The public sector and government entities, especially in the UAE, tend towards excellence and global pioneering through participation in various excellence programs and awards and participation in measuring global competitiveness indicators. It has also become competitive with the private sector in the quality, efficiency, and excellence of providing services comparable to the quality and efficiency required by the highest international standards. The goal is to reach the highest levels of customer happiness,
Key trends
The public sector has gone a long way. Among the main directions it is treading are the following:
Future shaping. It is what is related to the possible and the preferred in the future, along with expectations and trends that have few possibilities but have significant impacts that can occur. There is a need to analyze the extent of their impact on government work, build future models, seize opportunities, and ensure strategic ability that will affect the operations and services of government entities as they work towards achieving customers’ and society’s happiness.
Government innovation in services and processes. When services are provided innovatively, it reduces the time of their provision and measures the added value from them. Innovation is the actual translation of creative ideas and transforming them into products, services, processes, and systems that interact with and serve society. It is necessary to measure the global innovation index, which measures the level of innovation at the level of different countries by studying a number of indicators that make up the overall index. It includes seven main criteria categories that represent innovation inputs and outputs at the state level: institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market development, business environment development, innovation outputs of knowledge and technology, and creative outputs.
Digital transformation. This refers to providing electronic and smart government services with a high degree of excellence, pioneering, comprehensiveness, and integration among government entities and interrelated and integrated systems to achieve the “one government” concept.
Metaverse and government use. This is a system that will provide many virtual spaces on the Internet and will also allow the integration of everyday life into virtual life. Metaverse will provide immersive and exciting experiences in various fields, such as education, health, tourism, travel, service provision, shopping, transportation, and others. This involves using advanced technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, 5G network, and other technologies. Such technology can make government administrative services efficient. For example, people can meet with virtual officials without visiting municipal offices or any government department.
Sustainability in the social, economic, and environmental fields. Programs, initiatives, and policies that support sustainability are implemented, such as applying and measuring performance indicators of the extent of the impact of operations on health, safety, and the environment. This should ensure minimizing negative impacts on society and the environment and contribute to the rationalization of energy, water, and other resources consumption.
The future of public services
Government services in the future will depend heavily on the provision of digital services that will be more efficient and will also rely on the standards and requirements of a single platform for customer data. An example is the digital identity (UAE PASS) adopted in the UAE. It is used as a primary and unified mechanism to obtain digital services for all categories of customers.
The future of government services as stated in the global star system for rating services, issued by the Prime Minister’s Office in the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the future in the United Arab Emirates, represented by the Emirates Program for Excellence in Government Service, as this integrated system is the first of its kind in the world. The Emirates Program for Excellence in Government Service was launched [2] in the United Arab Emirates, it sets a world-class standard that helps government and private entities measure, improve and transform the field of service delivery. This program aims to improve the quality of government and private services by focusing on customer-centric services, employee happiness, and operational efficiency to provide services at a seven-star level.
Strategic planning will play an important role in assessing the quality of government services. This happens through the awareness of senior leadership, in participating in strategic planning that focuses on developing services, linking it to strategic objectives, and supporting the government entities’ strategy to improve customer experience. In addition, these strategic goals related to services must be measured and monitored through efficient and effective performance indicators, such as: the percentage of services’ customer happiness, the average time taken to provide the service, and the average waiting time to obtain the service.
The most important characteristic of government entities is how they provide services quickly and efficiently. For this purpose, they must proactively adopt advanced technologies, such as chatbots, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and the Internet of Things, to support the provision and management of services to continue improving customer experience and reaching the highest levels of happiness for them.
In this field, government entities should provide a central database for all customer data. It should be possible to securely access the central database for customers from all service delivery channels and to manage the security of this data. There should be special security measures to deal effectively with data breaches if they occur and training for employees on how to proactively reduce security breaches. In addition, government entities must evaluate their electronic and digital security and build a culture of enhancing the importance of data privacy and security, recognize the possibility of using the Secure Sockets Layer (TLS) protocol, and ensure secure access to service and electronic payment procedures through digital channels.
Best practices
One of the best practices that we recommend in strategic planning for government entities is strategic planning based on the Balanced Scorecard developed by Norton and Kaplan: It is a framework for translating the organization’s vision into a set of performance indicators covering the following four perspectives: financial aspect, customers, internal process, learning, and growth. Through this system, the organization monitors its current performance (financial, customer satisfaction, and business results) as well as its efforts towards developing operations, motivating and educating employees, enhancing information systems, and honing their ability to learn and develop.
It is considered an administrative system that enables the organization to clarify its vision and strategic goals and translate them into reality. It is an auxiliary tool used to measure the performance of organizations in order to lead them to continuous development and improvement as it focuses on gaps in performance and alerts work teams and senior management.
The Norton and Kaplan methodology for managing and executing strategy consists of six main steps:
Preparing and developing the strategy: This includes benchmarking with best practices, formulating the vision, mission and values, conducting internal and external analysis, identifying the value gap and defining the vision, defining the change agenda, and formulating the strategy.
Translating the strategy: It refers to defining the strategic pillars and objectives, the indicators and targets, the strategic initiatives, the responsibilities, and the general framework for the process of translating the strategy.
Cascading and alignment of the strategy: This is about distributing objectives according to roles to the main and supportive organizational units, communicating the strategy for all employees, aligning the strategy with the individual performance of the employees, aligning with incentives, aligning the strategy with external parties and partners.
Developing the main processes and linking the strategy to the institution’s budget and operations to ensure implementation: This involves defining priorities for strategic operations, using processes and driving models to activate the strategy, creating an operations dashboard, integrating financial planning and resource capabilities, managing initiatives, integration with and planning for intangible properties.
Institutional review and learning by transforming the strategy into a continuous process and establishing a formal performance-based follow-up to the strategy: This is achieved by conducting strategy review meetings, and conducting operational processes review meetings).
Testing and adaptation: This means monitoring and evaluating the strategy and adapting to the strategy based on the results achieved. It includes testing cause-and-effect relationships using data analytics, testing the robustness and solidity of the strategy, and using business intelligence and big data).
Challenges and successes
Among the biggest and most important challenges that government entities face during the implementation and usage of a performance management system are:
The inability to obtain the information needed by government entities from the performance measurement process. The solution is to adopt performance indicators that are closely related to the strategic objectives. Measuring performance indicators that are not linked to the objectives is a waste of time.
Lack of results and data to help make decisions. The solution is to establish a reliable database to obtain the data based on which accurate performance is measured to help make sound decisions at the right time.
The inability to take effective measures to achieve goals. The solution lies in the use of analysis and improvement tools that lead to the root of the problem, based on which effective measures are taken to improve performance and achieve goals.
Not knowing what exactly is important to measure. The solution is to measure a few indicators that serve the purpose of achieving the goals.
Not knowing the purpose of the measurement and that the indicators are meaningless. The solution is to adopt the performance indicator card. From the outset, the purpose of its measurement are determined.
Employees refuse to be held accountable for performance. The solution is not to punish employees for bad performance. Motivate and honor outstanding performance and good results.
No improvement in performance. The solution is to measure performance indicators over long periods of time to follow up on the improvement in performance in a phased manner. Acknowledge the possibility of taking improvement measures before the end of the performance management cycle.
Indicators are imposed on employees and are not discussed with them. The solution lies in the participation of employees in setting performance indicators and defining the responsibility of each of them for the details of the indicator, such as collecting data, monitoring improvement, measuring the indicator, and developing improvement initiatives.
In terms of building performance- and data-driven culture in the public sector, it is necessary to develop a culture of reliance on shared and open data and to measure indicators of the extent of the participation of government departments.
For the success of any performance management system:
Performance must be monitored, evaluated, and adapted to the strategy based on the results achieved;
The testing of cause-and-effect relationships must use data analytics;
Artificial intelligence and big data must be employed.
To succeed as a leader in a government entity, he or she should have behavioral competencies, the set of knowledge, skills, and behaviors necessary to achieve effective performance. These competencies play an important role in employee performance and work teams for the tasks assigned to them and often appear when employees interact with each other and with clients.
Behavioral competencies include core and leadership competencies. Successful leaders must have leadership spirit, futuristic, achievement, and influence. The leadership spirit refers to empowering employees and delegating powers, promoting accountability and responsibility, setting a role model, and opening up to the world. The efficiency of the future requires the leader to see the future, be an innovator and a catalyst for radical change, be familiar with advanced technology, and be a continuous and lifelong learner. Meanwhile, achievement and impact competence means being flexible and quick, making smart, effective, and efficient decisions, and being focused on the higher goals of the government and achieving results.
This article was written by Dr. Hisham Ahmad Kayali and was first published in the 24th printed edition of PERFORMANCE Magazine. You can get a free digital copy from the TKI Marketplace here or purchase a print copy from Amazon for a nominal fee here.
Image source: Gilaxia from Getty Image Signature | Canva
The COVID-19 pandemic has produced disrupted governments while altering levels of public trust and underscoring the importance of strong digital government foundations. On the positive side, this has created an opportunity for governments worldwide to revisit their strategic approaches to using digital tools and data to improve the delivery of public value.
Digital government in the post-pandemic age is recently understood as “the use of digital technologies as an integrated part of a government’s modernization strategies to create and deliver public value,” according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The article hereby intends to gaze upon some of the best practices in strategy execution as far as the enablement of a digital government in various countries around the globe from perspectives as important as a framework for strategy execution, initiative management, strategy implementation costs, and communication strategy for results strategy.
1. A Comprehensive National Government Data Strategy (the Netherlands)
Data Agenda Overheid is the Netherlands’ national government data strategy developed and led by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. The strategy aims to accelerate the ethical use of data within central and local governments to foster better policy-making and resolve social challenges, paying specific attention to legislation and public values, data management, knowledge sharing, and investment in people, organizations, and cultural change. Below (see Table 1) are some of the main costs for action points in the Data Agenda Governments:
2. Communication Strategy on the Outcomes of the Digital Government Agenda (Colombia)
Part of becoming more proactive is having a well-equipped public sector capable of responding to citizens’ requests before they are submitted. For this process to function, the public sector must have in place referential strategies or policies to anticipate future scenarios, prepare for the next steps and guide civil servants in their actions.
For example, the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications of Colombia (MINTIC) has developed a communication strategy called Estrategia de Comunicaciones 2018 that functions as a policy lever to inform citizens about the outcomes of the digital government strategy and initiatives of the Colombian government.
The strategy consists of general and specific messages and communication channels targeted to the respective relevant audience. It specifies available tools and communication toolkits that public servants can draw on to communicate proactively with the public. The strategy also includes a detailed action plan with information on the topic, content, and channels to convey the government’s message.
The existence of a communication strategy enhances the anticipatory and organizational capacity of the Colombian government to engage with citizens and guide public servants to promptly communicate with the public once outcomes from the digital government strategy or initiatives emerge. Ultimately, this approach enhances public trust by fostering transparency regarding the result of projects and improving contact with citizens, thereby reinforcing the legitimacy of the government’s actions
3. Initiatives for a Secure Cloud Strategy Execution (Australia)
The Secure Cloud Strategy has been developed to guide Australians through the digital change brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and make sure everyone has the opportunity to make the most of what the cloud has to offer. The strategy is based on several key initiatives designed to prepare agencies for the shift to the cloud and support them through the transition:
Initiative 1: Independent cloud strategy for government agencies. Australian agencies are encouraged to develop their journeys to the cloud based on the following: value case, workforce plan, “best fit” cloud models, service readiness, and transition approach.
Initiative 2: Layered certification model. Sharing information and assessments through a Common Assessment Framework to help improve security practices while at the same time reducing the burden on agencies to recreate material.
Initiative 3: Redeveloped Cloud Services Panel to align with the procurement recommendations for a new procurement pathway that better supports cloud commodity purchases. Streamlining the current cloud strategy arrangements in alignment with the implementation of the ICT Procurement Review will create a commodity procurement pathway that will ensure the government can procure and access a wider range of innovative cloud services for use by the government.
Initiative 4: Dashboard to show service status for adoption, compliance status, and services panel status and pricing. The cloud dashboard capability seeks to provide enhanced transparency of cloud usage and compliance cross-government and support clearer guidance regarding the costs, service suitability, and government status in a cloud environment.
Initiative 5: Cloud service qualities baseline and assessment capability. A cloud qualities baseline capability and assessment framework were developed to enable assessments for the new and existing cloud. This framework includes a baseline and measurement criteria to assess the cloud service. Once complete, assessments are published to provide greater visibility of how services can meet requirements and enable the re-use of assessments across the government.
Initiative 6: Cloud responsibility model supported by a cloud contracts capability. The approach will include evolving ICT contracts to articulate the responsibilities across the different deployment and service models and strengthen these baseline contract provisions.
Initiative 7: Whole-of-government cloud knowledge exchange platform. Deliver a platform for agencies to better collaborate and reuse common capabilities for their cloud adoption and use. The development of the platform considers how users interact with the service, accessibility, governance, operations, and technology.
Initiative 8: Building a Digital Capability program to include cloud skills. A long-term approach to developing a cloud skills capability to ensure the value and opportunity of the cloud is harnessed.
4. Digital Government Roadmap, Strategic Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and Maturity Model to reflect on a High Commitment to Digital Transformation (United Arab Emirates)
The UAE is among the world’s leading countries in various digital life indexes, including The KPI Institute’s Government Services Index (GSI) 2022 due to the significant advancement of its information and communication technology sector.
The United Arab Emirates is the top performer in the Middle East as far as digital transformation, consistently moving towards a data-driven and paperless government. The Strategy for Government Services states that 100 percent of government services will be accessible from anywhere and 24/7 by 2030. The UAE Strategy for Government Services aims to boost its competitiveness in the services sector and position it as the best in the world in rendering government services.
As far as digital “content provision” is concerned, the UAE is ranked high on the availability of basic public information and resources online. The UAE Institutional Framework reveals a strong focus among other things, on digital government strategy, organizational structure, legislation on access to information and privacy, and open data policy.
The UAE Digital Strategy may be one of the most comprehensive in the world, built on a well-designed digital government roadmap with enablers, a results-measurement framework based on strategic KPIs, and an institutional maturity assessment model to guide successful digital transformation. The UAE Digital Government Roadmap comprises six main pillars encompassing 64 national digital enablers.
The Digital Strategy Measurement framework reveals four areas of measurement, such as public satisfaction and digital capabilities, and 10 strategic KPIs, which all exhibit 2025 targets for achievement of digital government transformation results (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Strategic KPIs | The UAE Digital Government Strategy 2025
The UAE Digital Government Maturity Model aims to assess the UAE government organizations on both federal and local levels against a framework that helps create clarity about the UAE digital government capabilities and to inform investments in new capabilities. The maturity model comprises eight main dimensions (See Figure 2). Each dimension has a set of sub-dimensions that guide enabling actions that each government entity might take to increase its maturity along each dimension. Each sub-dimension has a set of specific items to be used by each UAE government entity to determine their level of maturity for each sub-dimension and dimension.
Figure 2. The maturity model’s eight main dimensions | The UAE Digital Government Strategy 2025
The five levels of maturity range from Level 1 representing a very low level of maturity to level 5 representing a very high level of maturity (See Figure 3). The assessment responses provide an outline for a roadmap for a successful digital government transformation.
Figure 3. The five levels of maturity | The UAE Digital Government Strategy 2025
The objective is 100 percent a very high level of maturity for all UAE government entities on both federal and local levels by 2025.
This article was first published in the 24th printed edition of PERFORMANCE Magazine. You can get a free digital copy from the TKI Marketplace here or purchase a print copy from Amazon for a nominal fee here.
Strategy and performance management updates in tourism: Learn how the travel and hospitality industries have been navigating the post-pandemic era so far.
IATA issues new report on safety performance
The International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) 2021 safety performance data for the commercial airline industry reveals significant progress in key categories compared to both 2020 and the previous five years. Findings show that the total number of accidents, all-accident rate, and deaths declined. Last year, there were no fatal accidents among IATA members or airlines on the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) registry (which covers all IATA members). For the first time in at least 15 years, there were no runway/taxiway excursion incidents.
“Safety is always our highest priority. The severe reduction in flight numbers last year compared with the five-year average magnified the impact of each accident when we calculate rates. Yet in the face of numerous operational challenges in 2021, the industry improved in several key safety metrics. At the same time, it is clear that we have much work ahead of us to bring all regions and types of operations up to global levels of safety performance,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General. | Source: IATA.org
Hyatt Hotels Corporation shares performance data on revenues, occupancy
Hyatt Hotels Corporation said that its comparable system-wide RevPAR in May was around $127, the highest RevPAR performance in any single month since November 2019. RevPAR, a commonly used performance measure in our industry, refers to the product of the average daily rate and the average daily occupancy percentage. System-wide RevPAR in May was around 6% lower than in May of 2019(1), or approximately 3% higher when Asia Pacific was excluded. Comparable system-wide RevPAR increased by 2% in May compared to April, owing to higher occupancy, mainly in urban areas. In addition, the average daily rate in May was nearly 8% higher than in May of last year, driven by luxury brands in the Americas, which outperformed 2019 by approximately 24%. | Source: businesswire.com
GE’s Airspace Insight adds new feature for operational performance monitoring
GE Digital announced the addition of the new Network View Module to its Airspace Insight™ software. This will give airlines insights where within their network they need to focus to enhance operational performance based on a range of efficiency and safety metrics developed to identify patterns in airspace waste and minimize fuel consumption. Moreover, the module can aid in tracking and measuring the results of initiatives to enhance airspace efficiency and safety, as well as benchmarking progress against other airlines or collaborating with other airlines, regulators, and Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) to promote industry efficiency and safety.
“Reduced reliance on anecdotal evidence for understanding operational issues, benchmarking, and knowledge sharing between other airlines are what airlines are looking for. They want to know which airlines are flying into this airport, and how efficiently and safely they are doing so. Which markets are underserved or not served at all? Airspace Insight’s Network View Module can help answer these questions,” said Andrew Coleman, General Manager of GE Digital’s Aviation Software business. Source: marketscreener.com
HSMAI survey reveals woes in retaining talent in hospitality
The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) has launched the report “The State of Hotel Sales, Marketing, and Revenue Optimization Talent 2020-2021.” Results found that employers in the industry are facing issues in the areas of compensation and benefits, scarcity of competent candidates, pipeline concerns, and poaching loyalty and company culture. Meanwhile, the trends detected by the report emphasize the value of corporate culture, servant leadership, mental health and wellness, and reskilling and upskilling. The insights are from “50 brand and hotel management company revenue executives and ownership group commercial executives across disciplines to rate the challenges facing commercial talent in hospitality.” Source: hsmai.org
US announces new National Travel and Tourism Strategy
To promote the US travel and tourism industry, US Commerce Secretary Gina M. Raimondo introduced a new National Travel and Tourism Strategy. It is designed to achieve a five-year target of attraching 90 million foreign tourists to the country annually. The arrival of tourists is expected to generate $279 billion each year, strengthening employment growth in communities around the United States, its territories, and the District of Columbia. The strategy involves positioning the US as a major travel destination to encourage visitation to underprivileged and underrepresented groups; ensuring safe and efficient travel to and within the US and its territories; supporting diverse tourist experiences, particularly on federal lands and waterways while also safeguarding them; and establishing sustainable travel and tourism. Source: https://ftnnews.com/
You must continuously rethink your company’s strategy to succeed in today’s business environment. What is the key to long-term success? Watch strategist Martin Reeves in his TED talk as he presents the case for embracing play to spark breakthrough ideas for business. Discover the imaginative games that he employs to get leaders to stretch their thinking and uncover new possibilities.
Accelerating a digital economy is no longer just an option but a must. The United Nations reported that digital technologies have reached 50% of the developing world’s population and helped transform societies. Meanwhile, the paper “The Role of the Digital Economy in Rebuilding and Maintaining Social Governance Mechanisms” suggests that digitization improves society at all levels, from the automation of businesses to new opportunities to human behavior and social relationships, especially interactions between governments and citizens.
Malaysia is not an exception. The COVID-19 pandemic forced traditional brick-and-mortar businesses to pivot online, and millions of Malaysians followed. This is evident in their shopping, entertainment, and education needs.
The digital economy has been identified as a key economic growth area (KEGA) in realizing the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030, a blueprint released in 2020 by the government. It reflects the aspiration of making Malaysia a country that develops sustainably while achieving equitable economic distribution and inclusive growth. According to the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030, Malaysia should have clear policies and raise awareness on enabling citizens to adapt to the future economy instead of leaving them as mere consumers. Hence, MyDIGITAL was launched.
MyDIGITAL is a national initiative that epitomizes the government’s aspirations to successfully transform Malaysia into a digitally-driven, high-income nation and a regional leader in the digital economy. MyDIGITAL’s three goals are to inspire decision-makers to become creators, users, and adopters of innovative business models; use human capital to flourish in the digital economy; and cultivate a consolidated ecosystem that empowers society to embrace the digital economy. To meet these objectives, six strategic thrusts have been identified:
Drive digital transformation in the public sector.This can be accomplished by leveraging digital technologies, data, and digital intelligence, improving public servants’ digital skill sets, and enhancing the quality of online services. By the end of the year, the goal is for all ministries and agencies to provide cashless payment options and 80 percent cloud storage across the government. In the short term, transforming the Administrative Modernization and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) will fuel digitalization and adapt to emerging digital technologies.
Boost economic competitivenessby accelerating digital adoption, empowering digital management, and shaping emerging business models through digitalization. Businesses that embrace technology and build on the digital economy will generate value and thrive as the economy transforms. The goal is to have Malaysian industries be powered by innovative ideas and models. With economic growth led by local entrepreneurs, the focus will be on productivity and improving livelihoods. This will bring in new industry players, resulting in a more vibrant and innovative economy.
Establish enabling digital infrastructure to help individuals participate in the digital economy. Through a conducive digital environment provided by seamless and extensive digital connectivity, the government and businesses will be able to operate with ease and continuously innovate. Malaysia has made significant progress in improving the state and coverage of such key infrastructure. Broadband, data centers, and submarine cable landing stations are among the digital infrastructures targeted by this thrust. These infrastructures enable data generation, flow, exchange, consumption, and storage.
Build agile and competent digital talentto ensure that digitalization is successfully embedded across talent development, various levels of education, and the upskilling and reskilling of the existing workforce. The key challenge for Malaysians as job requirements change and new jobs surface is to acquire the necessary skills to remain relevant. To thrive in the evolving digital economy, current and future workforces should be well-equipped with digital skills.
Create an inclusive digital society to bridge the digital divide and ensure that everyone benefits from the digital economy. There are numerous government initiatives and programs in place to improve the well-being of society. However, a digital divide persists across income, strata, age, gender, and skill sets. To create a digitally responsible society, ethical behavior in the use of digital technology will be prioritized. This will be expressed through the improvement of safety and ethics in digital activities and transactions and through cybersecurity. For instance, companies can leverage existing initiatives, such as the Information Security Governance, Risk & Compliance Health Check Assessment.
Establish a trusted, secure, and ethical digital environment that allows businesses and society to fully reap the benefits of digital services without jeopardizing safety, data security, privacy, dependability, or ethical standards. The development of a holistic ecosystem is required, and this may involve a regulatory framework and cyber security capabilities to prevent threats or breaches that can disrupt the digital economy.
Twenty-two strategies, 48 national initiatives, and 28 sectoral initiatives support these strategic thrusts. Phase 1 began in 2021 and will last until 2022, when the foundation for digital adoption will be strengthened. In Phase 2 (2023-2025), inclusive digital transformation will be prioritized, and Phase 3 (from 2026 to 2030) will position Malaysia as a regional leader in digital content and cyber security.
MyDIGITAL’s mission is to ensure that all Malaysians benefit from the opportunities of the digital revolution. To realize this, active participation from strong partnerships and between all stakeholders are necessary. With MyDIGITAL’s implementation, the rakyat’s standard of living and well-being are expected to improve, businesses will be able to optimize resources and expand their operations and market, and the government will be able to provide more efficient and effective services.
