Public Sector
 

Building a path to better decision-making
Category: Education & Regulation

This study focused on the information needs of Canadians under 35 as they grapple with key life events.  Using a combination of online focus groups, personal interviews and internet survey, we investigated the best way to reach “the right people at the right time with the right information”. (Education & Regulation)

Future of the Public Sector in Canada (5 Studies)
Category: Lending & Other Services; Education & Regulation; Treasury Services  

How will the public sector build the capacity it needs?  How does economic sustainability relate to the environment?  What new types of integrated services will we see?  How will urbanization, immigration and an aging population change the future?  These topics and more are addressed in this opinion leader study based on in-depth personal interviews with the most influential people shaping the future of the public sector, as nominated by their peers. Participants include deputy ministers, mayors, executives, association heads, think tank leaders, academics, and other selected experts. The study identifies how the public sector will develop over the next 5-10 years and why this will happen. Royal Bank of Canada is the sponsor for the work. The study includes a special section on funding & payment transactions that identifies key services that a bank can provide to help its public sector clients prepare for the future. A very brief overview of each sector is available by clicking the link below.

      Federal & Provincial Government
Municipalities
Healthcare
Public Education (K-12)
Post-Secondary Education (PSE)

Setting Service Standards for a Crown Corporation
Category: Treasury Services, Consulting-Organizational Support 

Thousands of pages have been written on what matters to trade clients but most is just a re-hash of well-known principles from industrial psychology.  There is little proof of what aspects of service make the most difference to client loyalty and spending.  In addition to interviewing benchmark competitors, our work reviewed existing research (including our own) to identify what changes client behaviour for better or worse.  In cooperation with our client, we then developed a framework for comprehensive service standards for the very few things that really matter to clients.  The standards are tested with clients for appropriateness and impact.  A strategy for implementation is the final element of the project.

Public Perception of International Aid & Development

Category: Synthesis

 
What do Canadians think about foreign aid, hunger, poverty?  What are Canadian public attitudes towards NGO’s and what is our knowledge of MDG’s?  We conducted a literature review to explore the existing sources of Canadian and international public opinion related to international development and aid.  We also looked for sources of Canadian opinion of the Government’s contribution to reducing poverty around the world.  Searches were conducted using both proprietary sources and public search engines.  A synthesis of information was provided in a written report, along with a bibliographic matrix, and a list of best sources to keep abreast of and maintain up-to-date knowledge of public perception on development/aid in Canada and around the world.

Assessing Eligibility for Licensure

Category: Education & Regulation

An Act creating the possibility of broader public accounting licensure rights also stipulated that the standards for granting licensure rights should be no less rigorous than those already used.  After consultation plus literature and document review, we created a process that made it possible for accounting bodies to demonstrate the rigour of their standards compared to a benchmark.  The test of substantial equivalence in our process focuses primarily on education, experience and examinations, as well as competencies developed.  Preparation programs are judged on coverage of competencies, internal consistency, external rigor and compliance with professional standards.

National Infrastructure For Electronic Health Records
Category:  Health Administration

Electronic Health Records (EHR) are increasingly part of our health care system, but access to them remains in the paper based paradigm. What would be the impact of an infrastructure creating a comprehensive EHR system on a national scale -- not as a replacement for local systems but as a central repository for information on patient care of all kinds? This study looks at the economic and social impact of this kind of system for representative groups of patients. Expert reviews of information flow and patient care are compared, before and after creating a comprehensive system. We look at the use of information across the health care system when dealing with a patient episode and the kinds of benefits that would accrue from better access to a wide range of reliable information. Concerns of data integrity and privacy are also part of the discussion. Expert opinion establishes both the economic value and the quality of care benefits that are likely to follow from this kind of system.

Selling Government Debt in the Retail Market
Category: Retail & Investment

Two studies fit under this title. The first study looked at retail market appetite for government debt including how to package and distribute government debt in different ways to broaden consumer holdings. The second study, done on behalf of a group of banks, identified the appropriate distribution costs for bank sales of government debt based on comparison with comparable sales in the brokerage community.

Future of Healthcare in Canada

Category: Lending & Other Services; Healthcare ; Treasury Services

This is a massive opinion leader study based on in-depth personal interviews with 80 of the most influential people in healthcare today, as nominated by their peers. Participants include deputy ministers, academics, hospital executives, healthcare practitioners and other qualified parties. The aim is to identify how healthcare will develop over the next 5-10 years and why this will happen. Royal Bank of Canada and Manulife Financial are sponsoring the work. The study includes a special report on funding & financing issues for RBC, as well as a special report on insurance & benefits for Manulife Financial. Link to Overview of Findings.

Work Flow Project

Category:  Health Administration

Hospitals, Emergency Rooms, and clinics are busy and complex places. One way to understand inefficiencies and improve the timeliness of care is to follow the patient through a typical care encounter, and identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies. It is important to have all key stakeholders involved in this exercise, however, as changes made in one part of the system without full consultation may increase inefficiencies in another part of the organization. This project combined the perceptions and experiences of a wide variety of caregivers from all sites within a multi-site care facility to provide a detailed flow chart of patient flow through the system in a typical encounter. This allowed the identification of bottlenecks and inefficiencies from multiple points of view. Management of this project included facilitating the design of the process, the set up of the sessions (with appropriate neutral outside facilitators), analysis of the session output, creation of the flow charts, and identification of action plans and implementation strategies. Follow-up to the project included ongoing formative evaluation of activities, and identification of activities still needed.

Review & Future Plans for Quality and Utilization Management Programs

Category:  Health Administration

The Quality and Utilization Management Program at a large community hospital was felt to be an important influence on patient care management processes. It has been cited as a benchmark program for external facilities as an example of successful approaches to managing resources and patient access to hospital services. In light of the changes within the hospital and in the external community, a project was initiated to conduct a review to determine future plans for this program within the hospital.
Through consultation with various internal stakeholders, various goals were identified for the review. A confidential, semi-structured interview process was utilized with all stakeholder groups. The final report was structured around the goals, identified common themes and specific key concerns identified in the review process, and included recommendations regarding new structures, adapted processes, and valued elements to retain. Click here to see a Brief Overview.

Communication Strategy
Category: Communications Support, Education & Regulation

Worked with a federal government entity in financial services, developing a 3-year strategy for communicating their mission to the public. The strategy began with the identification of target groups based on group size, analysis of awareness patterns, literacy levels, financial need and risk of financial losses. An analysis of daily activities and media usage habits was used to identify methods of reaching the target groups. The work is now moving into development of targeted messages and delivery strategies.

Strategy for a Financial Protection Company
Category: Education & Regulation

We developed a strategy for increasing general awareness of a financial industry protection company and specific awareness of its coverage. This included identification of target groups based on several criteria that indicate a "need to know" about its coverage, as well as a long-term strategy for better communicating with these target groups.  The strategy development began with the identification of target groups based on group size, awareness patterns, product understanding, financial need and risk of financial losses.  Specific communication strategies were identified for each target group based on their preferred means of communication and the key messages that would be effective for reaching them.            

Design of Survey Instruments – Provincial Study of Primary Care Processes

Category:  Health Administration

In order to effectively move primary care record-keeping to an electronic environment, one needs to understand the critical information flows. As part of a larger study for a provincial government, we created survey instruments to track communications flows related to primary care. The instruments identified the source and destination of communications, their nature, the information conveyed and the priority level of information exchanged. Instruments were designed to identify both frequency and importance of information, so that a system geared to both considerations could be developed.

Financial Literacy Program Gets into Gear
Category: Communications Support, Education & Regulation

After a year of in-depth research with consumers and advisors, we completed an Event-based Learning Guide for the Investor Education Fund -- an affiliate of the Ontario Securities Commission. The Learning Guide follows the decision-making path of consumers from a triggering event through the initial tough decisions to taking action. At each step of the way, we have recorded the questions that consumers want answered in their own words. These have been formed into 94 learning modules, each with its own objective. The Investor Education Fund is now translating this work into learning packages for their website. Keep on eye on www.investored.ca next year to see how the initiative develops.

Response to Triggering Life Events
Category: Communications Support, Education & Regulation

Most people only look at their financial situation when a life event forces them to make decisions. In-depth personal interviews coupled with statistical analysis of comments in transcripts highlights the main issues faced at these times and the information people need to make decisions. Results show how education matched to decision paths and literacy levels can help people make better decisions.
 

Emergency Preparedness in Financial Matters
Category: Education & Regulation

This qualitative study looks at potential consumer reactions to the failure of three different kinds of financial institutions.  It identifies a range of public expectations in the aftermath of a financial failure, as well as assessing public perceptions of potential failure for different kinds of financial institutions.

Impact of Financial Institution Mergers
Category: Insurance & Pensions, Regulation

As governments scrutinize financial institution mergers, they wonder what is best for their country. The two key questions seem to be “What types of mergers most benefit domestic consumers?” and “What types of mergers help build the country’s ability to compete internationally?” Since politicians are often guided by a mix of national opinion leaders and informed local public opinion, we set out to understand what these groups think about FI mergers. Link to Overview of Findings.  Version Français

Listed Companies Say More Disclosure Will Help Them
Category: Regulation, Investment

Institutional investors, pension funds and listed companies themselves applauded the introduction of new rules to improve uniformity of disclosure requirements for publicly-traded companies. Institutional investors in our recent study (commissioned by the TSX) indicated that changes in disclosure will encourage them to invest more in smaller issuers, notwithstanding the limitations of small cap investing by large investors. Both listed companies and institutional investors believe that new disclosure rules will improve public perceptions of transparency and consistency in their market, while improving issuer access to capital.

Global Assessment of Credit Default Insurance
Category: Insurance, Treasury Services

This study began with a detailed review of the websites of major competitors in the business including both ECA and private trade insurers.  This was combined with interviews with suppliers and senior bankers to develop a clear view of future trends in the market, as well as identifying gaps in needed products.

Life Licensure Review Completed
Category: Insurance, Education & Regulation

The Brondesbury Group completed its detailed review of the Life Licensure Qualifying Program examination, including content review by subject matter experts and a statistical review of test performance. The review, which includes recommendations for improving the exam and its administration, is posted on the website of the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators. This challenging assignment joins industry and educational expertise to review examination results and use them to improve the test and its impact in the future.

Standards of Exam Administration
Category: Education & Regulation, Organizational Support

This study identifies 118 generally accepted standards for administration of licensure exams in financial services, as well as identifying 103 practices that exceed generally accepted standards. The guiding principle for the standards is “due and reasonable care” which entails anticipating likely processes and problems, creating written standards to guide process and monitoring compliance. The standards themselves blend a review of documents, research studies, industrial psychology principles, site visits and interviews with organizations involved in credentialing in financial services.  Link to report.

LINKS TO OTHER STUDIES IN:

Health Administration

Patient Care