Canadian International Development Agency

• Previous page
• Table of contents
• Complete text
• Next page

1. Introduction

The following report serves to provide:

1. A summary of the organization and classification activities in 2005-2006 including information on:
   1. Reorganization and classification activity levels;
   2. Various organization and classification activities that took place in 2005-2006 to strengthen the integrity and business effectiveness of CIDA's organizational design and classification functions;
   3. Horizontal classification initiatives. 
2. An organizational profile of the Agency as of February 28, 2006;
3. Information on the results of the classification monitoring activities in 2005-2006;
4. Information on the planned classification monitoring activities for year 2006-2007;
5. Information on other initiatives planned in 2006-2007 to improve the performance of the Organization and Classification Program. 

2. Classification activities 2005-2006

Classification activities in 2005-2006 were primarily in one of the four (4) following activity areas:

1. Reorganization initiatives;
2. On-going classification requests;
3. Rehabilitation of the organizational design and classification program; or
4. Other corporate initiatives

2.1 Reorganization initiatives

To facilitate the management of reorganization initiatives in the Agency, these initiatives are grouped into four (4) categories, which identify in which phase they are.  The four (4) categories or phases are: problem definition, options analysis, decision and implementation. As of April 1, 2005, the Agency had a total of ten (10) reorganization initiatives underway.  Of these, one (1) was in the problem definition phase, two (2) were in the option analysis phase and seven (7) were in the implementation phase.  As of March 1, 2006 four (4) reorganization initiatives have been fully implemented and three (3) are still in the implementation phase. The number of initiatives in the problem definition and option analysis phases has increased from three (3) to eight (8).  In addition, the two (2) initiatives previously in the option analysis phase, will soon be presented to the Agency's Corporate Resources Committee (CRC) for approval.

The major reorganization initiatives that took place in 2005-2006 were:

• A realignment of responsibilities of some geographical Vice Presidents to address workload imbalances issues resulting from the emphasis on Africa as the main development focus for Canada and internationally; the Middle East taken on greater importance as a government priority; and the shrinking of programs in Central and Eastern Europe as countries in these regions become more self sufficient and less dependant on development or transition assistance.  This re-organization mainly affected the Africa and Middle East branch (AMEB) and the Central and Eastern Europe branch.  It resulted in the creation of an Africa branch and a Europe, Middle East and Maghreb branch.  In addition, the Francophonie Program was transferred for AMEB to the Multilateral Programs branch.
• The reorganization of the Canadian Partnership branch (CPB) to increase the branch's ability to implement approaches which reflect the Strengthen Aid Effectiveness principles; build its capacity to develop and share knowledge with CIDA, the field and partners; improve its contribution to policy development and programming; and strengthen the services that it provides to the Agency.  
• The re-organization of the Information Management and Technology branch (IMTB) to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery; create an optimum mix of employees and consultants; and correct organizational and classification anomalies created during the rush to create the branch in 2000.
• The creation of three new organizational entities: Canada Corps, the Corporate Planning and Analysis Group (CPAG) and the International Policy Statement (IPS) Implementation Secretariat.  Canada Corps is an initiative of the Government of Canada to engage more Canadians in international development and to harness their expertise and experience to deliver international assistance in the area of governance. The Corporate Planning and Analysis Group was established to support the Agency's integrated corporate planning process and conduct reviews and analyses for resource allocation purposes. The IPS Implementation Secretariat is the Agency focal point for coordination of IPS priorities and commitments.  The International Policy Statement (IPS) articulates a vision for Canada's global engagement.

2.2 On-going classification requests

Between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005, a total of 715 individual new classification action requests were received.  This represents an average of 59 new requests per month over the time period.  As of February 23, 2006, 677 of these 715 actions were completed, 3 were on hold and 25 were active.  Many of these actions were the result of reorganization initiatives.  Of these 715 individual new classification actions, 26 were classification actions related to executive (EX) group positions.

2.3 Rehabilitation of the Organization and Classification program

Over the last three (3) years, CIDA's senior management have been scrutinizing the overall management, administration, leadership and capacity of its Human Resources Management (HRM) function.  A series of major internal audits undertaken in 2004-2005, resulted in the introduction of an HRM project targeted at a broad spectrum of improvements sought both on management and functional issues.  One of the sub-projects of the HRM project was the “Rehabilitation of the Organization and Classification Program” sub-project launched in September 2004. The objective of this sub-project was to restore strength, integrity and business effectiveness to CIDA's organizational design and classification functions.  A number of rehabilitation related activities have taken place since March 1, 2005.   The objectives of these activities were to:

1. Restore full functional capability,
2. Set in place a process to manage current and future demands, and
3. Construct the infrastructure and policy framework. 

The following describes the results achieved for each objective:

2.3.1 Functional organization and classification capacity

The Organization and Classification service delivery team

The administration of the Classification Program is centralized in the Organizational Design and Classification Section (ODCS) of the Human Resources and Corporate Services Branch. 

The ODCS is now comprised of a Chief, five fully accredited Organization and Classification Advisors (OCA) and a Classification Assistant.  The work is divided into portfolios and each advisor is responsible for providing organization and classification services to their clients.

In addition, a position of Organizational Design Specialist (ODS), reporting to the Director, Human Resources Operations, has been created.  The incumbent is also a fully accredited classification officer.   The ODS provides advice and support to management on all organizational design and restructuring initiatives, as well as, is responsible for the classification of EX positions.

EX classification committees

In December 2005, the Hay Group trained six (6) Vice-Presidents (EX-5 and EX-4 levels) and one (1) Director General (EX-3 level) in the evaluation of Executive Group (EX) positions.

EX classification committees are now held when:

• A new organizational structure is being implemented with the potential to set new or impact existing relativities;
• The position is submitted for reclassification;
• In situations involving contentious positions when the need for credibility and transparency is paramount; and
• The evaluation outcome may have a significant impact on intra-and interdepartmental relativity, results in a significant increase of salary expenditures, or be precedent setting.

To-date, two EX classification committees have been held.  The committee members have evaluated fifteen (15) EX positions. 

Other classification committees

The ODCS is in the process of updating the training program for managers and by mid-May, 2006 a new two-day course on evaluation techniques for non-EX positions will be offered to evaluators.

Work descriptions

A training program to familiarize managers with the new work description format has been developed.  Training sessions will be given to managers, employees and bargaining agent representatives in the next fiscal year. 

2.3.2 Managing current and future demands

In May 2005, the Agency put in place a new policy called ”Organizational Restructuring and Classification Requests Policy”.  The Policy aims to:

• Respect and re-enforce HRM governance roles of managers, the Human Resources Division (HRCSB/HRD) functional experts and management committees, the Human Resources Management Committee (HRMC) and the Corporate Resources Committee (CRC);
• Ensure greater transparency and consistency of decision making;
• Ensure emerging organizational restructuring or classification actions are flagged early to HRCSB/HRD functional experts and to branch senior management before staff expectations are raised and branch investments and expenditures made; and
• Encourage managers, HRCSB/HRD Organization and Classification Advisors and other HR specialists to work more collaboratively from the outset to ensure common understanding of objectives, select right option to fit the problem, flag risks and identify mitigation strategies.

This policy states that all organizational restructuring proposals and classification requests with corporate implications will be brought to the CRC, through the HRMC, for review before any decision is made to undertake any organizational or classification request with a corporate implication.  The HRMC is chaired by the DG, HRD and composed of a representative at the EX and EX minus-1 level from each branch.  The CRC is co-chaired by the Senior Vice President and the Vice President, Human Resources and Corporate Services (HRCS) branch and composed of all the branch Heads.  CRC decisions are final and binding.  The Organizational Design Specialist attends CRC meetings to provide advice on organizational design or restructuring related matters.

2.3.3 Establishing the infrastructure and policy framework

The Organization and Classification functions are managed under the same governance structure as all other Agency HRM disciplines.  The HRM governance structure clearly defines the roles and responsibilities of managers, HRCSB/HRD, HRMC and the CRC in HRM. The Agency has adapted as its own PSHRMAC Classification System and Delegation of Authority Policy.  Organization and Classification policies and procedures are being developed as HRCSB/HRD continues to design and populate a full CIDA HRM policy suite. 

The following table described the policy and procedure instruments which have been developed and implemented or are under development.

A copy of the Organizational restructuring and classification requests policy and its related procedures can be found in Annex A.  CIDA`s Senior Management Nomenclature Policy can be found in Annex B.  

Regular updates of classification decisions are provided to the Government's Position and Classification Information (PCIS) System and re-classifications are posted in accordance with central Agency requirements.

2.4 Horizontal classification initiatives

In 2005-2006, the Agency initiated three major horizontal (Agency-wide) classification projects:

1. “Information office of the future” initiative. The purpose of thisinitiative was to ensure a standardized organizational structure across all branches in the Agency for the delivery of information management related services. This initiative is in the implementation phase.
2. PG generic work descriptions initiative. The purpose of this initiative was to standardize PG levels across the Agency via generic work descriptions.  This initiative is on going.
3. FI review. As a result of FI Group Relativity Studies conducted by PSHRMAC in 2004, the Agency, as requested, has undertaken a project to-re-write and re-evaluate all FI positions within the Agency.  The project will be completed by July 2006.

3. CIDA's organizational profile

As a result of the reorganization initiatives previously described, the Agency is currently organized as follows:

Organization chart

As per SAP, the Agency information system, the Agency had, as of February 28, 2006, a total of 2,336 classified positions for a total of approx.1,700 FTEs.  The Africa branch, with a total of 385 positions, is the biggest of the four geographical branches followed by the Asia branch (228 positions), the Americas branch (193 positions) and the Europe, Middle East and Maghreb branch (152 position).  The Policy branch, with 213 positions, is the biggest corporate branch followed by the Canadian Partnership branch (203 positions), the Multilateral Programs branch (119 positions) and Canada Corps (38 positions).  As for the corporate services branches, the Human Resources and Corporate Services Branch is the biggest with a total of 339 positions followed by the Information Management and Technology branch (196 positions), the Communications branch (144 positions) and the Performance and Knowledge management branch (41 positions).  The remaining 85 positions are in the President, Executive Vice President and Senior Vice President Offices.

Of the total 2,336 classified positions in the Agency, 823 positions are jobbed against one of the Agency's 23 generics work descriptions.  Generic work descriptions can be found for the AS, CS, PM and ST-SCY groups.  The distribution of positions in the Agency is a follows:

Of these occupational groups, the PM group is the largest with a total of 745 positions, followed by the AS group (430 positions), CR (220 positions), ES (156 positions), IS (114 positions), EX (108 positions) and CS (105 positions). All other occupational groups have less than 100 positions in each group.

• Previous page
• Table of contents
• Complete text
• Next page