The Voice - ORO Community News - Spring 2006

Spring into action!

Welcome to the Spring edition of the ORO newsletter, The Voice. Following the inaugural December edition, we heard from many readers expressing appreciation for the newsletter and the quarterly news format. In this edition, we focus on the ORO’s support of the IM, IT and SD communities, and progress made in Learning & Development, Resourcing (Collective Staffing), and Generic Work Descriptions. PWGSC’s Policy division recently stated, “The DM and senior departmental management support the greater use of generic work descriptions, and have agreed to proceed with their implementation…”. What a great endorsement for our teams!

I invite you to contact the ORO for more information, and again, thank you for your interest in The Voice and we look forward to your feedback.

Nikolas Florakas
Director General

IM Community

The Information Management (IM) Community is made up of specialists and managers responsible for the provision of information management leadership, advice and services in the GC. ORO's IM Community Development Division (CDD) is dedicated to providing advice, tools, processes and solutions to the IM Community in support of community development.

IM Professional Development

This program is designed to enhance professional recognition and career development for IM community members. Partnering with the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS), the IM CDD led the development of seven IM courses that are offered across Canada in both official languages by the CSPS (some courses are available at no cost). An outline of courses is attached and the CSPS registration service can be accessed at www.csps-efpc.gc.ca.

IM Certification

The IM CDD is also leading the development of the first national IM Competency Standard, in partnership with Canadian General Standard Board (CGSB). The launch meeting was held on March 20 and 21, 2006.

IM Portal

The IM Portal contains links to hundreds of Canadian and international sites relating to IM issues, with new links being added continually.

The Portal supports IM specialists in performing their work and enhances their ability to learn from others. It also provides access to IM policies, guidance, trends, and best practices to help Managers make informed decisions and be better positioned to achieve IM priorities for service enhancement, cost reduction, and accountability.

Phase II of the Portal development will feature a web forum to promote the exchange of ideas and content. It will also feature a capability for publishing and personal customization.

Visit the IM Portal at www.informationmanagement.gc.ca

SD Community

The Service Delivery (SD) community is comprised of GC front-line service professionals and practitioners who address every-day concerns of people needing help with pension or other benefits; finding a job; or filling out forms. Members of the SD community are primarily located outside of Ottawa.

The Nova Scotia Federal Council recently invited Margaret Rudolf from the ORO’s SD Community Development Division (CDD) to meet with area SD practitioners. The purpose of this session was to support the Council in identifying a Community of Practice around the domain of SD. Two workshops allowed 80 SD professionals to meet; learn more about the sort of work they do; and explore whether there is interest in enabling an SD Community of Practice.

These workshops represent the first, exploratory stage in developing a sense of community and identifying how the ORO can further support the Government’s SD Community.

IT Community

The IT Community Development Division (CDD) continues to develop competency-based tools for the CS community, based on the HR Framework model.

Generic Work Descriptions

The IT Community HR Framework project team has finalized the GWDs for CS-01 to CS-05 for large and medium IT organizations, with input from 18 departments and the Union. These 35 GWDs, which cover seven job streams, are currently being classified and will be available online by early summer.

In April, we will begin developing job competency profiles for each GWD. The target completion date is September 2006.

Competency-Based Dictionaries

The common Behavioural competency dictionary and the CS-specific Technical competency dictionary, that will be used to populate the job competency profiles, are now available on-line at /oro-bgc/comapp/comapp-eng.asp

IT Leadership & Development Program

Interviews with IM and IT CIO’s were held in the summer of 2005 to examine the impact of Shared Services on CIO’s. The current

Leadership Development Programs will be re-aligned to meet these findings, as wel l as the new PS Leadership Competencies and the Public Service Modernization Act (PSMA).

Integrated IM & IT HR Plan

A CIO working group has been established to develop a government-wide integrated HR plan for IM and IT communities. The ORO will host a one-day session with CIO’s to design the HR plan in partnership with PSHRMAC.

Collective Staffing

The IT CDD is preparing to launch collective staffing initiatives for CS-05, EX-02 and EX-03’s under the new PSMA.

Shared Services

The IT CDD is working with Shared Services and the Wave One partner organizations as they determine their readiness to transfer to the new IT-SSO organization. ORO job streams and functional organizational models have been useful during this process and the ORO has gained a better understanding of how we can support IT-SSO and their partner organizations.

How to Reach Us

ORO Contacts

IM Community Development Division
Catherine.Zongora@tbs-sct.gc.ca

IT Community HR Framework Project
John.Devlin@tbs-sct.gc.ca.

Collective Staffing and Leadership Development Program
Christine.Tremblay@tbs-sct.gc.ca

SD Community Development Division
Margaret.Rudolf@tbs-sct.gc.ca

The Voice
Leah.Murray@tbs-sct.gc.ca

ORO Web site
/oro-bgc/

PSHRMAC HR Planning & Accountability

Excerpts from the Public Service Human Resources Management Agency of Canada (PSHRMAC) web site . . .

“ The ability to attract, retain and develop a high performing workforce is recognized as a key ingredient to a modern Public Service. Competency-Based Management (CBM) has been used within government departments and agencies to facilitate putting the right people in the right place at the right time.

Results of applying CBM in general areas include:

• Furthering continuous learning models.
• Building coaching, leadership and mentoring programs.
• Aligning 360-degree feedback approaches.
• Creating succession and career planning programs.
• Applying new recruiting and staffing strategies.
• Managing employee performance.”

For more info, refer to: www.hrma-agrh.gc.ca/hr-rh/tld-fap/CBHRM/idc/idccbm-cimgac_e.asp

The Voice - Unformatted

To view an unformatted version of the Voice, please refer to /oro-bgc/index-eng.asp