Service Excellence at AAFC It s everybody s business! A non-traditional approach to the development and implementation of external service standards Performance and Planning Exchange March 2 nd, 2010
What is AAFC? Raison d'être: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is an economic and science-based department that works to ensure Canada's agriculture, agri-food and agri-based products sector is able to compete in international and domestic markets to derive economic returns to the sector and the Canadian economy as a whole. Responsibilities: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) provides information, research and technology, and policies and programs to help Canada's agriculture, agri-food and agribased products sector increase its environmental sustainability, compete in markets at home and abroad, manage risk, and embrace innovation. Strategic Outcomes: An environmentally sustainable agriculture, agri-food and agri-based products sector A competitive agriculture, agri-food and agri-based products sector that proactively manages risk An innovative agriculture, agri-food and agri-based products sector 2
AAFC s service transformation agenda Our Service Excellence Vision: To be a leader in the design and implementation of citizen-centered, responsive programs and services that contribute to a profitable and sustainable agriculture and agri-food sector. Initiatives to help AAFC better understand clients Client Profiles Service Delivery Satisfaction Surveys and Analysis Initiatives to help AAFC better communicate its offerings Call Centre Initiative Content Management System Service Inventory Service Standards Web Portal Initiatives to help AAFC enhance and improve delivery with partners Architecture, Privacy and Security Grants and Contributions Delivery System 3
Service Standards Approved AAFC approach On November 18 th, 2008, AAFC Departmental Management Committee approved an approach for the management of service standards: 1. Publish service standards that currently exist; 2. Ensure that all new programming has service standards that are published; 3. Work with existing programs to develop, publish and track service standards; and 4. Put emphasis on programs subject to the Transfer Payment Policy. Our 2009 2010 objective is that 75% of programs and services delivered directly to external clients by AAFC will have develop and publish service standards by April 2010. Currently we are working with thirty-four (34) programs and services towards the publishing of their service standards. 4
AAFC s non-traditional approach Development Process The academic approach suggests that you need to implement your internal service standards before establishing external service standards. As we didn t have any success with the above approach over the years, AAFC is now focusing on external standards. Therefore, throughout the last year, we have worked bi-laterally with programs and services to facilitate the development of Service Standards across the organization. We are using a one-on-one, end-to-end approach where each step of the program s business process is studied to determine where service standards could be established. We didn t use a working group approach because of the diversity of mandate within the organization. 5
Our non-traditional approach Review Process Approval authority for the implementation and publication of service standards has been established at the Assistant Deputy Ministers (ADM) level. Partnerships have been established with enabling teams: Legal Services will review service standards statements to ensure no legal liabilities are created; and Communication and Consultation Branch will facilitate the process of capturing and publishing service standards on the departmental website. Reporting Approach(2010-2011) External reporting Each program to report yearly on their own web page; AAFC to report yearly on the Service Standards web page; and AAFC to set yearly internal targets in the RPP and report in the DPR. Internal reporting Report quarterly on performance against service standards to AAFC employees (via AgriSource) and to the committee to be chaired by the Associate Deputy Minister. 6
Ministerial approval challenges In AAFC, twenty-five (25) Grants and Contributions Programs currently requires Minister s approval in AAFC. A commitment on project approval turn-around time from the Minister s office is essential to the successful implementation of service standards. To address this issue, consultation was undertaken within the department and the following formal proposal was put together and will be presented to the Minister s office by our Deputy Minister. We are recommending a : 10 day turn-around for projects up to $5 million; and 15 day turn-around for projects over $5 million. To facilitate the process, the Center of Program Excellence has been working hard to streamline the project approval process by proposing a project approval submission template to the Minister s staff that would include information they require to take a decision. 7
Potential legal implications Early in the process, we established a partnership with Legal Services. With their support, it was agreed that they would review all service standard statements before their publication to ensure no legal liabilities are created. Again, with the help of our Legal Services, a template web page was developed to mitigate the risk of being sued for not meeting our service standards. It contains standardized wording to clearly communicate to our clients that our published service standards represents the level of performance that they can reasonably expect to encounter from AAFC under normal circumstances. Finally we also agreed that all our service standards statements will use the same wording: «Our goal is to» instead of «We will». 8
Example of standardized wording Service Standards at AAFC-AAC Service standards publicly state the level of performance that citizens can reasonably expect to encounter from AAFC under normal circumstances. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) is committed to developing, monitoring and reporting on service standards in areas of importance to its clients and benefit recipients. Taking into consideration historical performance and the expectations of our service users, AAFC sets standards that are intended to be challenging, attainable with effort, affordable, and meaningful to service users. We publish external service standards to highlight our commitment to transparent management, accountability for results, and citizen-centred service delivery. Canadian Agricultural Loans Act (CALA) Service Standards Under normal circumstances: Our goal is to register loans received from lenders within 15 business days. 9
What our clients are telling us The AAFC 2007 and 2009 Producer Client Satisfaction Survey and Growing Forward National Consultations confirm that clients would benefit from the establishment of service standards as they have identified that timeliness ranked as the most important driver of satisfaction, followed by accessibility of services, lack of burden on clients and completeness of information. Acceptable Timeframes to Respond/Complete Various Tasks Receive and process program 2009 applications 2007 1 3 7 17 32 29 41 29 12 11 8 7 1 2 Make final decisions on program 2009 applications 2007 1 2 8 11 27 38 33 37 15 9 9 5 2 3 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Less than 24 hours 1-5 days 6-15 days 16-30 days 31-60 days 61+ days DK/NA/Ref Q13. (2009) Generally speaking, what do you consider to be an acceptable amount of time for Government to complete the following task? Q.B15 (2007) Generally speaking, what do you consider to be an acceptable amount of time for AAFC to complete the following task Base: All respondents 10