Ontario’s service approach

by Paul Crookall

Ontario is striving to achieve its service vision to be recognized for meeting or exceeding customer expectations for high quality, cost effective public services. Through its Service Framework, Ontario recognizes the need for enterprise management of end-to-end service delivery across an integrated network of service channels. The linkage between employee engagement and customer satisfaction is critical to the Service Framework.

Ontario is integrating its front and back office operations through the efforts of the Ministry of Government Services. Two ministry divisions, ServiceOntario and Ontario Shared Services, are changing the way services are delivered to the public and to internal government customers. Associate deputy ministers Bob Stark and David Hallett explained the reasons behind the changes.


SERVICEONTARIO
Beyond the Toolkit
ServiceOntario is the key service integrator and delivery arm for routine government transactions – across ministries, programs, over multiple channels, for both business and individual needs. In the long-term, ServiceOntario will be the starting point for every public-facing service offered by the Ontario government. “Our objective is to meet or exceed customer expectations with our service, solutions, leadership and people…every time,” said CEO Bob Stark, who has identified six critical success factors to meet that goal.

1. Brand Values
“As the province’s ‘retail expert’, ServiceOntario is committed to providing high-quality, cost-effective, integrated services across government. We are focused on outcomes and value provided by a sustained, dynamic and innovative workforce that meets customer expectations and improves customer satisfaction with government services,” he said. Four values are the essence of the brand – and using the concept of brand could prove useful in helping conceptualize what is needed to build trust in public service:

·     Access: seamlessly offer services that are fast, easy and convenient to find, use and understand: “People need to know where to go, that’s the first step in customer satisfaction.”

·     Value: provide high quality services, delivered in a timely manner and at a price that convinces Ontarians they are receiving real value – effectively putting their taxes to work.

·     Quality: focus on continuous improvement based on timeliness, professionalism, accurate information, consistent outcomes, and fair treatment. “We need to measure what we do to enhance our ability to track performance,” Stark commented. “We have designed our own ’STEP’ program (Success Through Effective Processes) to instill a process-oriented culture across ServiceOntario. We need to change our focus from reactive to proactive, and ensure that decisions are based on relevant and supportable data, rather than the folklore. We are committed to process and discipline to achieve consistency.”

·     Trust: “ServiceOntario will earn the trust of our customers by making protection of privacy, security, confidentiality and attention to accuracy paramount in the delivery of services,” Stark notes. Along with accessible, valuable, quality service, that should go a long way to building the brand.

These overlap somewhat with the Institute for Citizen Centred Service (ICCS) drivers. The importance of process quality across the organization is illustrated through one of the ICCS drivers – “staff are willing to go the extra mile.” Stark notes that when a staff member has to go the extra mile, it is often because the system is broken or dysfunctional. “We shouldn’t be asking them to go the extra mile every day. We should be fixing the systems.”

2. Service Offering
Despite the push to IT, half of Ontario citizens prefer to use the telephone to access government information, and a third prefer phones to apply for a program. So ServiceOntario responded by providing a central call centre and telephone support for the website. And in-person hasn’t been ignored. Unlike some private sector organizations, which drive people to their website and don’t provide phone support, or that charge more for a service delivered in person rather than on the web, ServiceOntario continues to provide in-person service. And is making it easier, by co-locating with federal offices where possible. Kiosks in high traffic malls provide license plate renewals, address changes, and fishing licenses. Multiple service options will be maintained, while encouraging e-access. Land Registry, for example, is now done online 85% of the time.

The first service guarantee, reported in our December 05 issue, has a very high success rate. Guarantees will gradually be extended to a wide range of online services.

3. Customer Service
“Our goal is quality service and customer satisfaction. Government has a distance to go on that, to be at the same level as the private sector,” Stark advises. “ServiceOntario allows us to concentrate on service delivery. We’re studying how to get better. We ask citizens – and find they are still confused about who provides what service and how to access it. We’re reaching out, meeting with private sector organizations to study their service operations. We’re looking at global research, and meeting with high quality organizations around the world.

“A service-oriented mindset is crucial for ServiceOntario to be successful. Staff must be energized to customer service at every level of the organization. To achieve this, we created ’ServiceOntario YOU‘ – an internal program that provides employees with specialized training, rewards and recognition in support of service delivery, and introduced the program to staff earlier this year. Staff had an opportunity to share and discuss our vision, mission and values. We asked for and received their suggestions, and had real and meaningful discussions about what excellence in service delivery means. Through ServiceOntario YOU we try to create a safe environment in which they can express their concerns; 80% of staff ‘get it’ and desire to be on board.”

4. Cost-Effective Service Delivery
Through strategic alignment and an organization-wide commitment, ServiceOntario is building a culture that promotes operational excellence and effective process management in all aspects of its service offerings, leading to cost effective service delivery.

5. Partnership
A reliable, accountable and agile infrastructure supporting strong delivery partnerships is crucial. “Building strong partnerships, both within the OPS and beyond, is critical to ServiceOntario’s success,” said Stark. “We are working with a number of stakeholders who are equally committed to helping us be successful in achieving our vision.”

6. High Performance Organization
A relative newcomer to public service – he previously worked at Imperial Oil, ScotiaBank, and Rogers – Stark marvels at the depth of experience and knowledge. “The calibre of people I have met within the OPS, and at ServiceOntario in particular, continues to impress me. Government does a lot of things right. In the private sector, outputs are clear and easy to measure – for example, profitability and cost reductions and productivity improvements. In the public sector, outputs are more long term and harder to measure.”

Increased employee engagement leads to improved organizational performance, which leads to improved customer satisfaction, which results in increased confidence and trust in public institutions.

Culture Change
Most people talk about needing culture change to facilitate service changes. But they often don’t have a plan. Stark says there are three key pieces: “(1) Move the organization to a customer focus, based on feedback about what customers think, and obtaining customer input – we must change the systems, and change our ability to serve; (2) establish processes that produce consistent, predictable results; and (3) build high employee engagement. All 1,400 staff in the organization need to be committed.

“Management needed to establish and communicate the vision, key priorities, brand values, and how those translated into behavioural expectations,” Stark said. “We set the direction, consistent with employee feedback. We drew out suggestions. We are about to start leadership training and coaching.”

A Good Place to Work
Being an employer of choice is important and Stark focuses on being supportive and encouraging staff to grow. He is high on communication, wanting to “create an enjoyable, productive, respectful environment with rewarding work.” A staff survey is underway to see how well they are doing.

Recruitment so far has not been a problem. “We’re a growing part of government. We’re not losing critical people. Some move on to other opportunities, but our opportunities draw others in.

”We have created the first stages of open communication. I now get emails – that didn’t happen before these meetings. We’ve acted on many suggestions to improve the work environment. For example, we worked with the unions to build a policy on converting contract staff to permanent employees. We’ve made services more accountable. We’ve built a community of practice in our intranet.”

Conclusion
ServiceOntario has won numerous awards from GTEC, CIPA, the PMI, and PSQF. The changes seem to have become part of a corporate mindset – it is a new culture, rather than an old culture that has embraced new tools and techniques. By focusing on the six success factors, the organization seeks to continue to improve.


ONTARIO SHARED SERVICES
The internal services counterpart to ServiceOntario is Ontario Shared Services (OSS). It provides enterprise transactional and supply chain services to government ministries using best practice service strategies.

As part of the government’s renewed modernization agenda, Ontario Shared Services was created in August 2004 by integrating the government’s former Shared Services Bureau and consolidating I&IT and non-I&IT procurement responsibilities.

As the next generation of shared services, OSS focused on improving service levels, significantly increasing productivity and reducing transactional costs. It was tasked by the government to enable $200 million in savings, revenue and cost structure flexibility by the end of fiscal 2007–2008, a goal they are well on their way to realizing.

OSS has achieved significant results in the past two years by focusing on the delivery of core services, eliminating non-core services, developing strategic partnerships with key stakeholders and its customers, and harnessing the talents of its 1400-strong professional workforce.

OSS is guided by five strategic thrusts:

·     Reducing product and service costs ensures the government gets the best value from its vendors, service providers, including OSS.

·     Simplifying processes and automating where possible by deploying self-service technologies, pursuing enterprise-resource solutions, and standardizing processes.

·     Streamlining policies to facilitate the simplification and automation of processes thereby reducing product and service costs.

·     Promoting smart consumption saves money and uses fewer resources by providing staff with tools to help them make informed decisions.

·     Engaging staff in the pursuit of OSS’ vision and business strategies and ensuring their ideas are harnessed to achieve increased levels of organizational excellence.

Productivity, Costs and Quality
Ontario Shared Services’ adherence to its five strategic thrusts has allowed it to drive in efficiencies, drive out costs and improve overall service levels to its customers.

“OSS has expended significant effort to measure productivity, costs, and quality across its entire suite of services,” David Hallett explained. “Our Performance Measurement Framework enables us to link activities to outcomes and results.

”We have increased the services available through our internal government enterprise portal to 72 from 40, with only a 5% increase in our I&IT infrastructure budget. The net effect is that the overall cost of each service is now lower due to the aggregation breakthrough we have been able to achieve.

“We deployed iExpenses, the government’s electronic business expense claims system, which reduced the processing time of travel claims from weeks to days, and allowed the organization to redirect existing resources to other higher value work.”

On a typical financial transaction, OSS has reduced processing costs by 27% in the past two years and increased the number of total payments processed per Accounts Payable FTE by 42%. The total cost to manage the government’s P-Card and T-Card program has reduced by over 14% since 2004, and the per unit cost for payroll payments has gone down 8.6% over the last two years while the number of transactions processed per payroll employee has increased 13%.

Through its supply chain management division, OSS has put in place enterprise contracting arrangements that leverage better prices for OPS clients through volume buying and reducing multiple repetitive procurements by individual ministries.

Customer feedback is continuous through the contact centre and the enterprise portal. To strengthen existing customer inputs OSS is implementing a Customer Value Framework to embed current practices, formalize customer metrics and build Service Charters for managing joint accountability with ministries for OSS services and resources and to establish formal service standards for all offerings. “We are currently piloting four service standards as a renewed commitment to service improvement.”

Creating a Good Workplace
The productivity agenda is challenging. And it can’t be achieved without creating a healthy workplace. Hallett recognizes that engagement is a key strategic driver. “We have a focused strategy to engage staff,” he reports. “Each year, the executive management team travels across the province to meet with OSS staff in a ‘Town Hall’ setting – we talk with staff, discuss progress against our business strategy, recognize their efforts, and celebrate our collective successes. These are popular events as demonstrated by the 97.8% participation rate during the last round of town halls.

“We’ve implemented an Ideas Program, which is about engagement and continuous improvement by tapping the collective ideas and efforts of staff. Since the launch of the program 18 months ago, 400 ideas have been put forth, and 90 have been implemented so far. The program is employee-led and focuses on low- or no-cost solutions to increase efficiency and streamline processes. I visit each of our Centres of Excellence twice a year to hear first hand from staff about their ideas and progress.

“We have a Service Excellence Program, which is designed to formally and informally recognize and celebrate staff achievements. It features continuous informal recognition; a ‘Wall of Fame’ at each Centre of Excellence; and an annual awards event. We invite our customers to celebrate with us and recognize staff in the categories of (1) customer service, (2) innovation, (3) valuing people, and (4) leadership.”

What’s Next for OSS?
Hallett notes that “while the organization has achieved significant results over the past two years, there are many more opportunities for us to pursue. To that end, our senior leadership is currently engaged in developing growth strategies for each of our business lines to ensure our business remains efficient and relevant to our customers across the Ontario Public Service. Potentially down the road, once we have built capacity in our core services, we may look to offer some of our services to broader public sector organizations such as municipalities, universities and hospitals.”


For more on Ontario Shared Services and ServiceOntario, visit www.ontario.ca.