POD-Connect

Purpose

ROEB is Health Canada's dedicated compliance and enforcement branch. The branch informs and protects Canadians from health risks through regulatory oversight, outreach, laboratories, and scientific analysis. With more than 1000 employees across Canada, ROEB is well positioned to understand the risks faced by Canadians, the context in which Health Canada delivers its programs and services, and to contribute to regulatory policy and program development at a national level.

The branch comprises 8 directorates, which includes the Planning and Operations Directorate (POD). POD plays an integrating role within the branch and provides leadership, oversight and service to support the consistent and effective management of operations, resources and branch-wide initiatives. The directorate supports branch planning and reporting, performance measurement and program based activity costing, financial analysis, investment planning and audits and evaluations. The work also supports employee engagement, internal communications and workforce initiatives. POD is responsible for administrative and business services and operations.

PODt comprises five divisions: (1) Planning and Accountability, (2) Business Services Integration, (3) Workforce Initiatives, (4) Technology and Business Innovation, and (5) Transformation. Divisions have identified the need to plan and work in a more consistent, effective, and integrated manner. To address this, the POD Connect group (POD-C) was created.

Terms of Reference

1. Mandate and Objectives

The mandate of POD-C is to promote and encourage the use of an integrated approach to planning and delivering work related to each of the division’s responsibilities. This will be achieved by increasing efficiency and timeliness of the coordination of work across POD’s divisions, and more specifically through:

• Clarifying roles and responsibilities for initiatives involving more than one division.
• Avoiding duplication of work by two or more divisions.
• Breaking siloes through open, timely, and informal information sharing.
• Identifying and discussing issues and risks related to initiatives involving more than one division early on.

• Leverage expertise within POD to help ensure proposals/advice to senior management reflect a more integrated and strategic approach.

2. Scope

The scope of work for POD-C includes any initiatives under the responsibility of the five POD divisions above. Activities of POD-C include:

• Sharing information and providing updates on topics, projects or initiatives that may affect or be relevant to other directorate divisions (e.g., MYCET deliverables, BBB plan, technology and innovation projects, policy and guide development, operational needs or changes, communication and engagement initiatives, recruitment and retention, learning and development opportunities, planning and reporting, working group or community of practice updates, BEC-CET or BEC-PCP updates).
• Leveraging knowledge, experience, and expertise from members, as needed, to discuss and/or comment on ideas, potential initiatives, existing projects and documents.
• Establishing and reinforcing existing relationships between the various divisions.
• Seeking opportunities to collaborate with other divisions on relevant work (e.g., inspector designation, C&E transformation, internal communications, educational workshops, planning and reporting, diversity and inclusion, implementation of the ROEB Manager’s Strategy).
• Identifying needs and raising issues/gaps that may affect the directorate’s performance and consistency in terms of work alignment.

3. Reporting Structure

When needed, the Chair of the POD-C provides updates to and seeks direction from the POD Directorate Management Committee (DMC) on topics discussed and any issues/gaps/concerns identified that may affect the planning and delivery of work in the directorate. Prior to doing so, agreement from members is required.

4. Membership

The POD-C is chaired on a rotational basis by the five divisions and each tenure lasts 6 months. The Transformation Office holds the first tenure. Membership includes at least one representative from each division with one identified as the permanent member. Where the permanent member cannot attend a meeting, he/she should ensure that another member or an alternate is identified to do so. Selection of members is at the discretion of their division. In doing so, divisions should consider activities under the scope (see Section 3). The role and membership of POD-C is revisited on a yearly basis or more frequently as needed.

5. Guests

The POD-C may invite guests to the meetings to present on a topic or to provide information or advice on a specific area of expertise.  Other interested staff may also attend as observers, for the benefit of their professional development, with the approval of their Manager.

6. Roles and Responsibilities

Chair

• Acts as Secretariat for the POD-C i.e., sends out meeting invitations, prepares agenda based on items sought from members, and documents and shares with members any action items/decisions/recommendations, if any.
• Chairs meetings and facilitates discussions based on agenda items.
• PMandate and Objectivesrovides updates to and seeks direction as needed from the DMC on topics discussed and issues/gaps/concerns identified that may affect the planning and delivery of work in the directorate.

Member

Mandate and Objectives

• Contributes to the agenda by submitting items for discussion or comments, where needed.
• Participates actively to meetings by:
  • Sharing updates on their divisions work and plans;
  • Bringing forward issues/gaps/concerns that may affect other divisions’ work;
  • Contributing to discussions and issues raised by other members; and
  • Representing the views and opinions of their divisions during the meetings.
• Completes assigned action items, as required, in a timely manner.
• Briefs the alternate member on issues to be discussed, where applicable.
• Ensures that at least one member or an alternate represents the division.
• Where permanent members cannot attend a meeting, briefs appropriately and ahead of the meeting an alternate on issues to be discussed.

7. Management and Administration

7.1 Meetings

Meetings will take place on a biweekly basis, generally on Thursdays starting at 11:00am EST.  Meetings will be held by videoconference.

7.2 Meeting Notes

The division that is chairing at the time of meetings records action items, recommendations, and decisions in the MS OneNote for POD Groups notebook, to which all members will have access.           

Annex - POD Connect Membership

The below membership was established on June 10, 2021 and will be revisited by June 10, 2022 or earlier as needed.

Division	Permanent Member	Title
Business Services Integration	Natasha Desbiens	A/Manager, Corporate Functions and Project Management
	Osama Wahid	Senior Policy Analyst, Corporate Functions and Project Management
	Patrick Munoz	Senior Policy Analyst, Corporate Functions and Project Management
Planning and Accountability	Natacha Boivin	Cost Recovery Invoicing Unit Manager
	T.J. Connolly	Manager, Planning and Reporting Unit
	Kevin Johnson	A/Manager, Financial and Data Analytics Unit
Technology and Business Innovation	Mark Mackay	Manager, Data, Analytics and Business Solutions
	Omar Ayad	Analyst
Transformation	Nathalie Lamontagne (Chair)	Business Transformation Manager
	Peter Yoon	Manager, Applied Sciences
	Anne Duggan	Communications Advisor
Workforce Initiatives	Cindy Burnside	Manager, People and Workplace
	Tracey Vieceli	Communications Advisor, Internal Communications