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Ethos Issue 4, Oct 2008
Better, Faster, Cheaper: Service Transformation and Channel Migration at the Ministry of Manpower
Penny Han
FIGURE 2. COST COMPARISONS
CHANNEL MIGRATION: MAKING ELECTRONIC SERVICES THE FIRST AND BEST CHOICE
A number of measures have been taken to draw customers to electronic channels:
Website revamp: The MOM website was revamped in October 2006, taking into account feedback from a representative sample of 4,000 customers. It was reorganised into several main categories (by customer groups, and by the most frequently visited functional areas which are work passes, workplace relations, and workplace safety and health). Transactional services were also made more user-friendly, and interactive tools such as e-calculators, self-assessment tools, e-guides, e-tutorials and e-demos were introduced to facilitate self-help and self-learning.
E-services palette, differential service: A whole suite of e-services is provided to MOM customers, from the processing of work passes, to the reporting of workplace accidents, and services relating to employer-employee relations. One important e-service is the Work Permit Online (WPOL) system, which offers employers a world-class system for processing work permits (see box story on "Work Permit Online: A World Class E-Service"). Employment information such as foreign worker quota eligibility, levy and application outcomes have also been made easily accessible online.
MOM offers differential pricing and superior service standards for online channels for two of its key services, viz. WPOL and Employment Pass Online (EPOL) services. A work permit submitted online is processed by the next working day, compared to one week for manual applications. For employment passes, online applications take one week, compared to three weeks for manual submissions. For both work permits and employment passes, fees are waived for online renewals and issuing of passes, whereas there is an administrative fee of $20 for each counter transaction.
Contact Centre—emails and calls: MOM’s contact centre is outsourced to external vendors who are given incentives to reduce call enquiries and convert customers to using electronic service channels. Call trends are also closely monitored for opportunities to migrate customers to self-help channels. For instance, the top five call types were found to be on work permit application procedures, work permit renewal procedures, levy, work permit rejection reasons and error messages encountered from the WPOL service. The website was then revised to provide a step-by-step guide of work pass application and renewal procedures, as well as an e-demo on work pass application procedures. The interactive Foreign Worker Levy Billing (iFWLB) service was enhanced, allowing customers to check outstanding levy amounts and make online payments. The content in the WPOL system and MOM website were reviewed and simplified to be more user-friendly. In addition, the WPOL service was enhanced to enable employers to view work permit rejection reasons online. The overall result has been a migration of 25% of work permit callers from the contact centre to online channels.
Assuring usability: A key learning point from the development of the WPOL system is the need to build in usability tests at the outset of system design. MOM now requires that usability testing by actual customers take place on prototypes of major e-services before implementation. Feedback is then taken into consideration and design aspects tweaked before actual rollout. During the pilot phase following prototyping, design changes are tested out with small groups of pilot users and refinements made before the actual launch, to ensure that the final system is truly user-friendly to customers under real-world conditions.
Customer education and engagement: MOM actively engages and educates its partners and customers, including employment agents, who are the main intermediaries for the employers of foreign domestic workers and smaller businesses. Hands-on training, individualised coaching and regular briefings on the WPOL e-service are still conducted today. Users are also kept updated regularly via email and internet broadcasts to account holders.
These efforts to make online channels the best and most frequently used service channel have paid off with utilisation of the WPOL service climbing from 85% in 2005, to 95% in 2006, to 98% today.
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