The Challenge

First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) https://www.fnha.ca/ is the first and only provincial First Nations health authority in Canada, responsible for planning, designing, managing, and funding the delivery of First Nations health programs across British Columbia.  FNHA is committed to “health through wellness” in its programs, services, and initiatives and is working to transform and reform the way health care is delivered to BC First Nations through its various services, programs, and initiatives.

The FNHA Human Resources Department is responsible for the oversight of the staff members who work at the FNHA to deliver these programs and initiatives Due to the continued growth of the organizations there had been a significant increase in the number of off cycle job changes that required management across the organization involving all departments. FNHA engaged Propel Solutions to assist with a full review of the process and implementation of recommendations to move towards proactive resource planning and increased automation.  Propel assisted the organization with the adoption of these changes by employing effective change management practices.

The Objective:

The project was conducted over a six-month period and included the following activities:

  • Documenting the Human Resource Planning Process: Propel conducted a comprehensive review of the current budgeting and planning processes which impacts Human Resources, Finance, and all functional departments to determine opportunities for improving capacity planning throughout the areas. This was completed through interviews with staff, staff surveys and opportunity workshops.  Additionally Propel assisted by creating detailed cross functional process maps to demonstrate the dependencies and information flows across the organization.  To support the Change Management of the organization sessions were conducted to generate understand through having the processes critiqued by managers and staff.  The resulting analysis formed the first step for identifying available improvements to the resource planning processes.
  • Developing a Workforce Planning Toolkit: Propel developed a toolkit to assist the Business Units with proactively planning resources on an annual basis. The toolkit included a resource planning tool that linked the workload of each department to the required staffing levels.  To support the adoption of the toolkit, Propel further aided with the development of checklists and decision matrices to assist users with completing proactive workforce planning.
  • Automating PAF Through Systems Enhancements: Propel conduct requirements gathering for the form automation. This was then used to conduct a gaps analysis with FNHA’s current system to identify the technology configurations and enhancements required to automate the off-cycle position review and approval process.  Propel facilitated meetings between IT and business in order to generate a shared understanding of the required enhancements.
  • Developing Service Levels & KPI Dashboard – To improve communication and facilitate improved communication between the business units service level agreements were developed. Propel facilitated meetings with each of the stakeholders to gain agreement to meeting the required turn around time in each of the areas.   This would then ensure that the off-cycle position changes were processed in a timely manner.
  • Providing Change Management Support: Propel worked with project sponsors to develop a Change Management Plan and Roadmap.  This included stakeholder identification and the development of a communications plan to support each of the represented audiences.  To assist with the roll out of the changes Propel carefully crafted an implementation plan for the identified changes. Additionally, training materials & SOPs were developed to assist the departments with adopting the new processes.

The Results

The Change Management Support provided FNHA with a roadmap to scale their processes and ensure that resourcing activities are aligned to the budgetary cycle. Opportunities were identified by Propel to reduce the volume of PAF’s and improve the process though a proactive planning cycle.  A communications plan ensured that the shift to proactive planning was communicated throughout the organization to generate buy-in at all the levels of the organization.   The improved workforce planning toolkit was adopted by the organization to assist with their workforce management for the following year.