Posted on 09/25/2016 7:16:56 PM PDT by Loyalist
OTTAWA — The National Film Board spent $96,000 on focus groups and workshops for its own staff between November and June, including $75,000 to determine office layouts and workplace strategy — a bill the Canadian Taxpayers Federation calls “ridiculous.”
The agency hired consultants at Grisvert Inc. to conduct focus group research on physical office layouts and “organizational transformation” for two new offices in Montreal and Toronto, each project costing $21,000.
It also hired Deloitte LLP to consult with NFB employees on a “digital workplace strategy,” costing $33,000. Just under $20,000 more was spent on several workshops held for staff, though $12,000 of that was for a three-month project management contract, of which a workshop was only one part.
Aaron Wudrick, president of the CTF, said with the office layout and workplace strategy fees, there’s “no justifiable reason” to spend so much surveying your own staff. Other options are available for free, he noted — typed questionnaires, or websites with anonymous survey forms, for example. He said it was the first time he had seen a government entity focus grouping itself.
Lily Robert, a spokesperson for the NFB, said the agency is soon planning to move its Toronto office because a rent agreement is up this December, while it is completing a project to relocate its headquarters to Montreal by 2018 in a facility that complies with “production needs in the digital world,” which the old office space couldn’t accommodate, and also follows the government’s “Workplace 2.0” open-concept standards.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...
But that's just me, from my work experience over the years with Deloitte employees.
Canadia...it’s like a whole ‘nuther country up there.
Oh the money you can piss away when it isn’t yours. Pathetic.
At least there was no groping. That would be wrong.
It’s probably excessive. But if it’s a relocation and remodel as opposed to building from the ground up, you’re probably saving a bunch of money getting all the input and buy-in now and sorted out. As opposed to ~400 government employees complaining and submitting work orders ad-nauseum to make their work space just-so when they’re shifted from one place to another.
Now they can say: “This is what you wanted. This is what you’re getting and why” and nip all that expensive carping right out.
“...government employees complaining and submitting work orders ad-nauseum to make their work space just-so...”
There’s the problem.
Canada has a film board??
Who knew.
You’re absolutely correct — this is a good way to get “buy-in”, and minimize future problems. It’s all part of the architectural design process.
I would vote for a bed under my desk. When I was 25, it would have been fun. Now, it would be for naps.
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