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Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) delivers temporary income support to Canadians who are looking for employment, on parental leave, or unable to work for health reasons, through the Employment Insurance Income Benefits (EIIB) program.
The EIIB is one of the most highly visible programs in the federal government and belongs to one of the largest public service delivery networks. About 8,000 employees, primarily at the local level in 320 Human Resources Centres Canada (HRCCs) across Canada help deliver EIIB. The activities involve approximately 40 million enquiries concerning claims and activities, 2.5 million applications for benefits, and 20 million EI payments, nearly a third of which are made through direct deposit.
Clients receive information about the program in-person at the HRCCs, by phone (11 call centers), mail (10 mail centers), electronic mail (pilot project in the Montreal area), from kiosks (5,000 spread out across the country), and the Internet. Approximately 60% of the claims and applications are made through kiosks. The remaining claims for income support are dropped off by the claimant at a local office or sent by mail. In certain local centres, claims are received on the telephone.
In terms of service improvement for Canadians, the EIIB focuses on meeting its "operational responsibilities under the Employment Insurance Act and other legislation and programs through quality service and the efficient use of resources, which responds to the variable workload of the program".
To continuously improve the quality of service and its operations, the Employment Insurance (EI) Branch, which administers the program, produced in April 2001, the Insurance Quality Management Policy. This policy outlines specific objectives, a definition of quality, responsibilities at the national, regional, and local level, and various implementation practices such as feedback to staff, training, recognition, management plans, monitoring and reporting. According to the policy, quality refers to timeliness, accuracy, clarity of communication, fairness, and client satisfaction. The policy states that "to obtain the highest level of client satisfaction, services must be delivered in a manner that ensures all aspects of our service standards are met".
HRDC also developed a national commitment template to be posted and adapted at the local level. The template, entitled "Our Service Commitment" presents the following standards on courtesy, accuracy of information, waiting times, and receipt of payments within 28 days for EIIB:
The Service Commitment template allows HRCCs to specify other standards tailored to the needs and priorities of their clients.
The EI Branch completed an independent quality service survey of clients in April 2001, with plans to conduct further client satisfaction telephone surveys on a bi-annual basis. The survey was adapted from the Common Measurements Tool model and dealt with a series of questions such as whether clients were satisfied with the quality of service received, and had suggestions for improvement. Core questions focus on the two main channels of service (in-person, telephone) and the service commitments such as speed of service, competence courtesy, fairness, and ease of access. More than 3,000 clients responded to the survey. The results of the survey are intended to be used as a baseline for improving service to Canadians and will represent the main consultation instrument for revising the Insurance Quality Management Policy and the Service Commitment template.
The EI Branch is also making progress in measuring the extent to which commitments are met such as the speed of service and error rates in payments. The Branch provides results from its national sampling of accuracy of benefit payments annually in the Departmental Performance Report. It monitors the implementation of the Quality Management Policy and produces, each quarter for senior management, a national report of related activities (e.g., regional management action plans, training). The national report is available on the HRDC Intranet site. It has also begun producing a quarterly report focusing on results and trends related to incorrect payments, which are drawn from its comprehensive tracking system. Errors may stem from HRDC, the claimant or the employer.
The EI Branch has used quality service to Canadians as an outcome to demonstrate progress towards obtaining key results for its program, such as providing the highest quality of service for Canadians. As well, the EIB supports the National Quality Institute (NQI) Framework as a pilot initiative. The Branch undertook the NQI quality fitness test in three regions. In addition, four local HRCCs received ISO 9001 certification, and another office has plans to obtain certification for service quality.
As part of its accountability framework, the EI Branch has adopted a balanced scorecard approach (i.e., Dashboard) as a way to balance capacity and expectations in measuring and reporting performance.
The EIIB business line has exhibited the following exemplary practices in its approach to developing, implementing, monitoring and using its service standards:
Surveying Clients helps Ensure that Client Expectations can be Managed and Met
A Recognized Framework can Improve Management
Importance of Learning and Sharing
Restructuring can Help Make the Organization more Client-focused
For more information on quality management for the Employment Insurance Income Benefits program, please contact:
Georges Perron
Director
Insurance Quality Services
Employment Insurance Branch
Human Resources Development Canada
140 Promenade du Portage
Phase IV, 9th floor
Hull, Québec K1A 0J9
(819) 994-3184
georges.perron@hrdc-drhc.gc.ca