Highlights of the Year
It is the role of the Public Service Agency to provide leadership in human resource (HR) management and services to ministries that will facilitate the achievement of public service excellence in order to realize all five of the Five Great Goals.
In 2005/06, the BC Public Service (the Agency) undertook a complete realignment of its services in order to address the challenge of competing for talented employees that is being experienced at a global level. The traditional methods of attracting new employees will not be sufficient in an environment of significant competition and shifting skill set requirements. The public service will continue to focus on attracting, recruiting, developing, and retaining the talent needed now and over the next ten years. A new emphasis is being placed on human resource management, a labour strategy that is aligned to support emerging business needs, and employee learning and development.
As a result of these shifts, new goals, objectives, and performance measures were developed for the 2006/07 – 2008/09 Service Plan as outlined in Appendix 3.
Related accomplishments in 2005/06 include the following:
- Labour Relations — The province successfully negotiated collective agreements with the BC Government and Service Employees' Union and the Professional Employees Association before they were set to expire on or before March 31, 2006. The agreements have a four year term and help ensure fiscal stability and certainty for British Columbia.
- Premier's Innovation and Excellence Awards — The Second Premier's Innovation and Excellence Awards were held on March 29, 2006, at the Victoria Conference Centre. Recipients in six categories were recognized, including Innovation, Leadership, Organizational Excellence, Partnership, Service Excellence, and Cross-Government Integration. Seven Premier's Awards were presented and seven Finalist Awards were presented. These awards are intended to highlight and reinforce progressive management practices within the Public Sector and recognize innovation, leadership, and new ideas to improve service delivery.
- Workforce Planning — The public service is implementing a strategic approach to workforce planning that is intended to guide ministries and the Public Service Agency in making human resource management and development decisions. A Strategic Workforce Planning Board was established in 2005 to review ministry workforce plans and corporate trends and to provide advice on strategies to address the workforce risks of individual ministries and the public service. The Board is comprised of various Deputies and representation from the Premier's Office. Individual ministry Workforce Plans and a Corporate HR Plan will be published and implemented in fiscal 2006/07. The plans will detail corporate strategies to address future workforce requirements and will include key roles at risk, workforce strategies, and work environment strategies to be implemented.
- Management Classification and Compensation Framework — In fiscal 2005/06, the BC Public Service Agency developed a new Management Classification and Compensation Framework for excluded managers in the BC public service to be implemented during fiscal 2006/07. The new framework was developed to simplify the current management job classification system and to enable ministries to respond to competitive labour markets. All excluded positions will be assigned to one of three broad management bands (Strategic Leadership, Business Leadership, and Applied Leadership), depending on leadership role criteria.
- Client Focused Services — During the year, the Agency adopted a client focused business delivery model that will enhance HR services provided to ministries. Under this initiative, the Agency initiated development of service standards and a new service philosophy, clearly defined a list of core and optional services, and built a new pricing model. The new customer focus will help the Agency to deliver the right mix of products and services to clients that best meet their business objectives.
- Policy Modernization — The Agency initiated a project to update and streamline existing HR policies. To complement the new HR policies, the Agency also drafted a Human Resources Accountability Framework that clearly articulates accountabilities and responsibilities for HR management across the public service. Collectively, once implemented, the new framework will provide client ministries with the flexibility needed to manage their specific needs.
- Leadership Centre — The Leadership Centre expanded its efforts to develop succession pools for senior management roles. In the previous year, a pool of potential Deputy and Assistant Deputy Ministers was identified and most people from this pool were successfully moved into new roles. During 2005/06, an additional 60 people were identified as potential Assistant Deputy Ministers and 100 people were identified as potential Executive Directors and Directors. The Leadership Centre then delivered intensive training programs to all participants over a number of months in partnership with the Executive Management Institute, a consortium of post secondary institutions involving the University of Victoria, Royal Roads University and Camosun College.
The Connecting Futures Program was directed at potential Assistant Deputy Ministers and the Creating Futures Program was delivered to potential Executive Directors and Directors. This program continues over the next year with additional learning activities, which may include coaching, mentoring and developmental job rotations combined with regular assessments of their readiness to take on key roles. The result will be a pool of qualified applicants for senior positions as those vacancies arise.
