FY2011 House 2 Budget Recommendation:
Issues in Brief
Deval L. Patrick, Governor
Timothy P. Murray, Lt. Governor
The economic downturn has challenged many states, including the Commonwealth, to maximize operational and service delivery in order to invest our resources in a way that achieves the best results for our residents. The Patrick-Murray Administration has demonstrated strong leadership in identifying and addressing areas within the Commonwealth, such as energy and information technology, that should be managed more efficiently in order to produce cost savings. In fiscal year 2011, Governor Patrick will turn his attention to the enterprise-wide human resources (HR) systems and will direct state agencies to modernize and standardize HR business processes and leverage available technology to reduce costs. To this end, the Governor will issue an Executive Order, Enhancing the Efficiency and Effectiveness of the Executive Departments – Human Resources Modernization Project, to improve administrative efficiency and preserve fiscal resources.
Benchmarking projects and various studies undertaken by the Patrick-Murray Administration have concluded that the Commonwealth’s current Human Resources delivery systems are decentralized and inefficient in many ways. In response to this information and at the Governor’s direction, the Chief Human Resources Officer, Cabinet Secretaries and HR officers across the Executive Department are collaborating in developing the HR Strategic Plan for the future which will be completed in fiscal year 2010.
In fiscal year 2011, with continued collaboration, the strategic plan will begin implementation, with a focus on fully accessing all the functionality provided by the system that currently serves as the personnel/payroll system. Enhancements such as time and attendance self-service, labor distribution, learning development, recruitment and talent management, and the ability to better track and manage HR data, will streamline our multi-layered and paper-intensive manual processes. HR transactions will be automated and our employees will be redirected from back room functions to providing direct service to internal and external customers. This shift will result in cost savings and increased systems efficiency with employees providing high-quality services to the residents of the Commonwealth.
The plan will identify shared services as one option that may be pursued in order to build the foundation for the Commonwealth’s HR future. Additional goals of HR Modernization are to:
Based on several studies that have been conducted, there is an established consensus that implementing shared service delivery models are best practices and can achieve efficient gains of between 15% and 20% a year. For the Commonwealth, the research indicates that such change in direction, when fully implemented will result in efficiency gains of $20 to $25 million per year.
In January, 2003, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) implemented a shared service model and achieved immediate savings by creating a more efficient and coordinated administrative infrastructure to support EOHHS agencies. Some of the initial savings and other fiscal benefits include:
The HR Modernization efforts will also yield cost savings and efficiencies for all secretariats. Additionally, for the first time, a cohesive workforce strategy with effective succession plans for critical positions will be in place. The Commonwealth will be able to integrate policies, systems, and practices reflecting leading capabilities in the marketplace. Finally, the Executive Department will truly be an “employer of choice” workplace, exemplifying innovative leadership, engaged employees, inclusive and diverse practices, pervasive customer-service and a high-performance mindset.
Prepared by Chantal Mont-Louis, Executive Office for Administration and Finance ·
www.mass.gov/budget/governor
For more information contact: contactanf@massmail.state.ma.us (617) 727-2040