In an initiative aimed at improving the performance of government institutions and the quality of their services, the Institute of Public Administration (BIPA) inaugurated last Thursday, in partnership with the e-Government Authority, customer service program for the government sector, the first of its kind in the Kingdom to be offered at two levels, targeting employees in customer services who oversee or interact with the beneficiaries of government services, either directly or indirectly.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by, Director General of BIPA Dr. Raed Mohammed bin Shams, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the e-Government Authority Mohammed Ali Al-Qaed, as well as Directors and those in charge of the program and government employees enrolled in the program.
This program comes in line with the vision of the Kingdom of Bahrain 2030, and the strategic initiatives relating thereto. This program was designed in such a way to contribute to the improvement of the performance of government service institutions, through the development of the performance of employees in this area at all levels of employment, and to enable them to perform their duties with distinction.
The program with its two levels have received an overwhelming response from government employees and officials, that the registration process was completed in a record time ever since the launch of the program, in addition to the presence of a large number of people on the waiting lists, which is an evidence of the importance of the program and the great attention accorded to it by the Bahraini employee to develop his/her skills in regard to customer service, additionally the program has a participation of 85 government employees working in the field of customer service from various government institutions and ministries involved in this field. Furthermore, each trainee will receive, after meeting the requirements of the graduation, a certificate from BIPA accredited by the British Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM). Moreover, each trainee will do a presentation at the end of the program, explaining his role in developing a service or a procedure that was accomplished previously, highlighting the results of this change and the induced impact.
At the beginning of the ceremony, the CEO of the e-Government Authority Mr. Mohammed Al-Qaed delivered a speech in which he expressed pleasure to launch such professional and accredited programs embodying national mindful trend to spreading the culture of excellence in customer service in the public sector, and the preparation of the cadres involved in the services delivery through raising their leadership skills and refine their communicative abilities with customers.
Mr. Al-Qaed pointed to the role of e-government in providing government services to the public after a process of simplification and re-engineering, in order to be delivered in an easy manner that is not bureaucratic and to match the services provided by the private sector, shedding light on the various service delivery channels through the e-portal, mobile portal, national call centers, e-services centers, kiosks and smart devices application.
Mr. Al-Qaed added that the e-government was keen concerning BIPA's participation in providing this particular course and giving consideration to the public sector employees, in order to bring about change in the customer service experience, so that it is consistent and during which the customer doesn’t feel a difference whether the completion of the service was carried out personally through visiting the ministry's premises or by using the e-service.
Mr. Al-Qaed pointed to the most important roles of the e-government of reducing staff's contacts with customers through the use of e-services delivery channels, but nevertheless there are still some who need to check with the government authority and dealing personally with the customer service officer, and at this point the officer has to realize his important role in providing high quality services that contributes to raising the index of customer satisfaction, which will result in raising the level of performance of government action that goes in line with the Bahrain Economic Vision 2030, and more importantly, the role of government employee in providing suggestions and solutions that contribute to the simplification of procedures and the development of methods of service delivery, to be a key partner to the development process, being the person with the most knowledge of the service and its delivery details.
In this regard, the CEO of the e-Government Authority said that with the increased pressure on budgets and the difficulty of the recruitment process offset by an increase in the number of customers to government institutions, therefore it will be hard to continue providing good services and consequently customer service staff can guide customers to alternative ways to benefit from.
Mr. Al-Qaed also stressed on the necessity that employees of the first row should have all the information and means which through services are provided, and during the preparation of the program with the Institute, a department has been assigned to explain the mechanism of dealing with modern technologies, including e-government services within which the employee can accomplish the service or instruct the client on the mechanism of usage.
At the conclusion of his speech, the CEO of the e-Government Authority stressed on the need for collaboration of government agencies to complement each other and work towards achieving the goals of Economic Vision 2030, pointing out that according to the recent trends, the governments should work to develop policies and controls to be implemented by the competent authorities either in the fields of education, training, vocational or others, which will inevitably reduce expenses, time and efforts with a guarantee of providing results of the highest quality in the case that each authority worked separately, praising the role of BIPA in offering programs that contribute to achieving management development objectives for government agencies.
For his part, Director General of BIPA Dr. Raed bin Shams delivered a speech in which he highlighted the importance of improving and developing the level of services in government institutions, starting from the providers of these services. Dr. bin Shams noted that the improvement may not be limited only to the service itself, but even to the service provider and the way of dealing with the client, that will benefit service provider and the client himself.
Bin Shams stressed the keen desire of the Institute on providing distinct output of this program, because of its great importance in gaining the satisfaction of citizens, he added: “We have striven to get the reliability of the British Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM), believing in the importance of the quality of training, which will be reflected positively on the trainees, and will contribute to the refinement of skills and gaining of experiences in this broad and important field, which in turn will lead to the development of systems and mechanisms that trainees, in their own positions, in the public sector are working on.”
The Director General of BIPA pointed to the vast challenges facing those responsible for customer service in the public sector due to the nature of the business and institutional culture which is different from the private sector.
Bin Shams stressed that the program will not be limited to the training of staff on the skills and techniques needed in this area, but will do furthermore, where every trainee will deliver graduation project, which will be based on real ground by choosing one of the mechanisms that he is currently working on and should carry out improvements and development to it, in order to ensure the greatest usefulness of the outcome for the trainee, the institution and the citizens.
In a presentation given by Senior Director of Professional Programs at BIPA Mrs. Ghada Shana'a, she explained the idea of the program which considered customer distinguished-service is the key to the success and excellence of the enterprise. In regard to the details of this program, Mrs. Shana'a indicated that the program is targeting all workers in the field of customer service in the public sector, to the extent of influencing by and the resulting impact of each employee working in this area, and added: “From this context, the Institute was keen to establish two levels, basic and advance, indicating that the customer service program (Service) is targeting all employees in the first row, either directly or indirectly, while customer service program (Excellence ) is targeting directors of departments, sections' heads and supervisors involved in customer service in public sector.”
In regard to the objectives of the program, Mrs. Shana'a explained that the program seeks to link the concept of service excellence to the Bahrain vision 2030, in addition to promoting a culture of excellence in customer service in the public sector, and develop the skills of employees in customer service at all job levels, in addition to the need to work with government ministries and agencies to develop service-performance standards (unified) that live up to the standards adopted in other developed countries, and finally to work with government ministries and agencies to develop strategies to contribute to the promotion of excellence in service.