To improve service quality, the institution invests in the skills and capability of the staff who deliver its services.

The institution measures and publishes performance against its service standards and uses this data to predict future demand for services.

This produces organizational transparency, which helps lead to sustained improvement.

The institution treats people with respect, dignity and courtesy.

This is achieved through a set of standard operating principles consistent with social norms. Treating people with respect, dignity and courtesy is a quality factor fundamental to excellent service delivery. While the institution will not necessarily be praised for this, it is what people expect as the basic component of quality service. Failure to meet this standard leaves the administration open to public criticism and loss of confidence and trust.

The institution considers and embeds quality at each stage of product development from concept (policy intent) to delivery of a social security benefit or service.

A product (or service offering) is defined as all the component elements that constitute a social security benefit or service, including:

The institution designs, reviews and updates social programmes from the user’s perspective by listening to and engaging participants.

By engaging participants in all aspects of the design (or review and updating) of a social programme, the institution gains access to a vast pool of expertise that helps solve problems, generates new ideas and inspires innovation. By involving and listening to participants, the institution will:

These guidelines assist social security institutions to:

The institution adopts a formal methodological approach to service quality starting with a clear statement on the importance of service quality and how it intends to deliver and measure it.

Achieving and maintaining service quality is a management philosophy. It requires structure and form, which can be achieved through a service quality framework. A service quality framework is based around the higher order goals of the social security system, which include:

This set of seven guidelines provides a service quality model that addresses seven areas of common concern to social security institutions. Service quality in social security, and in the public sector in general, takes its cue from the commercial sector. The guidelines are consistent with best practice in the commercial sector.

The following guidelines are organized in three parts:

These guidelines together provide a service quality model that applies to all branches of social security. From a service quality perspective there are no material differences between the branches. The service quality model and the associated maturity model have universal application irrespective of programme type. The maturity model is designed to ensure the guidelines offer value to all organizations, irrespective of the stage they are at in developing service quality.

Seven guidelines make up the service quality model: