The Client
The client is a not-for-profit society formed by a group of Masonic Lodges to manage a 198 suite rent geared to income seniors citizen independent living apartment building. The society is set up as a management body by the provincial government and the Board is comprised of representatives from the Masonic community. A Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) is employed as the property manager.
The Challenge
In 2009, Alberta Housing and Urban Affairs undertook an operations audit of the facility and made a substantial set of compliance recommendations. The Board realized that failure to comply in a timely and proper manner could jeopardize their desire to take on the management of additional opportunities from Alberta Housing. The CAO was competent on a day-to-day basis but did not have the full confidence of the Board to lead the longer term change effort required. Osborne was contracted to “fix” office policies and procedures, document the results and provide an opinion on the suitability of the CAO. The procedure work was largely HR in nature. In addition, the Board required assurance that problems would not resurface and Osborne worked with the Board and CAO to design internal and Board structures that forced more attention on critical success factors.
The Approach
The Osborne Principal worked through the report recommendations, suggesting policy options and obtaining Board and CAO approval for change at monthly Board meetings. A formal policy review and approval system did not exist and was implemented. Additional recommendations were developed for the Board on how they could (and should) modify their own processes to avoid future surprises.
The Result
The Board was left with internal process to follow that provides assurances that an adequate review of policy and procedure is undertaken on an annual basis and kept current. As well, the Board has an improved Board committee structure with terms of reference for each committee, an updated CAO job description, a CAO performance evaluation procedure and form, and an annual Board work plan identifying all recurring responsibilities.