While staff at VPL have long been expected to have annual personal workplans, the way in which annual work plan development was approached varied from location to location and from staff person to staff person. Staff reported receiving conflicting information from Managers as to what the expectations were in terms of a “finished” product and many deemed the process to be time-consuming and pointless. Deadlines were often ignored or missed - with some departments neglecting the process altogether – and many staff with completed workplans had unachievable or unrealistic goals. This misalignment of individuals and departments led to confusion, frustration, and mixed results.

Knowing the dual importance of a properly operationalized strategic plan and of having an engaged workforce, a process was developed in-house to provide staff with a technique that would help them confidently develop their personal work plan each year.

All staff in leadership positions, including roles as varied as Finance Assistants, Cataloguers, Librarians, and Managers, were introduced to a new methodology for creating annual workplans. During a 3-hour guided workshop, where the workplan process was explained and practiced step-by-step, staff worked individually and in teams, accompanied by their Manager, to learn how their job description could be used to develop goals and objectives and how they could also use their supervisor’s, employees’, and other departments’ workplans to identify goals that could contribute to moving other staff’s initiatives forward as well.

Every staff member came to understand the expectations and developed a workplan that was achievable, clear, and beneficial to both the individual staff member and the organization. Workplans now align with organizational priorities set by VPL’s strategic plan and are achievable within the scope of each person’s job description and expected competencies.

• Producing staff workplans was previously a painstaking endeavour, often taking weeks or months. With the new process, a fully realised workplan is now created by each staff member within 3 hours.

• By having staff, Managers, and departments work more collaboratively in the development of workplans, we’ve improved strategic alignment and enhanced a culture of cooperation.

• These newly linked workplans ensure transparency and help staff actively contribute to each other’s success through having joint or linked goals. This has improved buy-in and led to faster and smoother implementation of cross-departmental and cross-functional projects. It also helps ensure that projects of corporate importance are prioritized and pursued.

• Each employee’s individual work plan is now clearly a piece of a greater puzzle and staff have a greater understanding of the usefulness of workplans and how their day-to-day and project work help VPL deliver on its strategic agenda.