Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) conducted an Audit of Human Resources (HR) Staffing and Pay, as part of the 2018-23 Risk-Based Audit and Evaluation Plan that was approved by the Deputy Minister on June 12, 2018. VAC’s HR function has undergone major changes over recent years, including the transfer of pay services to Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) and as a result, the reduction of Human Resources Division (HRD) staff complement.
The Division also undertook an HR Excellence initiative which was to place greater emphasis on improving strategic advisory capacity, leveraging self-serve components, and additional monitoring and reporting of workload. More recently, the negative impact of Phoenix implementation has required significant effort in developing mitigation measures to reduce new pay issues, support employees, and to address the PSPC backlog of requests and issues.
Audit Objective and Scope
The objective of the audit was to provide assurance to senior management on the adequacy of Departmental HR staffing and pay processes and the effectiveness of systems in place to deliver HR staffing and pay related services.
Key Findings and Conclusion
The audit team noted good practices throughout the audit of HR staffing and pay, including:
- HR Planning: HR plans were developed as part of the integrated business planning (IBP) process. HR strategic advisors were in place and provided advice to managers on HR staffing activities.
- Roles, Responsibilities, and Guidance: Guidance on HR staffing and pay processes, including the VAC Compensation Guide, was documented and readily available on the intranet.
- Service Standards and Monitoring: Service standards were established for HR staffing and pay. Dashboards and reports were developed to track HR staffing and pay actions.
The audit identified three main areas for improvement, as follows:
- HR Planning: There were opportunities to improve HR planning templates to include the financial costs and timelines for the activities included in the plan. Additionally, the HR planning process should incorporate regular updates to the plan throughout the year, with staffing updates and changes communicated to HRD in a timely manner.
- Roles, Responsibilities and Guidance: HRD developed the VAC Compensation Guide as a tool for VAC employees and management, however, the guide had not been updated since 2017. Additionally, managers did not consistently understand their respective roles and responsibilities related to the submitting pay requests.
- Service Standards and Monitoring: HRD developed service standards for staffing and pay; however, they are not consistently well-understood by managers. HR file reviews indicated that key dates were not entered consistently in the system by HR staff to accurately track the compliance to service standards and the delays to the staffing processes, impacting the reliability of data that is communicated through the service standard reporting mechanisms.
The audit findings and conclusions contained in this report are based on sufficient and appropriate audit evidence. This audit was conducted in conformance with the Institute of Internal Auditors’ International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing as supported by the results of the quality assurance and improvement program. The results expressed in this report are based on conditions as they existed at the time of the audit and apply only to the entity examined.
Conclusion: Based on the findings above, the audit found that processes and controls related to HR staffing and pay were generally established and operating as intended with areas of improvement noted with respect to planning, roles and responsibilities, service standards, and monitoring activities.
Chief Audit Executive’s Signature
Sheri Ostridge
Chief Audit Executive
Date: January 27, 2020