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Human Resource Management Strategy (2003 - 2005)

Chapter 2 - Director General's Introduction

Chapter 2 - Director General's Introduction

The Context for a Human Resource Management Strategy

This is our first Human Resource Management (HRM) Strategy. It covers the Office of the Ombudsman, the Office of the Information Commissioner and the Secretariat of the Standards in Public Office Commission.

Following the launch of the Strategic Management Initiative (SMI) in 1994, our Organisation has developed strategic and business planning processes and these have led to many improvements in our overall effectiveness and in the delivery of our services to our clients.

In 2001, we launched the Performance Management Development System (PMDS), we trained all staff in its operation and went live with the system in 2002. Every staff member now has a role profile, a statement of key deliverables and corresponding performance indicators. Every staff member's performance for the year 2002 has been reviewed by his or her manager and a training and development plan has been agreed. These training and development plans are facilitating the Organisation in developing generic training and, most importantly, in meeting organisational needs as well as individual staff members� needs.

One of the key benefits arising from the introduction of PMDS has been to bring home to staff and managers alike the relevance of the Organisation's business plans to their own day-to-day work. Organisational goals have been broken down into section level objectives and, in turn, these are formulated as annual targets for individual staff members under PMDS. There have been two important outcomes to this approach. First, managers are becoming more aware of the importance of "the business of managing" and the importance of the resources available to them in meeting their objectives. Second, staff are becoming more aware of the new focus on the importance of individual performance and the training and development supports which are necessary to help them to realise optimum performance. Enabling managers to appreciate the human resource aspects of their jobs and taking an organisational led approach to training and development are, in fact, two key aspects of any HRM strategy.

Why develop a HRM Strategy?

It will be clear from the above that PMDS has created a new awareness of the importance of our human resources in meeting individual targets, section objectives and organisational goals. In the past there was a tendency to formulate strategic and business plans without devoting too much attention to what was needed to facilitate staff in the task of implementing these plans. The purpose of a HRM strategy is to address these needs.

On a more specific level, as this Organisation grows, then clearly there is a greater need for a HRM strategy. When the Office of the Ombudsman opened for business in 1984, it had about ten staff and the business of managing the Office and communicating with all staff was a relatively simple one. Over the years since then, the Ombudsman has been given extra tasks and additional statutory functions have been created. The Information Commissioner is responsible for processing appeals under the Freedom of Information Act, 1997 and the then Ombudsman was appointed to that position in April 1998. The present Ombudsman is also responsible for that statutory function as well as being an ex officio member of the Standards in Public Office Commission and the Referendum Commission, which is established from time to time to run information campaigns on the run up to referendums. The Organisation now has a total staff of some 80 people. In this larger, more complex and multi functional organisation it would be impossible for the Ombudsman/Information Commissioner, in her various capacities, to see every file or personally attend to every detail of her work. Delegation is necessary but within predetermined parameters where she retains overall responsibility for her various functions. This approach underlines the critical importance of our staff in successfully supporting the Ombudsman/Information Commissioner. She has a range of powers enshrined in legislation but the quality and effectiveness of her staff are of critical importance in their day-to-day dealings with our clients, public bodies, the Oireachtas, politicians, public servants, suppliers and contractors. This creates a need for a consistent approach to our stakeholders and this is why the strategic and business planning process is necessary. But equally, there is a need to enable staff to deliver on expectations in a delegatory environment and this is why the formulation of a HRM strategy is important.

Looking beyond the Organisation to the wider public service there are developments which have implications for the services which we provide. For example, the demand for increases in both the quantity and quality of public services continues to rise. The demand for more public services is fuelled by net population growth and the increasing diversity of the population which is creating new demands on public services. There has also been a rise in consumerism which has created rising public expectations of standards of service and an increasing emphasis on citizens� rights and public service accountability. More demands for public services and rising expectations in relation to the quality of these services is already creating new challenges for our Organisation and our various statutory functions. The Civil Service itself has had to move away from what has been described as "clever obstructionism" to new ways of working which embody an emphasis on "quality and performance" and a "can-do philosophy". Achieving this transition and, from the perspective of our Organisation, dealing with the increased public demands and expectations, underlines the importance of a coherent HRM strategy.

What is a HRM Strategy?

The essence of a HRM strategy is a sustained focus on the people who do the work of an organisation. A HRM strategy is essential for maintaining quality customer care, attracting and retaining high quality staff and ensuring continued commitment from staff to continuously improving the organisation. It entails the development of strategies to attract the right people to the organisation with appropriate skills and competencies and strategies to retain them, once recruited. These represent new challenges for the Civil Service and, in turn, our Organisation as it now has to compete, as never before, with other attractive employment opportunities for school leavers, graduates and others seeking to re-enter the work force in mid-career.

Key issues in attracting and retaining staff are our recruitment and selection procedures, our promotions policies, training and development opportunities, rewards and pay structures, equality policies, health and safety policies and our terms and conditions of employment. Most of these issues and others, too, are addressed in this HRM strategy.

Another important aspect of a HRM strategy is the development of people management skills in line managers at all levels within the Organisation. As previously mentioned, PMDS is already helping to bring this new dimension to the work of managers by giving them a specific role in identifying the competencies and skills of their staff and their training and development needs. A key challenge for the Organisation is to ensure that these people management skills are valued, recognised and rewarded along with the more traditional and technical competencies of the job.

Objectives of the HRM Strategy

The objectives of the HRM strategy are to enable this Organisation to meet the many challenges already outlined, in particular, the public demand for more and higher quality public services. As mentioned earlier, these demands have implications for the services which we deliver.

It is also clear that the work of the Organisation is growing in complexity. For example, as the Ombudsman deals with complaints, public bodies are recognising what are now becoming accepted norms of good administration and are making increased efforts to settle complaints before they reach the Ombudsman. But the more complex complaints for which there are as yet no precedents, continue to be dealt with by the Office. Equally, applications for review under the Freedom of Information Act are becoming more complex as public bodies begin to take guidance from those decisions which have already been issued by the Information Commissioner. And it also follows that the range of legislation overseen by the Standards in Public Office Commission, some of which is still relatively new, as guidance and norms emerge, will leave the Commission free to deal with more complex matters. However, this increasing drift toward complexity raises new challenges for the Organisation in terms of ensuring that the skills, competencies and capabilities of staff are equal to the full range of tasks which the Organisation performs. The HRM strategy will play an important role in ensuring a good fit between work complexity and staff capability.

We also have to recognise that we will be faced with constant staff turnover particularly at executive and clerical level. This is because of competition with the private sector and, indeed, other parts of the Civil Service as members of staff leave the Organisation on promotion and new members enter it on promotion. Here again, an effective HRM strategy has a crucial role to play. If it operates effectively it can make the Organisation a more attractive place to work by comparison with other departments and offices. This can have the effect of attracting staff to the Organisation and, perhaps, providing an incentive for others to stay who might otherwise be attracted to a career, particularly in the private sector. To mention just one example, the manner in which the Organisation operates family-friendly policies could give it a competitive advantage from a staff perspective.

The Approach to HRM Strategy Formulation

Many of the elements of this HRM strategy were first identified when formulating the Organisation's Business Plan 2000-2001. However, in addition to the other organisational objectives outlined in that Plan it was decided at that time to prioritise just two key HRM issues viz. management development training for the Senior Management Team and implementation of PMDS. The objectives in the Business Plan in relation to these two issues have been met in full.

Early in 2002, with some assistance from an outside facilitator, the Management Team identified the broad range of HRM issues which should inform a HRM strategy and, later, working on its own, identified the key HRM issues affecting the Organisation. External and internal environmental analyses were conducted and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats were identified. These are not described here mainly because we consider that once the process of formulating strategy has been properly carried out, the main focus of a document on HRM strategy should be on implementation strategies. The Management Team's approach in this regard was to identify a limited range of issues which could be formulated as projects to be fully implemented over the next two years and they are described in Chapter Five. It is intended that these projects will be implemented using team-based working with the assistance of staff drawn from across the entire Organisation. As a reflection of the focus on certain priority areas Chapter Four of this document gives a general overview of the Human Resource Management agenda, while the Appendix sets out Action Plans for the selected priority areas.

The Role of the Partnership Committee in HRM Strategy Formulation

In addition to the Management Team, the Partnership Committee has an important role to play in the strategy formulation process. It is a specific organisational objective to enable the Partnership Committee to develop a role in the Organisation's change management process in a way which complements management's primary responsibility for strategy formulation. In accordance with this objective the Organisation's HRM strategy will be further developed over time with the assistance of the Partnership Committee. Following the Partnership Committee's consideration and adoption of the strategy there will be a public launch to staff generally.

Implementation Strategies

As already stated, we have limited ourselves to a specific range of HRM objectives which will be implemented in project based format over the next two years. Progress in implementing the objectives in this document will be monitored on a monthly basis by the Management Committee. We have already used this approach to good effect in relation to our business planning activities. Accordingly, although this document describes the full range of HRM issues which are pertinent to this Organisation it prioritises a limited number of issues for action. Once these issues have been successfully addressed, other HRM objectives will then be prioritised for implementation.

Conclusions

For the future, we intend to integrate the formulation of HRM strategy with business strategy. This integrated approach will give formal recognition to the crucial importance of staff in meeting organisational goals.

While there is much that we can do to promote and develop new approaches to HRM within the Organisation there are also a number of constraints. We are part of a Civil Service structure which espouses common grading and reward structures and progress in delegating increased authority for HRM issues to individual departments and offices has been slow. Undoubtedly, there are some very strong advantages associated with the existing structures and it would be wrong to assume that increased delegation on its own will necessarily lead to a better approach to HRM within departments and offices.

Nevertheless, recognising that constraints do exist, it is our intention that adopting an integrated approach to HRM and business planning will help us to achieve the following outcomes:

• A greater emphasis on the needs of our staff: We will encourage, train and develop our staff because we believe that high performance is the result of people who care.
  
• The development of leadership competencies in managers: We will help our managers at all levels in the Organisation to develop their staff and encourage commitment. We will enable them to encourage collaborative working and to foster communication both vertically and horizontally within the Organisation.
  
• The fostering of innovative work styles: We will enable staff to be creative problem solvers who, in return for displaying commitment, are encouraged to be self reliant with greater control and decision making powers.
  
• A stronger client orientation: We will help staff to develop the skills to deal confidently and effectively with our clients and, in so doing, we will help staff to appreciate the crucial importance of the client in relation to our Organisation and enable them to derive satisfaction from serving our clients� needs.
  
• A greater focus on optimum performance: We will facilitate greater awareness among staff of the Organisation's values and we will encourage staff at all levels to always seek improvement in the Organisation's performance.

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