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FHS HR Process Transition Plan

The Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) is McMaster’s largest Faculty, employing over half of all University employees. It is unique as the only Canadian university that combines, in one Faculty, schools of medicine (including two regional campuses), nursing, rehabilitation science, and the programs of midwifery, Bachelor of Health Sciences, physician assistant and postgraduate health sciences education.

FHS is home to a multi-faceted workforce that encompasses clinical and non-clinical departments as well as health professional programs and schools, integrates with hospital networks and community clinical sites, and collaborates with organizations external to McMaster, including all levels of government. This complexity is enabled by a culture of flexibility and nimbleness and is supported by focused administrative units that work in collaboration with central campus.

With over 2,500 staff members, 900 full-time and 3,000 part-time faculty members, the Faculty thrives on its inter-professional and collaborative approach to healthcare and learning. As part of FHS’s continued pursuit of excellence to ensure the Faculty remains at the leading edge of health sciences education, it strives towards inter-professional collaboration, commitment to its communities, accountability and responsibility, innovation, excellence, integrity, respect, and optimism.

HR Review Recommendations

The HR Review identified areas of potential duplication between FHS HR and central HR Operations, including some transactional work, as well as areas where there was a lack of role clarity and/or handoffs back and forth that reduced efficiency without adding value.

Key Opportunities:

The FHS HR team undertook an exercise to identify areas where this duplication was unnecessary and where it added value in FHS because of the need for a focused FHS lens on the activity, and/or required client facing interaction. A working group comprised of leaders and team members from FHS HR, HR Operations, HR CoEs and the HR PMO then reviewed this transactional work and identified areas where shifting the work to HR Operations would streamline processes, reduce duplication, minimize errors, offer clarity on where the work best resides, improve accuracy and turnaround time, eliminate redundancies and allow for more efficient and effective administration of those transactional activities.

The goal of this transition was to facilitate a consistent, transparent, and positive client experience through the clarity, efficiency and effectiveness offered by a seamless support structure provided in collaboration between FHS HR and HR Operations.

The transition project was carefully planned, incorporating a comprehensive training and change management approach. As of now, all transactions within Phase 1 and 2 have been successfully completed.

Key Highlights:

  • Collaborated in the development and implementation of processes to create an efficient and effective HR workflow structure through eForm implementation and other process automation;
  • Strengthened communication and collaboration through client engagement, fostering a clearer understanding of payroll escalation resolution and key processes;
  • Provided joint training sessions on new processes and initiatives;
  • Clarified FHS HR and HR Operations supports and contacts;
  • Created ongoing operational meetings and reviews of continuous improvement opportunities with FHS HR and HR Operations members, and
  • Confirmed an ongoing commitment to ensure unique FHS HR requirements are met through FHS HR representation on all project teams.

Both FHS HR and HR Operations teams will maintain collaborative efforts and explore additional solutions to further enhance service efficiency and improve outcomes. These efforts will be further supported by the introduction of a series of new automated projects scheduled to be launched in 2023/2024.

What’s Next?

Both the FHS HR and HR Operations teams will continue their collaborative efforts to achieve service excellence through employee-centric solutions. This involves advancing new technologies and actively engaging the FHS community, providing our employees with efficient tools and streamlined processes that empower them to make a meaningful impact. Specifically, our focus areas are as follows:

  • Defining simplified and standardized end-to-end Core HR processes to identify areas of improvement in handoffs, and enhance role clarity.
  • Designing technology to support process automation to develop technological solutions that automate tasks, taking into consideration the cross-process implications and the impact on people, reducing repetitive administrative tasks to enable our clients and HR team members to focus on higher-value work.