Customer Service a Priority in All MDAs

The Government will be moving to standardise customer service delivery in Ministries.

This, by ensuring that service excellence is included in individuals’ performance appraisals.

The Performance Management Appraisal System (PMAS) is used in most Ministries to track the achievements of staff’s individual work plans and job output.

Principal Director in the Office of the Cabinet, Public Sector Modernisation Division (PSMD), Karlene McKenzie Spencer, told JIS News that good customer service deliverables will be reflected in persons’ PMAS.

“As a part of the performance management of all individuals and organisations, it’s important for us to include service excellence in our corporate plans. It becomes a part of the planning and a part of the operation of our Ministries; so all the service dimensions will be included in the operational plans,” she noted.

Mrs. McKenzie Spencer explained that the Service Excellence Policy encompasses all the aspects of customer service, and Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are keen on ensuring that staff members are familiar with the policy’s tenets.

“Once you have your operational and your corporate plans at the Ministry level, you know that you’re going to be going down into your individual plans and, as such, persons will be monitored against the services that they are expected to be delivering based on what is in your operational plans. In the shortest sense, the corporate plans for all MDAs will be reflecting the service excellence dimensions,” she said.

Mrs. McKenzie Spencer advised that members of the disabled community were considered when framing the Service Excellence Policy.

“The policy does speak to… the fact that there is a need for us to ensure that we’re putting in the necessary infrastructure to support them. So those are already included in the policy, and it must be implemented in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies,” she emphasised.

The Service Excellence Policy for the public sector was launched in July. It outlines key principles and minimum standards for all government entities, as well as the mechanism by which service excellence will be institutionalised in all MDAs.

The goal is to create a culture of service excellence across the public sector that drives the delivery of services meeting and exceeding citizens’ expectations.