Archived - Management Practices Audit of the Alberta Region

5.1.1 External Client Service Standards

Establishing a client service orientation, managing external client's expectations, and being able to improve to better meet client needs is critical for the Alberta Regional office, which focuses most of its efforts on delivering services to external clients. It is important that regional offices establish external service standards that are communicated with clients and that regional management actively manage, monitor and solicit feedback from external clients on these service standards.

The organizational structure of the Alberta regional office is unique nationally as it has three client-facing directorates, each representing first nation communities in one of three major treaty areas in the province. Within each Directorate, representatives have been designated as the initial point of contact for First Nation inquiries. This can include inquiries related to services rendered in other government departments such as Health Canada. Within the Alberta Region, the Regional Directors of INAC and Health Canada have signed the Alberta Region Protocol Agreement to formalize their commitment to work together to improve the delivery of programs to First Nation Communities through fostering relationships, and identifying and delivering on priorities.

The audit found that formal external client service delivery standards and expected turnaround times have not been established or communicated internally or externally on a consistent basis. While some external service standards are in place (e.g. 45 days to process payments and 24 hours to respond to a phone call inquiry), the suite of measures is limited and measures are not consistently communicated to staff or monitored. Regional management also identified that consistent national external service standards and expected turnaround times need to be established to help ensure consistent service delivery standards.

The implementation of national client service standards will help ensure that effective, efficient and timely two-way communication and collaboration is achieved in the delivery of services to external clients. Client service standards provide a target against which performance can be measured and monitored. A consistent, national approach and standards should be developed that strikes an appropriate balance between the Department's efforts to improve the quality of service to recipients, while also reducing the reporting burden on recipients.

5.2.1 Integrated Human Resources Planning

To ensure that a region optimizes use of its human capital to support the achievement of its goals, it is important that human resource planning be aligned with strategic and business planning and includes information on the related financial resources. Without a good understanding of the human and financial resources required to implement strategic goals and planned activities, it is difficult for management to properly determine the real needs of the organization.

The Alberta Region uses a number of documents for HR planning including the 2010-11 Alberta Region HR Operational Plan ("HR Plan") and the Alberta Region Integrated Human Resource Plan 2009-12 ("Three-year Integrated HR Plan"). On an annual basis, management develops objectives in their HR Plan that considers how they are going to deliver on priorities established in the Three-year Integrated HR Plan as well as any new priorities identified. This allows for HR priorities in the regional office to tie to national INAC strategic objectives as management considered the four priority pillars established by INAC Executive Committee in the development of the Three-year Integrated HR Plan. The audit found this to be an effective management approach to HR planning that will help ensure the achievement of HR objectives.

5.2.2 Human Resources Recruitment, Hiring, Promotion

Within the federal government context, it is expected that staffing decisions consider current and future needs and are conducted in a manner that is fair and objective. It is critical that management practices and internal control procedures are in place to help ensure policy compliance, fairness, and transparency in the staffing process. It is also important that management conducts periodic analysis of the staffing process to investigate possible trends and anomalies.

To plan for expected staffing actions, the Region has developed a Three Year Strategic Staffing Plan 2010-2013 that identifies projected vacancies, including those from eligible retirements. Management and staff interviewed noted they are concerned with the loss of corporate memory given the number and experience level associated with projected retirements over the next three years. To combat this, the Alberta Region is in the process of developing a Succession Management Plan that is expected to identify key corporate memory sources and a plan to transition knowledge to existing employees. In replacing vacancies, the Alberta Region is hoping to streamline their organization by only replacing positions supported by workforce needs. In December 2010, they introduced the Regional Salary and Resource Management Strategy that identifies the requirement for all staffing to go through an analysis and approval process. This process varies depending on whether positions being staffed are operationally critical, how the position is being funded, and whether the area has undergone an organizational design and classification assessment.

The Alberta Region has staffed a position to conduct organizational design and classification assessments for all of its regional directorates. Each assessment will include a detailed examination of the directorate's structure to support business objectives for the optimal resource mix. The first two reviews are currently ongoing, and are slated for completion during the 2010/2011 period. The Region is expecting to realize significant cost savings through the realignment of human and financial resources. AES considers this to be an effective management approach to critically and methodically evaluate the organizational design and classification of positions currently in place to achieve the business objectives of the directorate. In addition, the ability to staff the position internally means that business knowledge obtained through the assessment will remain within the Alberta Region.

A review of a sample of 15 staffing files revealed that actions taken by management were compliant with relevant legislation and government policies, and were approved according to delegated authorities. Management and staff interviewed did not report any issues with the staffing process and found that it was conducted in a fair and objective manner. The sample testing found that staffing actions were properly documented and relevant supporting documents, such as, notifications, statement of merit, candidate assessments, and Board assessments, were appropriately retained. All files examined included a clear indication of how the staffing of the position was aligned with organizational needs including linking the need through to the Alberta Region's Three Year Staffing Plan. One minor exception was noted where one sample item (acting position over one year) that was appropriately approved but did not include a written rationale demonstrating the decision making process and explaining the lengthy duration of the acting period, as is required by policy.

The audit also found that management receives a quarterly HR dashboard from Headquarters that provides key workforce composition statistics, including: external employee hires; internal promotions by category (e.g. term and indeterminate); and the number of acting transactions. Management uses the information on the dashboard to support having informed discussions regarding Human Resources Management at the Regional Human Resource Committee. The report includes acting transactions but does not indicate the number of acting assignments staffed through non-advertised processes or the length of the assignment term. The inclusion of this information could help to identify and monitor approved non-advertised acting positions greater than one year and more broadly enable management to monitor compliance with policies.

5.2.3 Management of Staff Performance

To ensure the satisfaction of employees and provide input on career development, it is important to engage employees in a discussion on goals and objectives and to provide employees with timely and constructive feedback on their performance and opportunities for development.

Over the past year, the Alberta Region moved the management of the internal staff-development budget from being fully managed by each directorate to being split between HR and the directorates. This approach has allowed the Region's HR group to coordinate region-wide training while allowing directorates the flexibility to decide on program specific training for their staff. In scheduling region-wide training, HR has been able to leverage training dollars by bringing trainers in to conduct region-wide training rather than sending people out for training. This has allowed the Region to achieve an average of 33.83 learning hours per employee since April 1, 2010 (as at Jan 17, 2011) with over 37.5 hours expected at year-end. Management and staff interviews indicate that the level of training conducted in the current year exceeds their expectations of what was possible given the training budget. The HR Dashboard reported an almost perfect completion rate for Learning Plans at 99.13%.

Beginning in 2010/2011 the Alberta Region set a 100% completion rate for Employee Performance Management (EPM) forms, over and above the 90% completion target established by Headquarters for the regions. The audit noted that the automated reporting available on EPM completion, generated through the Department's Human Resources Management System and available for all regions, required manual adjustments to remove individuals in acting positions who were reported twice. As a result of this problem and the desire make sure that they had accurate reporting to support their 100% completion target, the Alberta HR Directorate had an employee manually track the completion of EPMs using Excel. While the excel report provided management with accurate files, the process is not cost effective or efficient as effort is being duplicated.

While a national target for EPMs has been established and is monitored, there have been no national targets established or monitoring in support of the completion of interim reviews. When interim reviews are to be complete, reminders are sent out, however, there is no monitoring to verify that they are being completed or appropriately documented on the EPM form. Without appropriate documentation there is little evidence that the employee is being kept informed of their performance results or given the opportunity to modify their goals during the year. The documentation of interim discussions is especially important if the employee has had performance issues or if the employee's position substantially changes during the year.

Results of our interviews indicated that there are some concerns that EPMs are not being consistently completed, as individuals are independently interpreting requirements and there is no central quality control review. The HR Directorate has identified the need to conduct EPM training for more consistent performance feedback and goal setting and is, therefore, planning on hosting employee performance management training in the next fiscal year. The review of a sample of 15 employee EPMs revealed that there are a number of differences in how EPMs are being completed throughout the office. We noted at least three different EPM forms being used, each with different requirements. In reviewing completed forms, we noted four cases where EPM goals, interim reviews and performance evaluations sections were all signed-off on the same date, when they should have been signed-off as completed at various stages throughout the EPM yearly cycle. In addition, differences were also noted in the quality of goals in EPMs. We noted one instance where goals were not documented and three instances where the measurability of the goals could be improved. This may result in employees having goals where performance cannot be measured and potentially lead to misinterpretations in the actions that need to be taken to support development. In four files, goals did not reference specific policies and procedures that employees are required to follow in the execution of their responsibilities. The inclusion of goals focused on compliance with key policies would help to formalize and track the achievement of this responsibility. The audit also noted that employee development and training was not clearly identified in EPM goals or linked to learning plans in seven of the 15 files examined. This is despite the fact that learning and performance is inherently linked and that the final performance evaluation section of the EPM asks whether Learning Plans have been completed. If performance goals are not clearly linked to Learning Plans, there is a potential for inconsistency between the employee's Learning Plan and the needs and capabilities of the Region.

5.3.1 Risk Management

In today's environment, the need for effective risk management to promote good governance and demonstrate accountability is critical. There is an expectation that INAC regional offices understand their key risks and have appropriate mitigation plans in place. Having a documented approach to risk management enables management to better identify, articulate and understand the potential risks to the achievement of the organization's objectives and to determine the exposure to these risks given current controls and/or mitigation activities. The focus of this audit was on the risk management at the regional/organization level; other risk management activities conducted in the Region (e.g. intervention, financial monitoring) were not part of the scope of this audit.

The Alberta Region does not have a documented or formal approach to risk management for the Region. The audit did, however, note the use of a number of good risk management approaches that are sector or program specific risk management tools. For example, the Region refers to national risk management guidance focused on sector-specific risks related to programs and HR and as a result has risk-management processes that are followed within directorates and/or program areas. This includes the use of national tools to identify risk based monitoring procedures for projects and identifying and reporting on HR related risks through the Quarterly Report. In addition, risks are discussed at Regional Operations Committee (ROC) and the Regional Management Committee (RMC), and the Region has delivered risk management training to employees over the past year. Despite these various and specific approaches, without a formal risk management framework that documents an approach to assess, monitor and report on identified risks, management will not be able to determine if risks are being consistently managed across all programs and areas in the Region. Steps to implementing integrated risk management would include: establishing a risk tolerance; re-assessing risks; measuring likelihood and impact; ranking risks; setting desired results; developing options; selecting a strategy; implementing the strategy; and monitoring, evaluating and adjusting actions as and when required.

5.4.1 Operational Objective Setting, Planning, and Performance Measures

To help identify how management is progressing against planned activities, it is important to identify planned results and performance measures that are linked to organizational objectives. In addition, it is critical that management monitors its actual performance against planned results and adjusts course as needed. Any reporting and related application and information systems used in the performance and financial reporting process should be reliable.

In the Alberta Region, management establishes its planned results, target indicators, and performance measures for the year through the Quarterly Report. Priorities, available funding, and reporting for the year is set by INAC Headquarters with regions providing input on priorities.

The audit found that a formal and regular process is used to collect information for performance measurement. Using the Quarterly Report, directors and managers monitor and report on actual performance against planned results, adjusting plans as needed. Progress against plan is discussed at the RMC and on a quarterly basis is formally provided to INAC Headquarters using the Quarterly Report.

The audit found that while performance is being measured against key activities included in the Quarterly Report there is an absence of key activities associated with corporate services, with the exception of HR. Without key activities and performance measures for corporate services (Accounting, Administration, IM/IT, and Resource Management) it is difficult to determine how management prioritizes these activities and resources across the office.

A review of the 2010-11 Quarterly Report (Q2) revealed that no estimates of the financial resources required to meet key individual activities and objectives are provided. While the report does contain some financial information (Annex 2 of Quarterly Report), it is limited to a summary of the Region's total quarterly spend for salary, non-salary and grants and contributions, and is not linked to a particular activity and/or objective. The lack of financial estimates and the lack of detail in regional planning and reporting documentation for each activity and/or objective are negatively impacting the Region's ability to monitor and report on the cost of planned activities.

5.5.1 Accountability

The audit noted that the Alberta Region appears to have appropriate managerial spans of control as operational decisions are considered in a variety of committees including the ROC and the RMC. To help identify if organization design and responsibility within each directorate is optimal, each directorate is expected to go through an Organizational Design and Classification Assessment (detailed previously in section 5.2.2, Human Resources Recruitment, Hiring, and Promotion).

As detailed previously in the External Client Service Standards section 5.1.1, the structure of the Alberta Region is unique nationally with three client-facing directorates. In an effort to better align with the national structure the three client-facing directorates have each been made responsible for one of three program areas including economic development, child and family services, and social programs. This enables internal and external clients to identify clear lines of accountability through directorate names, for program areas within the Region. Although this change has been implemented, the changes in directorate titles have not been appropriately updated in PeopleSoft by Headquarters. As a result, management is not as effectively able to communicate accountabilities through regional titles to clients.