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Human Resource Management Plan

To support the Forest Service in achieving its Service Plan goals, Strategic Human Resources will collaborate with all divisions of the ministry in the implementation of strategies to revitalize the organization. The revitalization strategy – which is our effective people strategy - is called The Road Ahead and responsibility for its implementation rests with management in all areas of the organization. The success of this initiative relies on participation of the entire Forest Service.

The Road Ahead initiative evolved in part from the results of the 2002 staff survey, which indicated a significant decrease in job satisfaction and that people in the Forest Service needed a clearer understanding of the ministry’s goals and its strategic direction. Extensive analysis of the challenges and opportunities associated with undertaking a revitalization strategy resulted in the Road Ahead initiative, which was formally launched on July 2004. The initiative replaces our previous three-year Human Resources Management Plan.

The intent of the Road Ahead initiative is to focus on effective people strategies which will lead to an even higher performing organization. Six key goals have been established:

Ensure all employees understand the vision, mission and values of the Forest Service, and can connect them to their work.
Clarify our stewardship vision, mandate and program responsibilities.
Improve leadership at all levels of the Forest Service.
Understand, support and practice ongoing individual and corporate learning.
Ensure we have the right people, with the right skills, in the right place at the right time.
Create and maintain a healthy, safe workplace, where all employees understand and practice a good work-life balance.

Strategies that directly relate to the overall Public Service Corporate Human Resources Plan have been developed. These strategies, flowing from the above goals, focus in on the following six areas:

Mandate – vision, mission and values
Stewardship
Leadership development
Learning organization
Workforce planning
Organizational wellness

A number of activities to support the above mentioned strategies have commenced – these include:

An all-staff engagement process to dialogue on vision, mission and values of the Forest Service has been completed.
Strategies to encourage empowerment of employees.
Formal and informal mentoring.
Funding has been secured to support the ministry’s efforts at continuous. improvement of business practices and procedures.
Strategies for the development and evolution of a culture of learning are in progress.
Concerted attention is being paid to workplace safety.
A Workplace Wellness Coordinator has been hired.
Increased efforts on employee reward and recognition.
Employee Performance and Development Plans are being implemented across the Forest Service.
Emphasis is being placed on the principles of a learning organization.
Work on an employee orientation manual has been initiated.
A working group was established to lead employee dialogue on the stewardship. mandate, with the end of 2004 targeted for completion.
An Employee Advisory Council to the Deputy Minister has been created and will be populated by the end of 2004.
A Forest Service newsletter is in development, with publication of the first edition before the end of 2004.
A toolkit on an integrated organizational wellness program is in development.
Accelerated leadership and personal development is underway in many parts of the Forest Service.
Steps are being taken to remove barriers for the use of temporary assignments to different geographic locations.
A workforce gap analysis is underway to ensure a good understanding of the characteristics of the current workforce and future staffing requirements.
A strategy to attract and retain high-performing staff for hard-to-recruit locations is in development.

The Forest Service has identified its Human Resource Management Plan as the Road Ahead. Implementation is focused on key human resource principles which extend across the major strategy areas. The Road Ahead is not new, nor is it a project - it is a re-focusing on our people practices. It assists us to adjust and change our practices to more effectively meet current operational challenges in order to position the Forest Service and its people to be successful over the short and long term.