating expenses were $2,693,000; full-time equivalents were 208.

Pension, Employee Benefits and Corporate Programs

The Agency is responsible for the development, implementation, management and communication of public service employee workplace health benefit plans and programs. The Agency has workplace benefits, occupational health, corporate occupational safety and disability management programs. It maintains relationships with benefit service providers and negotiates contracts with insurance companies.

Services include medical case management for disabled employees, safety-related medical services for employees and corporate health programs, occupational safety development and compliance strategies, safety education and training and coordination of activities related to employee absence, return to work planning and benefits management.

Actual operating expenses were $(4,507,000) as a result of an over-recovery due to an accounting adjustment to retiring allowance liability; full-time equivalents were 75.

BC Leadership Centre

The Leadership Centre provides a suite of employee and organization development activities and programs focused on achieving excellence in public service. The Centre has responsibility to manage the Public Service Learning Fund which finances the design, development, administration and delivery of corporate training programs and career development supports for all employees. Awards and recognition programs are provided by the Centre, and include corporate programs such as the Premier's Awards, Long Service Awards, Improvement Awards and Staff Appreciation Awards. The Centre manages corporate human resource services for senior management levels in the areas of executive recruitment, succession planning, performance management and executive development.

Actual operating expenses were $(122,000) as a result of chargeback and infrastructure adjustments; full-time equivalents were 13.

HR Executive and Support Services

The Executive and Support Services core business provides leadership and focus on effective and efficient planning that assist core business areas in achieving their goals and objectives. The Deputy Minister of the Agency is responsible for ensuring the human resource requirements of the public service are aligned with current and future requirements of government and works with colleagues to ensure the Agency's products and services are meeting the ongoing needs of government and positioning the staff and management of the public service to achieve excellence. The Deputy Minister of the Agency also acts as the province's Merit Commissioner. The Corporate Services Division provides budget, financial, administrative and infrastructure support to the Agency. The Strategic Communications Branch provides internal customer communication strategies, planning and advice to the Agency executive and divisions.

Actual operating expenses were $828,000; full-time equivalents were 14.

Ministry Operating Context

The BC Public Service Agency operates in a shared services model. Shared Services is a best practice approach to service delivery and to reducing costs over time. The shared services model is based on the proven concept that consolidating common services in a customer-focused/client-led business model achieves significant financial savings and service improvements. These results are achieved by creating economies of scale, standardizing products and processes and leveraging technology and scarce skill sets to create lower costs.

The move to shared services in both the private and public sector models is an evolution that takes time, organizational learning and discipline. As more public sector organizations move toward this model, a considerable body of research and experiential knowledge is becoming available to guide organizations. British Columbia is one of the first provinces (along with Alberta and Ontario) to move to this type of model for human resource management and is regularly contacted by other jurisdictions inside and outside Canada to provide advice on the implementation of a shared services model for human resources.

Many of the fundamental building blocks recognized by leading experts as important to success have been put in place. These include a strong political mandate, stand-alone entity, strong accountability framework, tracking of costs and benchmarking, a focus on continuous improvement, and building a workforce focused on the customer and performance measurement.

Consolidating human resources under a single Agency and moving to a shared services model has been a significant change for clients, customers and staff of the Agency. The implementation of shared services, workforce adjustment, alternative service delivery initiatives and significant business process change has resulted in major adjustments and challenges to the way the public service operates. Public Service Renewal and the implementation of the new HR organization also called for a shift in accountability for the management of public service human resources to managers inside ministries.

Within this context, the Agency has been challenged to continue to reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction. A significant reduction in costs has occurred and customer satisfaction is considerably better than in the first year of operation. Overall, Agency customers rate the Agency at 68 per cent overall satisfaction - a 62 per cent increase over the previous year. This turnaround in customer satisfaction indicates that the model is beginning to work.

The Shared Services Board of Directors (established by government to promote and champion the government mandated shared services initiative within the BC public service) has initiated a review of shared services to determine how further improvements may be made to the model. Findings and recommendations will be reviewed and assessed for implementation.

The Auditor General of British Columbia released his report on the work environment in British Columbia's public service entitled "Building a Strong Public Service: Reassessing the Quality of the Work Environment in the British Columbia Public Service (2005)". The report reflects both the widespread improvement and the challenges faced by a rapidly changing organization. The Agency is supporting positive changes to the work environment by:

• delivering Leadership training in partnership with Royal Roads University, University of Victoria and Camosun College which represents an investment of $14 million over the next seven years;
• launching succession planning to ensure that the public service is developing the leaders of the future; and,
• dedicating a training fund to ensure that public service employees have access to the training they need.

The BC Public Service Agency will continue to work with Deputy Ministers to identify strategies and address recommendations from the report and will measure the quality of the public service work environment annually, reporting the results in the Public Service Agency's Annual Service Plan Report beginning in 2005/06.

An aging workforce and increasing competition for talent creates challenges for ministries and government in retaining and recruiting the workforce needed to deliver on government's goals and objectives. Talent Management, which includes recruitment and retention, is addressed in most ministry human resource people plans and strategies. The recruitment and training of people for critical positions and the critical skills needed - for today and tomorrow - is necessary to ensure a successful public service. In addition, the Agency will work with government to develop strategies to address compensation issues, especially for management positions, in an increasingly competitive market. The corporate programs established to build leaders will support this requirement, as will a new Hiring Division being created within the Agency in 2005/06 to focus on strategic recruitment and retention issues across the public service.

New Era Commitments

The BC Public Service Agency completed its New Era commitments prior to the beginning of this reporting year.