Internal Services

Description

Internal Services are those groups of related activities and resources that the federal government considers to be services in support of programs and/or required to meet corporate obligations of an organization. Internal Services refers to the activities and resources of the 10 distinct service categories that support Program delivery in the organization, regardless of the Internal Services delivery model in a department. The 10 service categories are: Management and Oversight Services; Communications Services; Legal Services; Human Resources Management Services; Financial Management Services; Information Management Services; Information Technology Services; Real Property Services; Materiel Services; and Acquisition Services.

Planning highlights

We will continue to apply innovative practices, developed through experimentation, to the way we conduct our corporate and business practices. Recent examples of such innovative practices include pilot programs to identify potential new approaches to security clearance procedures and the civilian staffing process. Going forward, we will continue to leverage our growing program analytics capability, including the establishment of a new Business Analytics team within the Office of the Chief Data Organization, to identify opportunities through performance measurement, benchmarking, and business process reviews to drive incremental change and transformational improvements.

Financial management and planning

Financial management and planning will be key factors enabling the institution to implement SSE and ensure an effective oversight and accountability. While Defence advances SSE implementation, it will be supported by a finance team that will continue to address and fully implement a new funding model related to the management of Capital (the department will be planning for all Capital assets on an accrual basis and funding on a cash basis). Financial management and planning will look at developing viable mechanisms to leverage enterprise analytic planning systems and tools that better inform decision-making.

The department will develop and implement a performance monitoring program for its Investment Plan management. The Investment Plan 2018 is based on SSE which introduced some important changes to how investments are governed and approved to ensure that the Defence Team has the flexibility to effectively manage key investments. National Defence will publish the next Defence Investment Plan in 2018, and further installments every three years thereafter, to ensure Canadians can clearly understand our investment priorities. Making the plan available to the public will also allow industry to better position itself to support Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) capability needs, while delivering on the government's commitment of transparency, results and accountability.

Civilian human resources management

Effective civilian human resource management is critical to the successful implementation of Strong Secure Engaged. Our challenge is to identify future civilian workforce requirements to ensure people are in place to deliver on the initiatives outlined in the defence policy. We will continue to implement a series of flexible, innovative and outcome-driven business transformation initiatives which will establish consistent and strategic human resource capabilities. For example, this will include a national service delivery model for staffing and classification.

Ongoing issues with Phoenix and civilian pay have necessitated a more active stance and work is underway to build a capable team of compensation specialists equipped to support and respond to employee pay issues. We are implementing a number of initiatives that will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our staffing and classification functions – including reducing the administrative burden and streamlining process times. Working closely with the Chief Data Officer organization, we are increasing our capacity to measure performance and provide civilian workforce business intelligence and analytics to senior decision-makers. Over the medium term, a number of key investments will foster a healthy, respectful and inclusive workplace in support of the Government of Canada’s priorities.

Gender, diversity and inclusion

National Defence has created a joint responsibility centre for the implementation of Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) throughout the institution, in keeping with government commitments made in SSE and in response to the 2015 Report of the Auditor General of Canada on “Implementing Gender-based Analysis (GBA).” On the CAF side, this function is mandated by a 2016 Chief of the Defence Staff Directive to provide expertise on GBA+ as they relate to CAF operations, including implementing Canada’s Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security as it pertains to operations. On the Department of National Defence (DND) side, this function is mandated by a Deputy Minister Directive and is responsible for ensuring timely expertise on gender, diversity and inclusion (GDI) throughout the civilian departmental functions, as a complement to the human resources-specific work already being undertaken by the human resources team.

The DND GDI team’s approach rests on four pillars: 1) training, 2) expertise, 3) process/systems alignment, and 4) oversight, monitoring and reporting. This responsibility centre will oversee the further integration of GBA+ requirements into the work of Defence team, including provision of specialized defence training and tools to gender advisors and focal points and creation of a GBA+ civilian-military community of practice. We will also undertake an assessment of gender and diversity barriers and biases within key DND functions, businesses processes and systems, including procurement, infrastructure and environment, IM/IT, finance, policy, and research, with a view to identifying 3-4 key initiatives to demonstrate application of GBA+ in all Defence Core Responsibilities, beyond human resources.

Communicating with Canadians

Openness and transparency contribute to better public understanding of Defence issues and challenges. As we implement Strong, Secure, Engaged, there will be ongoing communication about our progress, including projected timelines, key milestones, and funding. Engagement with stakeholders will be a central part of our multi-faceted communications approach. Reporting progress on Defence initiatives will help ensure that we remain focused on delivering results.

New National Defence headquarters

In early 2017, Defence Team members from the National Capital Region (NCR) began moving into a newly renovated, state-of-the art workplace in Ottawa’s west end called National Defence Headquarters – or NDHQ (Carling). The move is an extensive undertaking and part of a larger plan to consolidate the defence footprint from over 40 locations in the NCR to approximately seven. At least 8,500 staff members from across the region will relocate to this new NDHQ in a phased manner. Approximately 4,000 personnel are scheduled to move in Phase II beginning in late fall 2018 through to summer 2019. The relocation of NDHQ will increase efficiencies, and reduce accommodation and operational costs for the Government of Canada. It is expected to save taxpayers $750 million over 25 years. Further, the new facility will allow personnel to work better together in a healthier and more modern environment with greater security.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

Human resources (full-time equivalents)

Note: Financial, human resources and performance information for the National Defence’s Program inventory is available in the GC InfoBase ^liii.