DRAFT

PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT
STRATEGY
DRAFT APRIL 8 2014

© University of Manitoba, 2014

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 Contents

Introduction and Purpose 3

Goals Guiding Development of Strategy 3

Streams of Participants 4

Achieving Optimal Performance 5

Career Planning 6
Exploring Career Opportunities 6
Assessment 8
Developing 9
Preparing Your Toolkit 10
Focused Development Programs 10
Leadership Development Program 10
Succession Planning 12
What is the UM’s Succession Plan 12
Identification and Development of Successors 12
Summary & Program Deliverables 13

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 UM PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Introduction & Purpose

The People Development Strategy is made up of four components and represents an alignment of human
resources tools, processes and strategies to assist the University in its efforts to achieve and maintain
excellence in the provision of post-secondary education by having skilled and competent staff as well as
strong and trusted leadership. The four components forming the strategy are:
1. Achieving Optimal Performance;
2. Career Planning;
3. Focused Program Development: Managerial/Leadership; and,
4. Succession Planning.

Achieving optimal performance, career planning, managerial-leadership development and succession

planning are top priorities for the University and have been captured in two of the Outstanding
Workplace Initiative (OWI) commitments:
 To enhance supports for career and professional development; and,
 To foster exemplary leadership and management practices.

This document serves as a guide for staff and managers at all levels of the organization as the processes
are consistent regardless of position level. This strategy will continue to evolve and grow to meet the
needs across the whole University community.

Goals Guiding UM People Development Strategy

 To be an organization that embodies and demonstrates the values of continuous learning
and development
 To provide management and leadership supports to assist staff in achieving optimal performance
 To attract, retain and prepare staff for future career opportunities within the University of
Manitoba
 To identify and anticipate current and future gaps between the changing needs of the University
and its staff complement
 To ensure staff and managers are knowledgeable of the options and processes available
to develop staff in their current positions as well as how to prepare staff for potential
career progression
 To build a custom tailored in-house learning program for management and leadership
 To ensure that a pool of qualified internal applicants are available for key positions

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Streams of Participants
There are a great variety of positions within the University. This guide has been developed to assist
learning, development and progression for staff at all levels of the organization.

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 1. ACHIEVING OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE

Organizational excellence starts with the individual. To enable staff to optimize performance,
meaningful and on-going dialogue between staff and their manager is essential. This is supplemented
through ready access to the tools and resources needed to perform the job responsibilities including
knowledge of what the job is and the performance expectations. Up to date job descriptions are an
excellent resource that can be accessed to assist.

In recognition of the importance of the on-going dialogue between staff and the manager, the University
requires regular discussions in relation to performance. For support staff, the formal tool used to
capture this dialogue is called the Annual Review and Performance Guide. This tool is intended to aid
the manager and the staff person in their dialogue about performance. It is through this tool that
discussions and commitments by both the staff person and the manager are captured in relation to
performance in the current role as well as discussions about the staff person’s future career
development opportunities. This tool has been developed to reflect core competencies that are expected
to be demonstrated by all staff of the University. For leadership positions, an additional section has
been added to reflect leadership competencies.

The competencies that appear in the Annual Review have been used to inform the University’s Learning
and Development Services (LDS) of the necessary learning content to incorporate into its offerings. The
list of learning opportunities is being reorganized to align directly with those competencies in the
Annual Review to enable staff and managers to identify appropriate learning opportunities to optimize
performance.

Copies of the Annual Review and Performance Process as well as an associated Guide for participants
are attached. It is recommended that all staff familiarize themselves with these tools.

PREPARATION FOR Employee

THE ANNUAL Performance Review
REVIEW

As the Annual Review is only intended to be completed once a year, it is not intended to replace the
need for regular and on-going contact between staff and their manager in relation to performance. All
staff are encouraged to raise questions, concerns, interests with their managers at the time they arise to
ensure timely and meaningful dialogue, consideration and direction.

For staff that are interested in the possible opportunities to progress to other positions within the
University, including leadership positions, utilization of the processes outlined under Component 2:
Career Planning, can be optimized.

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2. CAREER PLANNING
Effective career planning has four phases:

1. Exploring potential career opportunities within the UM to identify positions of interest with
the potential to meet short and long term career goals.

2. Assessing an inventory of skills, abilities, knowledge, and values to identify which

are transferrable, which may benefit from an upgrade, and which skills are core
strengths.

3. Developing through training and learning opportunities that help expand skillset to reach
goals, considering both formal and informal learning activities best suited to learning styles.

4. Prepare Toolkit to showcase skills, accomplishments, and career progression with a

professional resume / application. While attaining a different position is not always the end
goal, having an up-to-date toolkit is essential.

Exploring Career Opportunities

For employees aspiring to move up within the University, having an understanding of the expected
skills, qualifications, and competencies of any considered position is very important. For this purpose,
Classification Specifications (Class Specs) and Career Paths can be used as tools to help identify
requirements for different jobs at different levels. While Class Specs provide detail on collectively
negotiated requirements at each group and level, the Career Paths help provide context to the nature of
work in a particular classification for a certain function, e.g. Finance or IT. There are a number of
mechanisms that staff can access to gain this information as summarized in the table below:

Tool Application
Classification The majority of positions at the University have classification
specifications specifications that outline the qualification, skills and competencies
required. This information is available electronically to staff
through the website.
HR Services webpage Information on applying to and working at the UM, as well as
employment opportunities.

Career Paths A collection of career profiles that describe job duties, necessary
qualifications, and employee testimonials to support career
exploration

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Reach UM
LDS Career Planning
Workshop
Leadership, Co-Workers
and Human Resources
Online job application portal that identifies all current vacancies. A
job posting is created for each posting that identifies the
qualifications, skills and competencies required as well as necessary
experience.
A series of learning workshops has been developed and is available
through Learning and Development Services that assists staff in
their career planning efforts. It has been constructed to reflect the
four phases: explore, assess, develop, and prepare.
Your current manager, human resources staff, co-workers and other
leadership are all valuable sources of information to assist in career
planning efforts.

Assessment
When thinking of a future career, all staff should consider undertaking a thorough self-assessment by
looking back, looking inward, and looking forward. Consultation between staff and their manager
through the Performance Review process is a helpful tool to assist in this exercise. This tool is outlined
in the previous Performance Optimization section.

1) Looking Back – What kinds of positions have you held, what is your experience, and is there a
common theme? Consider your years of experience, the kind of role you’ve commonly held, and the
environments in which you’ve commonly worked in. What do you want to continue doing, what do
you want to be different?

2) Looking Inward – Consider your core competencies, qualifications, and values and motivations.
a) Competencies: The Employee Self-Assessment guide has been developed for the purpose of self-
exploration in the context of career development to help indicate which are your core strengths
and which would benefit from additional training and supports.

employee self
assessments.pdf

b) Qualifications: what are your skills, abilities and qualifications? Do they match to future career
goals? If not, are you able/willing to achieve those necessary and what are the resources
available to you? To assist in this exercise, it is useful to review and update your resume and
consider how you can adjust to assist you in getting your next career move. (insert links to
templates and courses that may assist)
c) Values and Motivations: How did your past jobs reflect your values? Does your current
job reflect your values? What future jobs will support your values?

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 Work Values
assessment.docx

3) Looking Forward – What are your career goals and what steps are necessary to this?

Developing
In consultation with your manager, a personal development plan can be developed separately or as part
of the Performance Evaluation process to assist staff in reaching their career goals. A template for a
development plan is attached hereto.

Personal
Development Plan
Te

When completing the Development Plan, it is recommended that the information gathered through the
Annual Review and Performance Guide be utilized as well as any learnings obtained through the
completion of the Competency Self-Assessment and the Work Values Assessment. In addition, if
aspiring for another position, information obtained though the Exploring Stage should be incorporated.
If any Focused Development Programs have been built by the University that have application these
may also be incorporated.

There are many different tools and resources available to assist in a staff person’s development that can
be incorporated into your development plan. Some of those tools are listed in the table below:

Tool
Informal and Formal Learning
Opportunities
formal and informal
learning opportunities
Application
Not all learning occurs in the classroom. This simple guide
provides ideas on how to leverage on-the-job learning
opportunities and explore formal learning including
professional associations and academic programs.

LDS Workshops Learning sessions and workshops designed to build work-

related skills and competencies.
UMLLP UM Leadership Learning Program for current and aspiring
leaders
Tuition Reimbursement The University of Manitoba offers a wide range of academic
programs to help build a career or complement a career path and

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 provides tuition reimbursement for eligible employees.
Employees may also be eligible from reimbursement from their
home unit.

Preparing Your Toolkit

Once you hold the necessary skills and abilities for your next career, there are a number of steps that
might be taken before applying.

Updated resume A resume should be up to date but also should be

reviewed and modified to best showcase the
required skills, abilities and attributes of the
specific position applied for.

Interview Skills There are workshops available to assist staff

during the interview process. It is recommended
that staff contemplate potential questions that may
be asked and consider how best to answer. At a
minimum, prepare an answer to the standard
question about your background, why you are
qualified for the position and why you applied.

Job Description It is recommended that you request a copy of the

job description of any position in advance of your
attendance at the interview. This will enable a
better understanding of the job and will permit you
to ask better questions during the interview.
Remember, the interview is also your chance to
assess whether the position is the right fit for you.

LDS Course Offerings There are a number of course offerings to assist

you throughout the application process and to help
you in your career progression efforts. LDS
Workshops

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FOCUSED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

While each Development Plan (Component #2 - Step #3) is based on the individual, there are some
common interests and learning needs that exist for groups of staff. The University is committed to
developing specific learning programs for groups of staff. Priority for the development of focused
learning programs will be determined through consultation with staff and consideration of the
University’s strategic priorities.

The first Focused Development Program that has been developed by the University is a leadership
development program. This program is called the UM Leaders Program (UMLP).

It is anticipated that additional programming will be developed for other staff groupings in the future as
other needs have already been identified.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT - UMLP

For current leaders as well as those identified as potential future leaders, the preparation of development
plans can be largely informed and populated by the UM Leaders Program (UMLP).

The purpose of the UMLP is aligned with the U of M Vision:

Our students, staff, and alumni will have an association with the University of Manitoba that is
transformative and their discoveries will be of the greatest possible benefit to their own lives, and to
the lives of others

The UMLP is aimed at transforming practices for the greatest possible benefit to the lives of all staff at
the U of M. It is fundamentally focused on people. Consequently, the principles of transformational
leadership have informed this learning program.

Curriculum Design

The UMLP learning curriculum is comprised of 4 leadership dimensions and 12 critical competencies of
transformational leadership.

a) 4 Leadership Dimensions

Values: Value-based leaders build their personal and professional fortitude and clarity through
reflective learning, developing higher levels of emotional intelligence, and build trust & credibility.

Engagement: Relationship based leaders promote high performance cultures through effective
communication, fostering team accountability, and developing others to make their best
contributions.

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 Strategic Leadership: Strategic leaders achieve results by building coalitions, see the patterns in
the whole rather than just the parts, and lead organizational change and transformations with
confidence and courage.

Management Excellence: Effective managers renew and transform their transactional practices and
processes to maximize performance results in ways that are aligned with U of M policies &
procedures.

b) 12 Competencies of Transformational Leadership is visualized in the diagram below

 Demonstrates Integrity
 Enhances Emotional
Intelligence  Builds Trust &
Credibility

 Sound
Administrative  Fosters Team
Practices Accountability
 Effective  Develops Others
Decision  Builds Relationships
Making
 Enhances
Diversity &
Inclusion

 Commitment to Effective
Results
 Leading Change
 Institutional Alignment

Workshop content is being developed and aligned with these leadership competencies. Learning
methodologies will include multiple formats and mediums with reliance on internal university experts
and resources where available.

While the UMLP is a single program, it has been structured to recognize and meet the variation of
needs across the leadership spectrum at the University. Content is adjusted based on the
individual/group of leaders participating in the Program. For example, content is modified to reflect the
needs of an academic leader versus a non-academic leader; or, for a seasoned leader versus a new or
emerging leader. The need for and extent of this variation between leadership groups will be further
informed by the three pilot groups.

Participants in the pilots will receive content mainly through live sessions over an approximate 8-12
month period. The intent is to limit the total time spent by participants over the duration of the
Program

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to ten (10) working days. Expert internal resources to lead learning sessions will be used when
available and it is expected that this will be achieved for the majority of sessions.

The following table summarizes the current program content and the sequence of learning for the pilot
groups. Analysis and implementation of the pilot groups’ experience may result in changes. It is
anticipated that the final form of the UMLP and its learning content will be completed upon wrap-up of
the pilots in early 2015.

Session Leadership Duration

Dimension
UMLP Introduction 3 hours
Personal Mastery: Leading Self & Others from the Inside-Out Values 1 day
5 Roles of Leadership Strategic 1 day
Cohesive, High-Performance Teams Engagement 1 day
Role of the Manager at the University Management 1 day
- Performance Management & Retention Excellence
- Job Descriptions & Classifications
- Recruitment, Selection & Diversity
Social Intelligence & Leadership Engagement 1 day
Role of the Manager at the University Management 1 day
- Annual Review & Development Plans Excellence
- Attendance & Duty to Accommodate
- Legal Lens
Systems Thinking Approach to Managing Complexity Strategic 1 day
Role of the Manager at the University Management 1 day
- Principles of Sound Financial Management Excellence
- Progressive Discipline & Grievance Handling
- Legal Lens (continued)
Coaching & Mentoring for Leadership Excellence Engagement 1 day
Leading in Times of Change Strategic 1 day

Delivery
The UM Leaders Learning Program is being delivered in two phases: Pilot and Formal Roll-Out.

Phase 1
3 Cohort-Based Pilots
In order to ensure the appropriateness and effectiveness for our differing streams of leaders/managers at
U of M, we are starting the program with three different pilot groups in 2014. Each of these groups will
form a cohort. From the commencement of this learning program, participants will move together
through common workshops and other experiences. This cohort-based curriculum is intended to enable
participants to use the power of interpersonal relationships to enhance learning, interpersonal interaction
and support, and, ultimately, program completion as a group. These cohorts are intended to include:

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 (i) One Cohort of 2 intact Administrative leadership and management teams from IST and
Financial Services.
(ii) One Academic Cohort comprising of Department Heads from across the University.
(iii) One Cohort of Middle-Mangers/Business Officers from a variety of departments across the U of
Manitoba.

All three pilots also enable us to practically respond to the U of M’s Outstanding Workplace
Commitment # 1, namely, to “increase our connectedness as a community.”

Phase 2
Formal Roll-Out
The feedback from these three pilot cohorts along with other learning and workplace behavior
assessments, will inform the formal roll out of the UMLP. We anticipate offering the learning program
both to specific academic and administrative cohorts and with workshops open to individuals across the
U of M beginning Spring of 2015.

At the time of formal roll-out it is anticipated that the UMLP will also include coaching and mentoring
components that are currently under development and which do not form part of the current pilots.

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SUCCESSION PLANNING

What is the UM’s Succession Plan?

The University recognizes the inherent and extrinsic value of promoting from within as the main
foundation of its succession plan. The processes set out under this strategy have been constructed to
provide staff with appropriate opportunities and clearly defined processes and tools to develop and
enhance the skills, attributes and competencies required to assume current and future roles. Opportunity
is a key factor in our ability to retain staff of all levels within our University family.

The UMLP has been designed to specifically meet the leadership needs of the University both today and
into the future. The University is taking this pro-active approach to ensure ongoing skilled and
competent leadership. Completion of Focused Development Programs (Component #3) will be
considered an asset in future leadership job competitions.

Identification and Development of Successors

It is the shared and individual responsibility of all University leaders to ensure that staff are provided
with the guidance and support to be successful in their current positions. Equally important is to
identify, inform and assist staff who demonstrate the potential and interest to assume higher level
positions within the University. This guide provides leaders and staff with the tools and information
necessary to meet this objective through utilization of the Development Plan tool as identified in the
Career Planning Component.
All staff are urged to consider future possible positions and are encouraged to work toward that
achievement. The obtainment of an aspired position can never be guaranteed as it is dependent on many
variables and the awarding of positions are ultimately determined by University policy and applicable
collective agreements.

Equity and Diversity

The University is actively considering additional opportunities and programming to achieve a greater
diversity of staff at all levels within the University such as job trials, job-ready applicant pools, etc.

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SUMMARY & PROGRAM DELIVERABLES

As reflected throughout this document, the University is committed to providing tools and resources to
help all staff optimize their performance as well as providing real opportunity to prepare for future
career aspirations within the University environment. The University recognizes that it cannot succeed
in meeting its mission, vision and values without a qualified, engaged, committed and stable staff
group.

The deliverables flowing from each of the four Program components of the People Development
strategy are:

Achieving Optimal Performance - Catalogue and description of key competencies

- Alignment of Annual Review, Job Descriptions,
Recruitment and Associated HR Processes with Key
Competencies

Career Planning - Ready Access to Employment Opportunities

- Development and Access to Career Path Mapping
- Career Planning Workshops
- Personal Development Plans

Focused Program Development - Program Development for Identified Needs

- UMLP

Succession Planning - Identification and Support of Individuals to Future

Leadership and Other Key Positions
- Alignment with Equity and Diversity Strategy

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