At the end of this month (April) some of the province’s top civil servants and public sector executives will be getting together for an unusual, some would even say ground-breaking, event.
In a surprising twist, members of the Chief Executives’ Forum - who usually meet to explore topics like public sector governance and accountability - will be taking advice on customer service from retail giant ASDA.
Nick Scrase, Commercial Director Fresh Food, will be telling them how ASDA identifies customer needs and works hard to match their expectations as part of a quirkily entitled workshop, ‘Walk A Mile In My Shoes … Delivering for the Customer’. During the session Mr Scrase will explain how ASDA’s fixation with its customers drives and shapes its business.
It’s the first event in the Forum’s Smarter Public Services programme (SPS), which aims to challenge public sector leaders to think and act smarter in order to meet growing customer expectation, ever-tightening budgets and demanding service reforms.
Two more sessions, one examining how state-of-the-art technologies can assist in better service design and delivery, and the other on effective transformational leadership in an era of transparency and accountability, will follow in June.
Throughout all the events, which feature world class experts and interactive technology, the Forum’s members will be encouraged to address public service issues within the wider societal context.
John Hunter, the Forum’s chair, said: “This programme is very much about transforming the public sector against a backcloth of ever-tightening budget settlements: a constant questioning of what we do and need to do to deliver modern, high quality public services and play our part in shaping a positive future for the people of Northern Ireland.”
The programme is collaboration with eircom Northern Ireland who, through its innovative communications services, helps organisations in the public sector and the wider business community leverage ICT to achieve their goals. Eircom Northern Ireland is keen to promote next generation thinking. They bring to the Smarter Public Services debate technological expertise through their cutting edge informational and teleconferencing tools.
It’s a bold and challenging experiment which aims to reveal a new world of possibilities and new thinking about how public services can be delivered.
John Hunter said the programme looked to the challenges facing the public sector, particularly in the context of year-on-year reductions in public expenditure anticipated over the next three to four years.
“The public sector cannot operate, or exist outside what is happening in the wider economy and the community of which we are all a part,” said Mr Hunter. “The public sector has many issues but it also faces many challenges which are similar to those in the private sector, so we can develop our skills by working in partnership and learning from with key players.”
“Big retail organisations like ASDA work extremely hard to get to know their customers and deliver what they want in order to maintain market share. In turn, the public sector has to get very much closer to the people we serve to find out what our customers need and want from us.
“While profits drive retail businesses, in the public sector it is efficiency and the need to do better with increasingly less money that will be crucial to future success.”
“Politicians decide what the state is prepared to provide through the public purse, but there is still a matter of choice with respect to the services the state provides. We are keen to learn more about how the private retail sector identifies and responds to consumer preference – and how applicable that is to the public sector.”
Mr Hunter said the recession had brought opportunity as well as threat – for example, developments in technology enable us to think more creatively about how we can develop and inform decision-making processes and deliver services in better targeted and more user-friendly ways.
“It is an assumption of the Forum’s that productivity in terms of what you get for your taxes can only be driven in the medium to long term by the application of new technology, not solely by making a couple of civil servants work harder,” he said.
“There are really big gains to be made in developing new ways of doing things to provide a more efficient and better service. As public sector leaders, we need to understand the sorts of things technology can do for us and then think how to design our organisations to prepare for that.”
The SPS has already caught the attention of Finance Minister Sammy Wilson who, although describing himself as “no techie”, is an enthusiastic supporter of the Forum’s vision.
“The financial circumstances we are going to face in the next number of years require us to work in a different way to make better use of the resources which will be available to us,” said the Minister.
“That aside, however, it’s not just about using resources more efficiently, but about doing thing in a better and different way. We have to recognise that there is a drive and an imperative to move away from old ways of doing things.”
Mr Wilson said the first session, featuring advice from ASDA, acknowledged that public sector customers were much more vocal nowadays, demanding not just value for money, but choice and quality as well. He felt the public sector needed to be more accountable to its “shareholders” in that respect.
“The private sector can teach the public sector many things,” he said. “They are fleet of foot in finding out what the customer wants and delivering on that – otherwise they are left with no customers. We need to learn from that.
“People want to see the Executive at Stormont change the way they do things politically and clearly politicians – the shareholders, in effect - have a right to tell the public sector that we want to see them do things differently.
“I feel that the public sector needs to respond more quickly to its political masters. In the past, the responsiveness has not always been there when the Assembly committee has said: ‘this is what we want delivered’.
“Many of the decision-makers in the public sector are of the same generation as myself and need to be sat down and have it explained to them how new technologies can help them meet their goals.
“That is where I rely on people like eircom to tell me about the possibilities of new technology – just introducing the public sector to that immense potential is a positive influence. Public sector leaders should embrace these seminars.”
More information on the Smarter Public Services Programme from the CEF on 9034 7400.