Back to Table of Contents

Integrated Management Practices – Action Plan

2. Commitment to an Integrated Agenda for Modern Comptrollership Implementation

a) Vision

As a small organization, NSERC has to be very selective when establishing its priorities and allocating resources to initiatives. Efforts to improve management practices will only be successful if these are directly relevant to the organization’s goals and perceived by employees as clearly facilitating their work and improving their environment.

Over all of NSERC’s 25-year history, strategic planning, excellence in program delivery and striving to be an Employer of choice are three important principles that have guided the evolution of the organization.

The Action Plan for implementing modern comptrollership at NSERC must therefore articulate a vision that fits within this context. It must not only lead to better management practices in the five focus areas of the Plan but must directly help the organization while it is being implemented.

The Action Plan covers a timeframe of 3 years; most projects will however be completed by the summer of 2004. The desired outcomes for the five areas of focus are articulated below:

Planning: NSERC’s strategic planning, operational planning and resource allocation processes are integrated. Multi-annual plans, which take into account risks and performance results, guide the allocation of both the Grants and Scholarships and the operational budget. NSERC is able to adjust its planning quickly to react to new needs or changes. The impacts of new projects and initiatives are carefully identified and integrated in the planning and resource allocation processes.

Training: Major investments are made in training. Managers have training plans that address their needs in the areas of modern management. All employees have the opportunity to benefit from training activities every year. Training calendars are harmonized with each division’s business cycle. Current strengths in shared values and ethics are maintained through mentoring and the training of new employees. Sharing workload and people among teams is used as a tool to cope with intense periods, develop employees and increase employees’ knowledge of other areas/divisions/programs.

Performance Evaluation: Each year, managers prepare work plans that are linked to strategic and business priorities. These work plans are shared across the organization to facilitate communications and the integration of efforts. In many divisions, performance evaluations are conducted using a multi-source feedback process and the evaluation of managers strongly emphasizes achievements in the areas of human resource planning, employee satisfaction, budget management and accountability, client service and risk management.

Lateral Communications: Many mechanisms are in place to facilitate strong links between divisions (and with other Councils and organizations with similar or complementary mandates) and to ensure that knowledge, experience, best practices and lessons learned are continually shared.

Service Improvement: NSERC has identified and implemented a clear plan for service improvement priorities. Information on client satisfaction and client service is continuously monitored.

b) Links to current needs and priorities

Planning: As a small organization, NSERC is always struggling to cope with new priorities and initiatives that have a significant impact on human and financial resources. In June 2003, NSERC’s Council approved a new vision proposed by the president. It involves five major new directions that will be implemented through significant corporate-wide projects. The findings of the CA will be taken into account and these new projects will serve as testing/implementation ground for the new planning processes being put in place to address the deficiencies identified (see Appendix 2).

Training: In the last year, as part of its Employer of Choice strategy, and in an effort to address the findings of the employee survey carried out in 2001, significant new resources were allocated to training. A learning team was created within the Human Resources division of CASD. The activities included in this Action Plan represent the first order of business for the new team. They were significantly shaped by the input recently received from staff when the results of the CA were presented.

Performance Evaluations: The integration of the planning and resource allocation processes described above will not be complete unless it also cascades to the work plans that frame the activities of managers each year. In addition, input from staff highlights the need for performance evaluations to be carried out in a consistent manner and with emphasis on a wide range of managerial elements.

Lateral Communications: An important conclusion of the 2001 survey of employees was that internal communications needed improvement. The Executive vice-president of NSERC recently met with employees to assess the impact of various measures implemented to improve communications and address the survey findings. These meetings revealed that while vertical and corporate-wide communications had significantly improved, effective lateral communications (between divisions) were still lacking. The goal of this Action Plan is to identify and establish new mechanisms and vehicles to facilitate communications between the program delivery divisions that share common interests and between these and the corporate divisions (e.g. finance, evaluation and audit, communications) that complement their work.

Service Improvement: NSERC has recently completed a major review of its program delivery processes with the goal of “lightening the load” for its clients and partners. In the short and medium term, important program delivery and client service changes will be introduced as part of the implementation of the Council’s E-Business strategy. As well, information on client satisfaction and client service was recently obtained in the context of several projects and initiatives (e.g. formal program evaluations, tracking of inquiries to the on-line helpdesk).These initiatives and the information gathered through them will form the background and framework for the Service Improvement element of this Action Plan.