Sixteenth Annual Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canada

Annex D: Integrated Business and Human Resources Planning

Table of Contents

Context

Results of the Expert Panel

Recommendations of the Expert Panel

Conclusion

Context

In the 2007-08 Public Service Renewal Action Plan, we made integrated business and human resources planning a core priority. A well-articulated integrated plan was identified as a powerful tool for ensuring that we have the right people with the right skills to achieve our business goals. Deputy ministers were asked to distribute their integrated plans to employees and to put them on their websites by March 2008. While all departments have posted their plans, this was the first year that integrated plans were required and, understandably, the quality varied greatly.

To build on this experience, as part of the 2008-09 Action Plan, deputy ministers were asked to update their integrated plans, to report on progress against the plans, and to build in a strategy for improving the representation of employment equity groups at all levels. To improve the capacity for integrated planning across the public service, we committed that “a panel of experienced external and internal executives will review the plans and identify the best practices by November 2008.”

As a result, the Expert Panel on Integrated Business and Human Resources Planning was established in October 2008. This panel brought together six prominent leaders who have served as senior executives in the federal and provincial governments and the private sector. They reviewed the 2007-08 integrated plans prepared by departments and agencies, reported their observations and recommendations, and identified useful practices.

Results of the Expert Panel

The panel underscored that meaningful integrated planning must start with top level management in the department articulating the department’s business goals and the integrated strategies to achieve them. The panel also emphasized the critical role that line managers have to play in implementing integrated plans.

In reviewing the integrated plans and the insights elicited from managers and planners, the panel observed great variety, from exemplary practices to far less developed and fragmented approaches. In effect, there are many opportunities for improvement.

Our environment is complex. The panel advised, therefore, that for integrated planning to be successful, it must be simple to apply, to understand and to sustain. Improving the quality of integrated planning will require a greater focus on rigour, concreteness, and clarity of the link between business goals and the human skills and capacity needed to achieve them. When this link is clear, it is easier to identify gaps in the current workforce. Where gaps exist, there are three possible approaches to closing them: redesign the work, develop new capacity in existing staff or hire additional people. Striking a balance among the approaches and designing how to execute it is the essence of integrated planning.

Recommendations of the Expert Panel

The panel’s report is available at www.pco-bcp.gc.ca. In its report, the panel makes four recommendations for advancing integrated planning across the public service:

1. There should be top level affirmation of the importance of integrated planning in shaping a full range of choices for delivering on key business goals.
   
   
2. Deputy ministers should drive integrated planning and model integrative behaviours.
   
   
3. “Best practice” efforts to do integrated planning well should be disseminated and shared.
   
   
4. The central agencies should support and facilitate good planning.

The panel also identified several “winning conditions” for achieving a sound overall standard for integrated planning in the public service. Finally, the report highlights the need for focused attention on improving integrated planning, as opposed to auditing the process over the next 12 to 24 months.

Conclusion

Making real progress on integrated planning across the public service continues to be a pillar of sustainable renewal. Moving forward on the panel’s pragmatic recommendations will be a priority for departments in 2009-10.

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