3.15 For the day to day management of the partnership and for important activities such as the commissioning of new work, the skills required and the development and maintenance of those skills are addressed through the Department's staff planning arrangements (see Figure 12). These arrangements are underpinned by a system for managing the performance, training and development of individual staff. This system is based on individual performance agreements, which set out a description of an individual's job, their key responsibilities, the skills required, the key tasks and targets for the next year and the criteria for assessing performance against the targets. Managers ensure that these are kept up to date and that individual responsibilities are aligned with organisational objectives.
3.16 Individual development needs identified by comparing an individual's competencies with the skills they need to do their job effectively are recorded in personal development plans. These plans are agreed between each individual and their manager, and show how an individual's needs will be met (for example, through training, development and secondments), the expected outcomes, and the timing of and responsibilities for action.
3.17 We examined how these arrangements were working in practice, focusing on aspects which are key to the effective management of the partnership, including the award of new work.
3.18 We reviewed performance agreements for a representative sample of 47 personnel within the Business and Management Services Division who had important responsibilities in the process of awarding new work to EDS. Forty five agreements had been updated for the current year, while two were unchanged from the previous year.
3.19 The specific information about the competencies required for individual jobs set out in the performance agreements is important for performance planning, recruitment and training. Two distinct types of competency are identified: core competencies and specialist competencies. Core competencies are those common to all Inland Revenue jobs, and include:
■ managing people | ■ interpersonal skills |
■ managing resources | ■ analytical skills |
■ oral communication | ■ decision-making |
■ written communication |
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3.20 In contrast, specialist competencies tend to be peculiar to particular organisational units and are often more technical in nature. Unit managers are responsible for identifying and defining specialist competencies and their associated skill sets. Figure 12 below illustrates the range of skills identified by one unit, the Commercial Group, and how they have been developed in staff.
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Commercial Group - | Figure 12 |
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skill development | The Commercial Group manages the contract with EDS. The Department identified at an early stage the mix of skills required to enable it to act as an intelligent customer. These skills, which were not generally available from within the Department included resource planning, cost monitoring and financial control, performance monitoring and performance improvement, as well as knowledge of the Department, its operational requirements and information technology structure, and an awareness of commercial practice. In the nine months preceding contract signature, and with consultancy support, contract management processes were developed and documented. In recognition that new disciplines would require new skills, the Department arranged training sessions on the details of the contract, the fundamentals of the Partnership agreement, and on the general experience and principles of managing outsourcing. Additional training involved presentations on the contract management processes as they were developed, role playing to allow the Contract Management Team to visualise the EDS perspective and to think through tactics which a partner might deploy, training in negotiation and visits to relevant contract sites in the UK and the USA. This initiative has also been supported through external training, transfer of specialist skills to new staff through on-the-job mentoring, and by "hot topic" presentations given by team members to each other. As contract monitoring processes have been refined, the changes have been reflected in training and development planning, and included in performance agreements and personal development plans. | |
3.21 We interviewed the heads of the Commercial Group and the Resource and Work Centre Group and the managers of six key units in these and other groups within the Division. They displayed a clear appreciation, based on experience, of the specialist competencies needed in their unit and of the minimum skills set, both core and specialist, required for entry to it. However, these were not documented.