The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia’s Single-Window Service Model

In 2021, the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia’s Administration embedded a goal of service excellence in its first-ever strategic plan. A key method of realizing that goal is streamlining service delivery to better support Members of the Legislative Assembly through a single-window service model. In this article, the authors explain how this model works and why it will benefit MLAs, their staff, and the Assembly’s own administration.

Artour Sogomonian and Christine Fedoruk

Artour Sogomonian is the Clerk Assistant, Parliamentary Services. Christine Fedoruk is the Director, Client Services, at the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.

Introduction

In recent years, the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia has been on a journey of modernizing and maturing its administrative operations. This is in part driven by the changing and evolving needs of Members of the Legislative Assembly (Members), who rely on the organization to be nimble as it supports them and best positions them to undertake their important roles in our parliamentary democracy. Parliamentary institutions have not traditionally been known as great embracers of change, but if there is one thing that the COVID-19 pandemic proved, it is that even parliamentary institutions and their administrative support structures can evolve at a significant pace when necessary.

In 2021, the Legislative Assembly Administration (the Administration) embedded a goal of service excellence in its first-ever strategic plan: “We provide unified, innovative, and seamless services, resources, and advice that enable the Legislative Assembly and its Members to fulfill their respective roles in our parliamentary democracy.” That commitment is demonstrated in many ways by talented people doing many different jobs. Together, they enable the Legislative Assembly’s administrative operations to function smoothly, and they enable Members to effectively undertake their parliamentary and constituency responsibilities.

While many noteworthy changes have been underway in the organization since the launch of the Administration’s strategic plan, one change promises to touch every department: the renewal of service delivery through a single-window service model. The change is meant to improve service delivery and responsiveness through a unified, seamless, and client-focused experience. This initiative, focused on improving service outcomes for Members and their staff (caucus staff and constituency office staff), is a significant way to bring the strategic plan to life. It is also where the rubber hits the road on service excellence as we continuously strive to do better as we aim to best support our Members.

The Recent State

What is it like when an individual is first elected to public office? Likely, the experience largely differs from institution to institution. Various onboarding/offboarding supports are provided to help orient Members to their many different duties and the various hats that they wear, and to acquaint them with the support services that are available to them through the support infrastructure that each parliament has in place. Where a “one-stop shop” is not available, it can be daunting for a new Member and their recently hired staff to navigate all the different services available to them. In this scenario, it is difficult for someone (particularly someone who is unfamiliar with the organization) to obtain a holistic/simple view of what services are offered and to learn who to contact to obtain a service – if such a service even exists. At times, this experience has been equated to navigating a maze. This can reasonably be billed as the “client” perspective.

On the administrative side, when an organization reaches a certain size, a decentralized service delivery approach can create inefficiencies, a misalignment of priorities, and obscure how service points are managed and what their outcomes are (or should be). Moving the dial through a unified service delivery point allows the lifecycle of a service query to be tracked. The organization can learn which types of requests come in from client groups, facilitate the proper deployment of resources within the organization, and pursue continuous improvement opportunities. Parliamentary institutions are no exception; as the roles and needs of Members evolve, the administrative support structure that aids them must also evolve to remain responsive to their needs.

The Vision

Enter Client Services. Inspired by recent innovations and changes within the House of Commons Administration in Ottawa, in January 2023, with the support of the Legislative Assembly Management Committee (the all-party governance board), Kate Ryan-Lloyd, Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, announced the creation of a new department within the Legislative Assembly Administration, called Client Services. Under the executive leadership of Artour Sogomonian, Clerk Assistant, Parliamentary Services, and the leadership of Christine Fedoruk, who was appointed Director, Client Services, the department was tasked with providing a range of services and supports to clients through a single service window. It would provide seamless service from the client’s view and maintain a high degree of responsiveness and commitment to service excellence.

This single-window model is intended to place client needs first and to be a resource for service and action, executing a renewed service delivery philosophy. It is not a dispatch/redirect service to other service points within the Administration. This model is also intended to break down silos within the Administration, eliminate internal inefficiencies, and drive cross-departmental innovation and collaboration.

The model has several key features (see Figure 1).

A key aim is enhancing the client experience by reducing the number of service points (unifying services). This provides efficient, timely, and excellent support to Members and their staff so that they can focus on important matters, rather than “chasing answers” or seeking assistance for matters in which the Administration can be proactively supporting them. Through this approach, services are provided by a trained team of professionals who comprise the Client Care Team.

Informed by input from client groups and departmental service providers, and by centralization criteria, the Client Services transition team proposed the organization of client service touchpoints into three support tiers:

Owner: Where Client Services will be the process owner, responsible for the design and delivery of services, and will be the primary contact or clients.

Participant: Where Client Services will be a process participant, with specific roles and responsibilities, and will be the primary contact for clients.

Supporter: Where Client Services will maintain awareness of process requirements and steps, host information and links on a Client Services-managed service portal, connect service owners to clients to facilitate service requests, and assist clients with processes whenever needed or requested.

One of the primary service objectives of the initiative is to reduce and, wherever possible, completely eliminate the administrative burden that falls to clients as a result of current Legislative Assembly Administration business processes and support and service models.

What Does a Single-Window Service Delivery Model Look Like?

All service requests will be received centrally by the Client Care Team, and the majority of service responses will be initiated, documented, and managed through one ticket management system. This approach will allow the Administration to:

track the lifespan of tickets;
actively manage the number of tickets and deploy resources accordingly;
survey ticket creators for quality assurance purposes;
assess and manage ticket response and completion quality, including timeliness; and
monitor other metrics, trends, and measurements to enhance service delivery.

Tickets will also enable leadership to pivot organizational supports, improve training, and shift/redeploy resources. In addition, the ticketing system will be used for performance measurement and for driving continuous improvement opportunities within the Administration.

The single-window service delivery model will not only provide the most seamless experience for client groups, but it also presents many organizational opportunities and benefits, summarized in Figure 2.

This service model will allow the Administration to:

deploy adaptive training;
review and manage performance (by examining ticket timeliness, for example);
review resource deployment;
undertake client satisfaction surveys; and
examine data to learn how to improve service delivery.

Figure 3 offers a high-level conceptual design that demonstrates the intended flow of service delivery with the proposed single-window model.

Clients are Members, constituency office staff, and caucus staff.

Intake management and support, at launch, would be in person, by phone, or by email. Future-state considerations include client-generated (self-serve) ticketing and other web-based support and chat functions. Owner and Participant service requests will be ticketed for effective tracking, measurement, and reporting. In addition, as many Supporter service requests as possible will be ticketed, with the long-term goal of integrating all service requests and resolutions into a measurable and meaningful service metrics program.

Service requests and client support requests are taken by front-line service-focused staff who open a single ticket for the matter that will track its status and lifespan (the single ticket view is to the client only; separate tickets may be established by the service staff to initiate various subtasks stemming from a complex business process). Business services provided by the Administration will be gradually centralized through a single point of access. Future state considerations could include better digitization of service delivery supports to allow for self-service where effective and meeting client needs.

Service delivery is the actioning of the request by front-line service-focused staff, who work behind the scenes with subject matter experts, as may be required, but provide a single, unified face for the client. These staff provide problem resolution and access to human support when they are needed.

Confirmation and follow-up will allow front-line service-focused staff and management to monitor client satisfaction, identify recurring requests that may inform organizational planning, and track metrics that will assist with performance measurement and performance management.

Reviewing data from tickets will allow Administration leadership and management to drive business improvements and improve resource allocation – striving towards an overall goal of continuous improvement.

What This Looks Like on the Ground

Legislative Assembly staff take great pride in the work that they to do support the democratic process in our province and the important work of the Legislative Assembly and its Members. With the launch of Client Services and the Client Care Team, that work continues in a different way. Whether through direct or indirect support, under this new service model, strong partnerships between the Client Care Team and service areas within departments of the Legislative Assembly Administration responsible for service design and delivery will be maintained.

The Client Care Team will be trained with a sufficient organizational knowledge base to provide effective support to Members and their staff. The single-window model of service delivery will allow the Client Care Team to triage requests and respond in a manner that should appear seamless from the client’s perspective.

The Value(s) of Integrated Service Delivery

The Legislative Assembly Administration is strongly committed to meeting and exceeding the service expectations of Members and their staff. The Client Services transition team has engaged directly with clients on their service experiences with the Administration’s administrative processes, and it has sought out and listened to feedback in a number of areas. Innovation can include models and processes, but in service excellence, it also includes listening and developing empathy for client experiences, and understanding what it is like to experience barriers to successful outcomes through the words and stories of clients.

The Administration recognizes its responsibility of being a facilitator of effective service outcomes. The Client Services transition team has been thanked repeatedly for taking time to connect with and to seek to meet directly with constituency office staff and caucus staff, in particular. Service themes transcend urban and rural electoral districts and party affiliation. Often, in-person discussions quickly dispel assumptions about the motivation behind or the apparent arbitrary nature of service requests. Consolidating service delivery for Members is meant to achieve service efficiencies, but its principal driver is taking the administrative burden off the “sides of desks” so Members can focus on their primary work – which differs from that of the Administration. The role of Client Services is to smooth entry into a very strange world for those learning about their office and roles, and to eliminate service frustrations for both new and seasoned Members alike.

Conclusion

Client Services is being established as a centralized service department dedicated to improving service outcomes for Members and their staff. The objective is to improve service delivery and responsiveness through a single-window service model. This will allow the Administration to address feedback that has been consistently received: that better support, and better-coordinated support, are needed. These improvements are particularly necessary for constituency offices and constituency office staff, who report losing time to and lacking expertise in business processes and requirements relevant to their operations. These supports will allow the staff working in constituency offices throughout the province to feel like they are an extended part of the Assembly team, fulfilling their unique role as non-partisan offices serving British Columbians.

Anticipating the needs of Members and their staff and delivering quality services in a streamlined and personalized way are key aims. This renewed approach will allow the Administration to provide seamless, timely, and efficient support and assistance, which in turn will allow Members and their staff to return their attention to the important business before them: assisting and supporting British Columbians. We recommend colleagues in other parliamentary jurisdictions consider this model and would be pleased to share our experiences.