Project Description

Bronson was hired to support the Chief Quality Officer at the Translation Bureau to develop a Quality Enhancement Action Plan. This project involved document review and research including Proceedings and Report of a Standing House of Commons and Senate Committee. Bronson led consultations with all Vice-Presidents representing the Bureau’s sectors as well as with the President of the Bureau to discuss opportunities for practical measures to enhance quality within the Bureau. Bronson approached the development of a Quality Enhancement Action Plan and related Quality Enhancement Framework in an iterative manner alongside the the Chief Quality Officer.

The Quality Enhancement Action Plan was structured to align with the Bureau’s recently developed Modernized Vision and the content was developed to record the quality measures already in place and additional actions that could be reasonably implemented within a two-year time frame.

Business Challenge

The Translation Bureau reports to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada and supports the Government of Canada in its efforts to serve Canadians and to communicate with them in both official languages. The Bureau is the sole internal linguistic services provider in the Government of Canada.

In June 2016, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages completed a study of the Translation Bureau in response to concerns that the quality of translation and other linguistic services provided by the Translation Bureau was on the decline. To respond to this study and related concerns, the Bureau created and filled the position of Chief Qualify Officer. A first task of the Chief Quality Officer was to develop a two-year Quality Action Plan to capture all quality measures underway and/or planned for implementation with the intention of reporting back on progress to the Standing Committee annually in order to be held accountable for its commitments.

Our Solution and Outcome

Bronson worked closely with the newly named Chief Quality Officer of the Translation Bureau who was charged with the responsibility of responding to a report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Officials Languages that observed concerns over the quality of translation and other linguistic services provided by the Bureau.

This assignment required Bronson to develop an understanding of the history and evolution of the Bureau as well as a detailed understanding of the content of the Report of the House of Commons Standing Committee and related concerns about quality of services through an extensive document review and related research. Consultation with senior Bureau officials representing each sector were conducted to gain insight into current quality improvement activities underway and potential additional measures that could reasonably be undertaken and realized. Following consultation, Bronson undertook to develop a Quality Enhancement Action Plan that aligns with the Bureau’s new Modernized Vision and, once implemented, will ensure an improvement in quality of services delivered. The Action Plan was structured to provide detail on timeline, responsibility and method of performance measurement and tracking.

The Chief Quality Officer is responsible for continuously monitoring progress against action plan items, participating in development of strategies to implement all actions and to measure and reporting on performance against this action plan through the Departmental Results Framework. The Quality Enhancement Action Plan developed by Bronson was structured to facilitate this task and to track progress. In addition, the Quality Enhancement Action Plan was designed to serve as a living document that can be updated as required.