ARCHIVED - Quality Services - An Overview

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Foreword

Canadians want better-quality services from all levels of government. For instance, they want friendly, respectful, courteous service; faster response times; extended hours at government offices; "one-stop shopping." At the same time, Canadians are demanding that governments reduce deficits and get value for the money they spend, so that governments and all parts of society can support Canadian competitiveness in a global marketplace.

These demands are not new, but as Canadians have become increasingly critical of governments, the pressure for change has increased.

Within the federal government, departments have already done much to address these demands. However, departments, and the government as a whole, must now use dwindling resources to provide Canadians with quality services that are relevant, responsive, accessible and affordable.

One means of doing this is through a quality service approach to management, which clearly stresses client satisfaction, employee involvement and innovation. In this approach, all employees contribute to the management and quality of their own outputs and, thus, to the success of the organization. Strong growing evidence suggests that a quality approach to management can yield dramatic results. Remarkable improvements in federal government service delivery to Canadians have occurred. For example, waiting periods for tax refunds (for millions of Canadians) have been reduced from months to weeks. Canada Business Service Centres across the country now provide "one-stop" shopping for business. And, after consulting with importers, the government has simplified customs procedures, saving businesses tens of millions of dollars.

Our challenge is to build on these improvements.

To help departments meet this challenge, many dedicated members of the Public Service from various departments have helped develop this series of guides. To a great extent, the guides are built on best practices and lessons learned in the federal government, other levels of government and the private sector. Continuous improvement, a cornerstone of quality, applies to these guides as it does to all areas of quality. To keep the guides as current as possible, we intend to update them periodically, based on ongoing lessons learned from departmental work in progress or now in the planning stage. Your comments are essential. Please forward them to:

Innovative and Quality Services Group
Financial Information and Management Branch
Treasury Board Secretariat
L'Esplanade Laurier
140 O'Connor Street, 10th Floor, East Tower
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0R5

Fax: (613) 954-9094

As well, the final version of the Declaration of Quality Services Principles is included in this overview to the guides. The Declaration was released as a draft for consultation in December 1994. The final version reflects extensive consultation with employees. I hope you find that it now reflects the basic principles we all want to follow in delivering quality services.

Delivering relevant, responsive, accessible and affordable quality services is not an easy task, given today's environment of discerning citizens, fiscal restraint and downsizing. However, based on the federal Public Service's international reputation for excellence, the many departmental successes to date, and the enthusiasm with which Public Service employees are working to improve the delivery of services, I am confident we are well positioned to meet the challenges ahead.

Art Eggleton
President of the Treasury Board

Introduction

This overview to the Quality Services series of guides establishes a context for adopting a quality service approach in management. The overview contains the Declaration of Quality Services Principles, identifies the characteristics of a quality organization and discusses the benefits of taking a quality service approach.

The Quality Services series of guides includes guides on the following topics:

• client consultation
• measuring client satisfaction
• working with unions
• establishing a supportive learning environment
• recognition of individuals and teams
• employee surveys
• service standards
• benchmarking and best practices
• communications

Building on departmental successes to date, these guides will provide, where available, examples, references and best practices. We plan to add other guides to the Quality Services series, which you can use as tools to plan for action. In fact, we are currently working on two additional guides: a guide to quality services in a regulatory environment, and a guide to identifying and interacting with the many client groups served by the public sector. If you have suggestions for potential topics, we would be pleased to hear from you.

Clients In The Public Sector Environment

The Public Service operating environment is a complex universe of policy making, regulation, administration, enforcement, programs and service delivery. There are services that the government provides for which one can easily identify a client, such as the recipient of a social benefit cheque. However, the government is also in the business of regulation, enforcement and inspection. In these cases, it is often more difficult to identify a particular client. Sometimes that client may not want the service, as in the case of a tax audit.

There may be several different clients for each government service. There are direct and indirect clients, each of whom may have different concerns or expectations, which may conflict. Direct clients interact with the government by choice, by entitlement, or as a result of laws or regulations that require them to do so. These clients may include an individual receiving an Unemployment Insurance cheque or someone seeking assistance in applying for a government grant. Indirect clients receive a collective benefit from a government service. These clients may include a local business community or all members of the public affected by health, safety, fairness and equity measures.

Government must balance the needs of direct clients with those of indirect clients who, as taxpayers, have an interest in both the efficiency and effectiveness of the public sector.

In addition to direct and indirect clients, there are external clients, such as the general public, and internal clients, such as departmental employees who receive services from their corporate sector (e.g. payroll or printing). This diversity of clients, which sets us apart from the private sector, merits our full attention when we are implementing quality services.

The following Declaration of Quality Services Principles confirms the Government of Canada's commitment to successfully improving client satisfaction and the quality of service provided to Canadians within our resources.

The Declaration of Quality Services Principles is a statement of tenets. Departments may wish to mould these guidelines to fit their own needs as they actively seek to better meet the needs of their clients.

DECLARATION OF QUALITY SERVICES PRINCIPLES

The Government of Canada is committed to delivering quality services to Canadians. Our clients can expect to receive service that:

• is prompt, dependable and accurate;
• is courteous, and respects individual rights, dignity, privacy and safety;
• is good value for money, and is consolidated for improved access and client convenience;
• reflects a clear disclosure of applicable rules, decisions and regulations;
• respects the Official Languages Act;
• is regularly reviewed and measured against published service standards, and these reviews are communicated to clients; and
• is improved wherever possible, based on client suggestions, concerns and expectations.
  
  

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