Service quality falling at state training agency, staff survey finds
Published:Sunday | November 5, 2023 | 12:11 AM
The staff concerns around the suspended HEART/NSTA Trust workers and their alleged treatment by the agency have spotlighted troubling findings in a 2023 internal service quality and culture survey that has been obtained by The Sunday Gleaner.
The survey is key to evaluating service delivery after the merger of the then HEART/NTA Trust and three other state entities in 2018. The first was done in 2019 and a follow-up in 2022.
The 2023 survey was completed between March and April by the Don Anderson-led Market Research Services Limited. Some 568 employees out of a total of 1,811 participated.
It used a tool called the SERVQUAL model to measure service quality at different levels, including responsiveness, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and reliability. Employees’ perception of how the culture at HEART is being aligned with the strategic objectives post-merger was also examined.
Responsiveness includes things like willingness to listen to queries; assurance deals with courtesy and the ability to convey trust and confidence; while tangibles cover equipment and the appearance of physical facilities.
Except for the ‘tangibles’ subcategory, HEART recorded a decline in all the internal service delivery dimensions, “reversing the upward trend between 2019 and 2022”, the survey found.
IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION RECOMMENDED
The survey report showed that the average internal service quality satisfaction score for 2023 was 3.48 out of five; for 2022, it was 3.64, and for 2019, it was 3.59.
The researchers said “immediate efforts” should be made to investigate the factors that led to that outcome.
“Immediate emphasis and focus should be placed on issues relating to reliability, where a downward movement of 11 per cent was recorded,” the report said.
The survey pointed to improvements in the alignment of HEART’s internal culture with strategic objectives. But it said it is “noteworthy” that as many as 35 per cent of employees opted not to commit to a position on their views regarding the culture at HEART.
For culture, the average 2023 score was 3.39 out of five, an increase over the 3.26 in 2022.
“While it is not exactly clear what may be at the heart of this position, it could speak to some degree of apathy on the part of employees which, in itself, ought to be a concern,” the survey document said.
“HEART should make every effort to find out the reasons for such indifference in order to be able to devise effective strategies that could help to sway employees in a more desired direction.”
HEART declined to answer Sunday Gleaner questions on management’s response to the survey findings and the potential implications for the multibillion-dollar agency that reports to Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
“This matter relates to an intradepartmental survey that is not for public consumption,” HEART said in an emailed response to The Sunday Gleaner on October 25.
The survey findings come amid continued concerns about HEART’s performance and a strategic review of the agency that the prime minister mentioned in December 2021.
“HEART is too critical an entity and its mission is just too important for it to be allowed to be ineffective,” Holness said at the time.
The status of any such review is not known and was not raised at the recent parliamentary deliberations.
HEART is funded by a three per cent tax on employers and is the chief driver of technical and vocational training in Jamaica.