1. Minister’s Forum with Public Sector Unions
Office of Human Resources, Management Board
November 29, 2011

2. Agenda Minister’s opening remarks Update on Government Renewal
Update on employee suggestions for operational improvements and cost savings
Areas of focus

3. Government Renewal Update
Creation of Management Board within ECO responsible for:
Office of Human Resources
Budget and Financial Management (formerly with Finance)
Corporate Information Management Services (formerly with Supply and Services)
Accountability functions will eventually be added
Min. Higgs is Minister responsible for Management Board
Deputy Minister of Management Board, Doug Holt, will also be Secretary to Board of Management (formerly role of DM of Finance)

4. Government Renewal Update
Purpose for creating Management Board:
Better align existing resources, focusing provincial government efforts on core services, accountability and continuous performance improvement
Improve performance and lend greater efficiency to the management of provincial government resources

5. Government Renewal Update, cont’d
As part of change management efforts, all employees in Parts I, II and III have attended an information session on Government Renewal
All departments provided their submissions for Government Renewal on October 28
All departments, including OHR, have since appeared before the Government Renewal Committee to present their proposals.

6. Government Renewal Update, cont’d
Government Renewal Committee members:
Minister Blaine Higgs
Minister Marie-Claude Blais
Minister Craig Leonard
Glen Tait, MLA for Saint John East
Danny Soucy, MLA for Grand Falls-Drummond-St-André
Sherry Wilson, MLA for Petitcodiac

7. Government Renewal Update, cont’d
OHR presentation to Government Renewal Committee included proposals on:
HR Model for Public Service
Attendance Management and Sick Leave
Workers Compensation
Retirement and Severance Allowance
Workforce Modeling and Attrition Management (size of Public Service)
Compensation Model and Classification Review

8. Government Renewal Update, cont’d
Proposal on HR Model for Public Service:
Create Public Service Commission as sole organization responsible for HR management for Parts I, II and III
Amend legislation to provide authority to Commission

9. Government Renewal Update, cont’d
Objectives of proposed HR model:
Gain control of wage bill and size of government
Achieve consistency and standardization
Align HR practices with government strategy
Achieve savings in corporate HR projects

10. Government Renewal Update, cont’d
Proposal on Attendance Management and Sick Leave:
Develop stronger accountability and reporting of sick leave
Examine design of sick leave
Set targets and measure results
Centralize duty to accommodate across GNB
Goal: reduce sick leave use

11. Government Renewal Update, cont’d
Proposal on Workers Compensation:
Centralize management of claims to reduce number/frequency/duration of claims.
Implement safe work practices
Apply the workers’ compensation legislation consistently across Parts I, II and III
3-day waiting period
85% of net earnings
Reduction of CPP

12. Government Renewal Update, cont’d
Proposal on Retirement and Severance Allowance:
Pursue changes to retirement allowance program
Reduce or eliminate current liability for Province ($380M total liability and $48M annual expense).
Develop new severance allowance for lay-offs

13. Government Renewal Update, cont’d
Proposal on Workforce Modeling and Attrition Management:
Centralize approval for establishment/ classification/ funding of positions
Develop workforce modeling tool to provide accurate data on:
Projected retirements
Critical replacement requirements
Replacement rate (74% from August 2010 to August 2011)

14. Government Renewal Update, cont’d
Proposal on Compensation Model and Classification Review:
Centralize control of wage bill and cost drivers (e.g. wage increases, reclassification, number of employees, overtime)
Review compensation model
Reduce number of DM and pay band positions
Review reclassification and merit increases

15. Government Renewal Update, cont’d
Reminder: Final decisions on these proposals have not yet been made

16. Update on suggestions
Between February and October of this year, we met with representatives from all unions in Parts I, II and III and the nursing home sector.
At these meetings, we received a total of 219 suggestions for operational improvements and cost savings.

17. Update on suggestions, cont’d
PROGRESS ON SUGGESTIONS RECEIVED AT UNIONS MEETINGS
Received
Reviewed
Completed (implemented or no opportunity)
Ongoing
Not yet reviewed
219
197 63
134 22

18. Update on suggestions, cont’d
Examples of implemented suggestions
Civil Service
Mechanism to remove budget amounts added for temporary circumstances
SD is implementing agreement with CRA to collect overpayments
Education and school districts
Number of districts no longer buying bottled water and revised purchasing of blackberries and computers
Number of districts have completed disconnection of unnecessary phone lines

19. Update on suggestions, cont’d
Health and RHAs
Removal of glove boxes from isolation rooms
Reviewed catering of meals to ensure it is only done as most economical option
Review determined that health system requires province-wide system for collecting workload measurement information. A return to using Grasp software would hinder this ability
Reduced number of blackberries
Eliminated unapproved expenses (example: physician’s dog sitting)
New policy on appropriate use of locums

20. Employee Suggestion Program
In addition to union meetings, government has been receiving suggestions from other sources:
Pre-budget consultations
s to or Ministers
Citizen survey
Auditor General and Comptroller reports
Approximately 10,000 suggestions have been received from all sources combined

21. Employee Suggestion Program, cont’d
Common themes of suggestions:
Asset Management
Taxes and Revenue
Human Resource Management
Economic Development
Health
Education
NB Power
General Government Administration

22. Employee Suggestion Program, cont’d
Working group to develop employee suggestion program
Objectives:
Develop culture of continuous process improvement
Encourage employees to submit ideas for operational improvements and cost savings
Develop managers’ openness to receiving and implementing ideas
Improve how government receives, evaluates and implements these ideas

23. Employee Suggestion Program, cont’d
Program will be developed by early 2012
We will seek your input in its development

24. Areas of Focus We need your help to reduce absenteeism: Sick leave
Reduce use
Examine design
Pursue concept of joint stewardship of attendance management (i.e. SCIB)
Workers’ Compensation
reduce number, frequency and duration of workers’ compensation claims
Safe worksite practices
Pursue standardization and compliance with legislation

25. Average annual use of sick days by employees
Areas of Focus, cont’d
Average annual use of sick days by employees
(paid and unpaid)
Part I
Jan to Dec 2010
11.30
Part II
July 2009 to June 2010
14.60
Part III
15.51

26. Areas of Focus, cont’d
We need your help to phase out the current retirement allowance program and its $380M liability

27. Questions and Comments