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REPORT RAPPORT |
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DATE:
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26 April 2011 |
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TO/DEST:
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Executive Director, Ottawa Police Services Board |
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FROM/EXP:
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Chief of Police, Ottawa Police Service |
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SUBJECT/OBJET:
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TENURE PROGRAM - 2010 ANNUAL REPORT
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RECOMMENDATION
That the Ottawa Police Services Board receive this report for information.
BACKGROUND
On October 25, 2001, the CIS 2000 final report was presented to the OPS Executive. Recommendation 26 was a key one: “Section managers should identify the average length of tenure a member will spend in their section.” The rationale was that rotation of members would help reduce burnout and tunnel vision, and would permit the continuous development of members’ knowledge, skills and abilities.
With a greater number of retirements and an increase in younger inexperienced officers at the front line, OPS Patrol Supervisors also identified a need to rotate senior and experienced police officers to Patrol. This rotation of officers was identified as a means to meet the future needs of the Service with respect to knowledge, skills, abilities and experience.
DISCUSSION
Designing a New Tenure Process
In order to meet the changing needs of the organization, a Tenure Design Team was created to develop a Tenure Program that was specific to the needs of the Ottawa Police Service and its membership. Five internal consultation sessions were held with sworn members in February and March 2008. The attending members represented a cross section of sworn personnel throughout the organization.
The Tenure Design Team collaborated with the Steering Committee to design the Tenure Policy and Program. The goal of establishing a Tenure Program was to have a fair, transparent and fluid method in which to move and deploy our most important resource: our people.
The 2007-2009 Business Plan identified the creation of a tenure program under the following Strategic Priority: Employer of Choice for All, Goal #1: Manage Ottawa Police Service Talent. The current Business Plan reflects the need for a continued, robust tenure program through “Investing in Our People”.
On April 28, 2010, the Ottawa Police Service’s Tenure Design Team won the 2010 Mercer Vision Award for Human Resources Innovation.
Governance
In order to guide the development of the new tenure process, a Steering Committee was convened comprised of the Executive Sponsor, Deputy Chief Gilles Larochelle, the Business Owners and representation from the Senior Officers Association, Ottawa Police Association and other sworn members of the organization from various ranks.
The role of the Steering Committee was to provide guidance and direction on the design and development of the new tenure process and to oversee the on-going implementation of the tenure process as it rolled out and moved forward.
The makeup of the Steering Committee has been updated in 2011 to ensure there continues to be representation from across the organization. The Steering Committee continues to play a key role with the tenure process in providing guidance and feedback and assisting with the fine tuning of the process to ensure it continues to improve over time.
In 2010, the position of Career Management Specialist – Tenure was created and the competition was won by Ms. Kendra Campbell. Ms. Campbell is now part of the Career Development Team managed by Career Development Staff Sergeant Dan Longpré. This group reports to the Inspector, Outreach and Development.
Process Overview
The tenure process has a standardized framework which is applied to the process at the ranks of Constable to Staff Sergeant. The annual process starts with a report on tenure end-dates for sworn members of the organization. The list is identified by section and sent to section heads for review and feedback.
A tenure posting is then created announcing the beginning of the tenure application process. Each tenured position is listed with a corresponding link to the specific job description for the position. Eligible sworn members may submit a maximum of five (5) tenure applications for the annual process.
The 2009 tenure process included Constables and Sergeants and in 2010 Staff Sergeants were added to the Tenure Program. All sworn positions were posted in December 2008 with submission deadlines of mid- January. As this was a new process, the application period was longer to ensure members could become familiar with all facets of the process.
The process of reviewing each application for eligibility of the candidate was completed by tenure selection panels. These panels consisted of seven (7) Staff Sergeants for the Constable and Sergeant panels; in 2010, a panel of seven (7) Inspectors for the first year of the Staff Sergeant’s selection process was added.
Selection panels are set to occur within three-to-four weeks of the application deadline. The selection panels created ranking lists for each position, and these lists were used to identify successful candidates for the positions to be vacated by officers reaching the end of their tenure. An annual transfer date was selected for the first Monday in October and officers were notified of their assignments. In the first two years the transfer order was issued in May to coincide with the Annual Leave draw and to provide advanced notice for members and section heads of the impending transfers.
In 2011 the same general framework was used while building on experiences of the first two years. The process has been streamlined by reducing the posting time to three (3) weeks, continuing with a less paper oriented process and focusing more on computer technology. The experiences of the first two years have also brought about unexpected benefits such as improved job descriptions for all sworn positions and a more effective selection process. Supervisors were better prepared to explain their ranking selections based on advanced preparation and research of the candidates and their qualifications.
The tenure process has provided a clear framework to identify members to be transferred out of their sections due to the end of their tenure as well as identifying qualified candidates with ranking lists for each position.
Table 1 below identifies the tenure transfer numbers for the first two years of the process. These numbers demonstrate the controlled rotation of personnel within the organization.
Table 2 shows the percentage of officers on patrol at specified levels of experience for the past 5 years. Of note is the marked reduction of officers with less than 5 yrs experience and the increase in the number of officers in the 10-25 yr range of experience, resulting in a much better balance of experience on the front line.
Table 1
Transfer Activity Resulting from the Tenure Program 2009-2010
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2009 |
2010 |
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Total Tenure Transfers |
30 |
60 |
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Breakdown: |
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Patrol to Tenured Position |
12 |
26 |
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Tenured Position to Patrol |
15 |
24 |
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Tenured Position to Tenured Position |
3 |
10 |
Table 2
Length of Service for Officers on Patrol – 2006-2010
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Length of Service - % of Officers on Patrol |
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0-5 yrs |
5-10 yrs |
10-15 yrs |
15-25 yrs |
>25 yrs |
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2006 |
59.2 |
15.3 |
5.5 |
10.1 |
10.0 |
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2007 |
52.8 |
19.3 |
6.9 |
10.3 |
10.6 |
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2008 |
50.9 |
22.7 |
8.6 |
9.8 |
7.9 |
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2009 |
53.4 |
20.0 |
8.6 |
11.4 |
6.6 |
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2010 |
48.8 |
19.8 |
10.1 |
14.2 |
7.2 |
As demonstrated in Table 2, the Tenure Program has started to achieve its goal in meeting the needs of the Service with respect to increasing knowledge, skills, abilities and experience, and enhancing support and supervision to a younger workforce by ensuring there is a greater level of experience at the front line.
Work is still underway to finalize the number of officers due to ‘tenure-out’ of positions in 2011 however preliminary figures would indicate approximately 40 sworn members will be ‘tenured-out’ of their specialty section positions in October 2011.
Policy
The Tenure Process design document created by the Tenure Design Team was used to develop the Tenure Policy approved on October 6th 2008. With the ongoing oversight of the program since that time there have been 2 subsequent policy updates which have reflected the changes brought about to make the process more effective.
CONSULTATION
Consultation with members occurred throughout the initial tenure design phase. The goal was to consult with members throughout the organization in order to create the framework for the tenure process.
Consultation continues to be an important aspect of building upon the initial work done by the Tenure Design Team and the Steering Committee. The Career Development section receives input on an ongoing basis and conducts a yearly review with specific questions for sworn members across the organization. This ongoing feedback continues in order to ensure the process evolves with the Service.
CONCLUSION
The Ottawa Police Service recognizes the importance of maintaining a fair and transparent tenure process to facilitate the transfer of sworn personnel. The goal has consistently been to not only ensure the mandatory rotation of personnel after a specified time period but to do so in a way that meets the current and future needs of the Service with respect to knowledge, skills, abilities and experience, while enhancing support and supervision to a younger workforce.
Tenure is a living program which includes ongoing consultation to make it a success. The Career Development team seeks and receives input on an ongoing basis and conducts a yearly review of the program. In its 3rd year, the tenure process can still be considered to be in its infancy. Ongoing reviews of the process with input from all areas of the Service continue to help us fine tune a process which facilitates the movement of officers within the organization.
(original signed by)
Vern White
Chief of Police