POLICY GOVERNANCE AND DEVELOPMENT

Business Challenge
After undergoing a large-scale transformation of their organization, processes, and financial systems, the finance division of a large government agency identified the need to address their financial management policies and procedures. As a result of the transformation, many new policies needed to be defined. In addition, several of the existing financial management policies were out of date and some had not been reviewed in 10 – 15 years. The finance division identified the need to establish a Policy Council to address these initial policy needs and maintain the policies on an ongoing basis.

Solution
The finance division sought Eagle Hill’s support to address these challenges through two efforts:

1. Establish a Policy Council to provide the mechanism for managing policies
2. Assess and update the financial management policies and procedures

Establishing a Policy Council involved defining a framework for charter, launching the Policy Council, working with the Policy Council membership to define a the charter and facilitating the initial meetings. Eagle Hill worked with the client to define the scope of the Policy Council, identify which groups within the agency needed to be represented on the council and outline the possible timing, location and length of meetings. During the initial and subsequent Policy Council meetings, the membership needed to finalize their charter and agree on how the council would operate. Eagle Hill served as both the facilitator and solution architect during these meetings.

Updating the policies and procedures entailed assessing the current policies, updating out-of-date policies and procedures and defining new policies. To assess the status of the current policy documentation, Eagle Hill conducted a series of interviews with staff and other stakeholders. Based on these interviews and analysis of the documentation, Eagle Hill provided the client with a detailed inventory of existing policies requiring revisions and new policies that needed to be developed. Eagle Hill worked with finance staff and the Policy Council to prioritize the policy updates and new policy development. Then, working closely with the client, Eagle Hill managed the process for updating and implementing policy updates, with oversight from the new Policy Council.

Results Achieved
As a result of Eagle Hill’s efforts, the client quickly understood the status of their current policies and procedures and understood the steps that needed to be taken to update and maintain them through a Policy Council. The establishment of a Policy Council provided the client with the capability to make informed decisions about policies, keep the policies up-to-date, make policy changes more quickly and build accountability about policy decision-making throughout the organization. In addition, the updated policies are compliant with Federal and Department directives, regulations and laws and provide employees with clear direction by reflecting current policies and procedures.

INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT

Government
Leaders in the Federal Government continually face the challenge of improving service to US citizens, meeting new mandates and accomplishing more with limited resources.

Eagle Hill Consulting is an 8(a) certified, woman-owned, small business and has professionals with Secret and Top Secret clearances. Our consultants are seasoned professionals who build innovative solutions for the government based on private and public-sector best practices. Read more.