Canadian Joint Operations Command

One contract with McKinsey & Company

Overview

Key Facts

Background

• The Canadian Joint Operations Command (CJOC) engaged McKinsey & Company on two instances to support the Command’s work to transform and evolve the organization.
• This allowed command staff to continue to focus on the CJOC raison d’être – supporting deployed operations - while also ensuring that it was responding to the needs of its current workforce and putting in place the necessary building blocks for its institutional future.
• Past surveys of CJOC HQ personnel showed a high rate of burnout, health issues, and frustrations within the CJOC HQ work environment, necessitating action to implement changes in the short-term and develop a long-term plan.
• Amplifying CJOC HQ’s Human Resources challenges is the high turnover rate, where approximately half of military personnel change over annually.

• Through optimization and transformation CJOC HQ intends to evolve and improve its capacity to support CAF operations, this includes digitalizing processes to reduce cumbersome practices on the workforce.

Summary of Rationale

• CJOC Headquarters lacked the capacity and skill sets to build the short to long-term digital and practical solutions needed to address workforce concerns. It therefore leveraged the National Master Standing Offer with McKinsey & Company twice.

Summary of Results

• Over the course of these two contracts CJOC developed a long term human resources strategy, codified staff Terms of Reference to establish clear roles and responsibilities between functional groups and standardized staff orientation.

Canadian Joint Operations Command Transformational Staffing Plan

Key Facts

Background

• The CJOC Workforce Strategy was drafted by McKinsey with significant input from across CJOC and the broader Defence Team.
• After McKinsey analyzed over 150 survey results, conducted over 55 interviews, facilitated 2 working sessions and 3 Steering Committees with representatives from across the Command a comprehensive plan was created to address digital solutions and other key concerns identified by the CJOC workforce. Five (5) primary workforce “themes” on which CJOC needs to focus on in order to improve its performance and achieve its ambitions, were identified:
• Attract talent. Improve attractiveness of CJOC to increase recruitment of both civilian and military candidates. CJOC HQ has most critical skills currently required but may struggle to retain and build the technical skills required for the future.
• Modernize workforce. Strengthen, diversify, and upskill CJOC’s workforce to meet evolving capability demands, including digital capabilities.
• Onboard talent. Onboard, support, and develop CJOC military and civilian staff to operate at full potential.
• Improve experience Prioritize CJOC working demands to improve employee experience.
• Retain workforce. Adapt staffing processes to retain key talent and address gaps in continuity and institutional knowledge.
• Based on the five themes, the Work Force Strategy aimed to deliver on core changes to CJOC’s workforce, position CJOC as an exciting place to work, deliver against focused priorities with the capabilities to support a modernized DND/CAF, and included twelve (12) action items:

1. Create an exciting place to work, with a strong reputation and advancement opportunities for all

Initiative 1	Affirm CJOC employee value proposition (EVP). Showcase the benefits of working at CJOC through a clearly articulated and compelling EVP grounded in career development/acceleration and mission impact. Deploy and champion this EVP up and down the ranks with the support of compelling content created for various communication channels, leading to an improved perception of CJOC as a place of work.
Initiative 6	Improve non-financial incentives/recognition for military. Create incentives requiring joint command experience for progression to recognize and reward members for demanding work, leading to an increased sense of recognition and reward for military members.
Initiative 19	Standardize CJOC onboarding and orientation. Deliver a consistent onboarding experience to all new joiners, ensuring they understand the structure, culture, and operations of CJOC, while equipping them with directly relevant content, relationships, and context to execute their specific role effectively, which will improve continuity in CJOC
Initiative 22	Establish sustainable working norms. Reset working expectations (sample practices: adjust expectations based on criticality of ongoing operations, restrict meeting hours, normalize 8-hour workdays, only email urgent items after hours, enable work from home for certain roles) through clear leadership mandates and culture shift to address issues with demanding work pace and lifestyle at CJOC.
Initiative 28	Develop more structured professional development opportunities for reservists and civilians. Create a more formalized approach to civilian and reservist career development within CJOC by providing training, supporting upward opportunities, and fostering mentorship (among other approaches) to enable CJOC to become an “employer of choice” and to improve attraction and retention of civilians and reservists. This initiative will become increasingly important as a larger proportion of highly skilled civilians are onboarded (e.g., data scientists, software engineers).

2. Define and focus on what matters – and match personnel to deliver effectively and efficiently with the use of digital tools and processes

Initiative 13	Develop and generate senior civilian roles across CJOC. Enhance the roles and responsibilities held by civilians within CJOC, along with the development of senior civilian advisors, to help address continuity issues of knowledge transfer loss due to shorter military posting rotations across CJOC.
Initiative 18	Codify CJOC operating model content (roles, tasks, responsibilities). Develop and regularly update ToRs to clarify branch, cell, and individual role responsibilities and ensure alignment between J-codes to reduce duplication of work. Regularly updated ToRs will support onboarding, help close gaps in continuity, and aid in the transfer hard-earned institutional knowledge.
Initiative 21	Centralize management of contractors across CJOC. Develop a role to centralize and streamline the procurement and approval process of contractors while ensuring that contractors are hired into roles that require specific expertise, which will improve CJOC’s ability to hire for specialized skills and roles (e.g., data engineer, DevSecOps programmer, internal systems specialist).
Initiative 24	Ensure most meaningful work is prioritized and accomplished. Define and adjust a prioritized task list and align roles and processes with the Commander’s priorities and CJOC’s mandate to improve the CJOC experience. This will be a common “source of truth” of work to be done (defined work and tasks), including sample templates of what “done” looks like.
Initiative 25	Assess processes to streamline and/or automate and leverage existing tools. Prioritize, test, and deploy digital tooling/automation products to streamline work where it matters and improve the CJOC experience. Assign personnel to implement products through a strategic hub and build a backlog of initiatives based on knowledge of existing pain points.

3. Build capabilities and skills to support a modern DND/CAF, adapted to future of warfare

Initiative 9

Increase and develop new Digital Specialist Roles within I2MC. Expanding technical staff within I2MC by 8 or more additional FTEs (via a targeted recruitment strategy for digital roles, prioritization of digital specialist staffing within CJOC) would greatly enhance the operational efficiency of CJOC by strengthening communication networks and developing machine learning for predictive threat assessment.

Initiative 17

Improve digital proficiency skillset across CJOC. Ensure a baseline level of digital competency for all CJOC staff through regimented digital trainings based on skill needs for current role and future role aspirations to increase efficiency in daily operations and reduce staff hours spent on manual processes.

• Recently, the final CJOC Workforce Strategy delivered by McKinsey was renamed to Our People: Immediate Action Plan and further adjusted by CJOC personnel to meet the immediate internal needs of the organization.
• This Action Plan is being used as a key element to guide CJOC workforce of the short-term workforce action plan and CJOC’s long-term Human Resources strategy.

Canadian Joint Operations Command Headquarters Evolution & Digitalization

Key Facts

Background

• CJOC Terms of Reference Review: McKinsey reviewed numerous internal documents and presentations to develop a new process and advised on an improved system for maintaining CJOC HQ staff’s Terms of Reference (TORs).
• A standard template for TORs was developed for all Defence Team members working at CJOC, CAF military and Federal Public Servant Employees. This TOR is intended to support all ranks from Pte/S3 up to Commander CJOC (VAdm/LGen). The TORs include basic responsibilities, authorities, qualifications and other common areas that clarify “who does what”.
• CJOC HQ Staff Orientation Programme – McKinsey led the development of a new CJOC HQ Staff Orientation Programme (CSOP), in close collaboration, consultation and under the direction of CJOC HQ personnel.
• The development of the programme included conducting a number of focus groups, working groups, and meetings to develop the content.
• An in-depth onboarding experience was developed over an 8-week period and included - deep dive modules for Director-level / Branch-level leadership learning packages with tailored onboarding materials, planning of skills and training requirements, support / coaching system, and workshops honing in on the skills with the biggest gaps.
• Two serials of CSOP were delivered by CJOC HQ personnel, under the mentorship guidance, and support of McKinsey personnel, who facilitated workshops and activities during the programme.
• Between the two CSOP serials, over 130 CJOC HQ personnel were oriented, with the programme receiving great feedback throughout.
• CJOC now has taken full ownership of the CSOP and plans to run serials at least twice a year, plus continuation training that is leveraging the work from McKinsey and its partnership with CJOC HQ, with the next training event scheduled for March 24.