Course Overview:

Maintaining standards is a basic requirement of any organisation and is needed to ensure that all employees and members of the organisation behave and function in a controlled and consistent manner. Similarly, service standards are required to ensure that customers are provided with services at a consistent level of quality.

The public sector is not only one of the largest but also one of the most varied sectors. There are multiple organisations, multiple stakeholders, and multiple professionals involved in providing public services to citizens. As such, setting standards of service delivery, behaviour and ethics, employee performance, accounting, financial management, disclosures, etc., is extremely critical to the success of the public sector.

Among these, financial management is discussed the most because the public sector uses funds of the public, i.e., taxes paid by taxpayers, to ensure effective operations and high-quality service delivery. Standards set for financial management ensure that these funds are managed well and are used for the purposes intended, and the statements and information regarding spending is made available, on request, to taxpayers for transparency.

Because citizens are a major influence in the public sector, they also play important roles in standard setting. This is possible when an organisation sets its standards and defines its level of performance, behaviour and ethics, and service delivery based on customer feedback received from their experience using public services.

Any standard set by a public organisation needs to be followed alike by all parties and stakeholders, directly and indirectly, involved in its operations, which is why necessary and relevant standards need to be explicitly set out in contractual agreements and other modes of association with non-public sector stakeholders and partners.

While policies and guidelines within a public sector organisation do set standards for all aspects of operations and code of conduct, timely internal and external audits help keep a check on adherence to standards and enable changes to standards, if and when necessary.

This Public Service Course by Zoe Talent Solutions will empower you adequate knowledge and awareness to be able to drive standard setting within your organisation to ensure better service delivery to citizens, ultimately resulting in higher customer satisfaction.

With the increase in your ability to confidently drive initiatives to set standards for all important aspects of your organisation’s operations, you will garner interest and attention to your capabilities and performance, which in turn will result in additional roles and opportunities fostering career growth and progression.

By undertaking this Good Governance in Public Service course, you will be able to successfully set appropriate standards and ensure that these are maintained across, in turn contributing to providing high-quality public services to citizens.

The modules in this Public Service course are not restricted to aspects of public governance, and thus, undertaking this course will prepare you to adopt any opportunity/role in any organisation or sector, thus improving your scope for alternate career opportunities.

Course Objectives:

The main objective of this Good Governance in Public Service course is to empower public sector professionals with—

• The necessary understanding and information of principles and concepts related to standard setting in the public services
• The capability and confidence to drive the setting of standards for various aspects of the organisation
• Adequate skill and knowledge to not only ensure standard-setting and implementation but also audit adherence to the same across all employees in the organisation
• Exposure, experience, and information to review standards and make relevant changes, when needed
• The required experience, exposure, and confidence to undertake additional roles and responsibilities concerning standard-setting and adherence within the organisation and outside
• A sense of pride in delivering consistently high-quality services to citizens, thus contributing to an improvement in their quality of life

Training Methodology

As opposed to conventional methods of one-way course delivery, the training for this Regewall Training Institute Public Services course is administered in a form that would encourage participation of the trainees.

The training methodology includes lectures by the trainer through a detailed yet interactive presentation, discussion among trainees, case studies, sample assignments replicating a real setting, etc.

Since it covers all aspects of standard setting (ethical, behavioural, accounting, financial, performance, etc.) in detail, examples and practical challenges related to all these aspects are discussed by the trainer.

The training method for this RTI course follows the Do–Review–Learn–Apply Model.

Organisational Benefits

By public sector professionals undertaking this Good Governance in Public Service course, their organisations will benefit in the following ways:

• A better-equipped and informed workforce to help set standards in public service and devise adherence guidelines for the same
• Consistent behaviour, processes, and quality of service because of standards set for all these aspects
• Happier customers because of improved and consistent services delivered
• Better public management and administration because of standards and guidelines that help guide performance, behaviour, and operations
• Regular audits for checking adherence to standards internally and compliance of standards with international benchmarks
• Disciplined, defined, and streamlined operations across all departments
• Equal accountability and ownership by all stakeholders (internal and external) of a public sector partnership or association
• Reduced risk of corruption and manipulation of operational aspects

Personal Benefits

Through this Good Governance in Public Service course, public sector professionals will benefit in the following ways:

• Increased knowledge about various principles and theories concerning standard setting in the public services
• Increased opportunities to undertake additional roles and responsibilities about setting standards within the organisation and devising steps to foster adherence across all employees of the organisation
• Increased capability and confidence to conduct internal audits to keep a check on adherence to standards by all employees of the organisation
• Greater information and the necessary skill to understand external compliance requirements and play a pivotal role in ensuring changes to standards in order to maintain compliance with external/international/universally accepted levels
• A more conducive, aligned, focused work environment that fosters growth and progression because of all employees working towards one standard and with one objective in mind
• A sense of pride to be able to contribute to improved services to citizens, thus enhancing their quality of life
• Adequate skill and experience to undertake any role in any organisation or sector, thus adding to the available opportunities for one from a career point of view

Who Should Attend?

• All senior members and decision-makers in the public sector are responsible for devising the strategy of the organisation, setting standards and expectations in line with these, and ensuring adherence across the organisation and all external stakeholders involved
• Investors or potential investors who would like to ensure or be assured of consistency in operations, actions, behaviour, and service quality of public sector organisations
• Auditors and other professionals involved in periodic checks and audits to understand the best practices and expected outcomes of reviewing standards from time to time
• Policymakers are responsible for creating policies and guidelines for employees to behave and function in a particular manner
• Legal and compliance authorities ensure that the standards set within an organisation conform to the universal standards set by the law
• HR professionals are responsible for ensuring a conducive work culture and environment driven by values and ethics, and seriousness towards standard adherence
• Any other public sector professional who is required to adhere to certain standards in his/her job role

 

Course Outline

The Good Governance in Public Service course will cover the following areas that are critical for appropriate and successful standard setting in the public services:

Module 1 – Types of Standards

• Ethical
• Performance
• Accounting
• Financial management

Module 2 – Seven Principles Supporting Standard Setting

• Selflessness
• Integrity
• Objectivity
• Accountability
• Transparency
• Truthfulness
• Leadership

Module 3 – Sources of Information for Defining Standards

• Management
• Employees
• Existing and potential customers
• Lost customers
• Competitors
• Regulatory authorities

Module 4 – Advantages of Good Ethical Standards

• Better outcome for society with fair public spending
• Low levels of corruption
• Benefits to the economy and an increase in economic efficiency
• Consistent and customer-oriented work culture

Module 5 – Good Governance Standards

• Focus on organisational objectives and outcomes for citizens
• Effective performance across roles and functions
• Demonstration of value through good behaviour
• Informed, transparent decisions
• Managed risks
• Enhanced organisational capacity and capability

Module 6 – Government as a Standard Setter

• Advantages
  • No conflict of interest
  • Better compliance because of the rule of law backing
  • More responsiveness to public interest
  • Disadvantages
  • Political influence
  • Lengthy and rigid standard regulation process
  • Lack of objectivity in standards set

Module 7 – Private Sector as a Standard Setter

• Advantages
  • High-quality talent for standard-setting
  • No political influence or interference
  • Increased flexibility and faster responsiveness
• Disadvantages
  • Susceptibility to inefficiency
  • Influence of vested individual interests
  • No backing for rule of law for enforcement

Module 8 – Agencies as a Standard Setter

• Advantages
  • Support of the government and legislature
  • Availability of technical expertise with professionals
  • High efficiency
  • Reduced costs
  • More accountability towards society
• Disadvantages
  • Arbitrary functioning
  • Careless staff/personnel
  • Political and government pressure and influence