Corporate Services Statement of Operations - Quarter 2 Financial Update (2017) (in thousands of dollars)

Variance Analysis (in thousands of dollars)

Corporate Administration is operating a year-to-date deficit before indirect allocations of $393 and forecasting a total deficit before indirect allocations of $1,308. The following factors have contributed to these variances:

Compensation

The unfavourable year-to-date and forecasted variances of $588 and $1,329 is primarily the result of corporate labour relations costs, higher than anticipated health/dental benefits for retirees, and an increase in employee assistance program costs; partially offset with gapping dollars for vacant positions within the department.

Administrative

The favourable year -to-date and forecasted variances of $215 and $114 is primarily due to the timing of expenditures related to the employee engagement survey; offset by higher than anticipated Bell line installations and repairs.

Intercompany Charges

The unfavourable year-to-date and forecasted variance of $93 is primarily due to lower usage costs related to Regional photocopiers incurred by Information Technology Solutions.

Community Impacts & Achievements

Corporate Services includes the General Manager's Office, Corporate Information Management Services, Corporate Print & Mail Services, Information Technology Solutions and Human Resources whose main focus is the general management/support of the other Regional departments.

Corporate Records, Print & Mail Services

• In process of finalizing our contract for records storage services, in response to the 2016 request for proposal
• Finalizing strategic plan for Corporate Information Management
• Print Shop has begun the process of implementing enhanced mail services in 2017
• Project to review and revise the records retention by-law, Q4 2016 - Q3 2018

Human Resources

• To create better service for our customers, Human Resources installed a debit machine for enhanced customer service for walk-in and phone customers. This creates efficiencies for our staff to process payments (benefits, OMERS, etc.).
• Recruitment team successfully filled a number of hard to fill roles, with 40% of the roles filled in less than 120 days.
• Union negotiations commenced or underway for three union groups.
• Human Resources provided 52 learning and development opportunities, including our mentorship programs and Ted Talks with over 2,618 non-unique participants. Over 250 new employees also attended orientation.

Information Technology

• Launch of the "Portal" (portal.niagararegion.ca) - A single entry point for Regional staff to submit service or consultation requests to various departments (initial launch included IT, Construction, Energy and Facilities Management, Seniors Services and Public Health). The Portal also supports the ability to report on projects of interest across the organization. Council's strategic priorities were added to this new release.
• Self-Serve Password Resets - A new service was launched that allows users to reset their network passwords from any device at any time. We typically receive approximately 3,000 calls per year to the Helpdesk for password resets so this new service will dramatically reduce this number and allow Regional staff to resolve login issues outside business hours.