Internal Revenue Service Initiatives in Performance Excellence

Internal Revenue ServiceInitiatives in Performance Excellence U.S. Patent and Trademark Office National Quality Month Celebration October 27, 1999

Drivers of IRS Initiatives • Customer Service Task Force • New Commissioner • Congressional Hearings

Customer Service Task Force • Partnership involving IRS, Treasury, and the National Partnership for Reinventing Government • Identified over 200 opportunities for service improvements • Reinventing Service at the IRS (Publication 2197 (3/98))

New Commissioner • Charles O. Rossotti • Management experience • Government (OSD) • Private Sector (AMS) • Commitment to customer service

Congressional Hearings • Senate Finance Committee • Committee on Restructuring the Internal Revenue Service

Strategies for Implementation • Taxpayer Treatment and Service Improvements • New Mission Statement • Modernizing the IRS • Citizen Advocacy Panels (CAP) • President’s Quality Award

Taxpayer Treatment and Service Improvements • Coordinate, plan, and manage recommendations • Ensure suggestions are evaluated • Ensure decisions are timely and coordinated • Ensure major commitments to stakeholders are coordinated and implemented • Initially led by now Deputy Commissioner for Operations Bob Wenzel

New Mission Statement “Provide America's taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and by applying the tax law with integrity and fairness to all.”

Modernizing the IRS • Modernization Principles • IRS-NTEU Partnering Principles • PQA Core Values • Modernization Goals • Areas of Change

Modernization: Principles • Understand and solve problems from the taxpayer's point of view • Expect managers to be accountable • Use balanced measures of performance • Foster open, honest communications • Insist on total integrity

Modernization:IRS-NTEU Partnering Principles • Leadership by example • Mission-relevant focus • Participative decision making • End-to-end empowerment • Trust-building behavior

Modernization:PQA Core Values • Customer-driven Quality • Leadership • Continuous Improvement and Learning • Employee Participation and Development • Fast Response • Design Quality and Prevention

Modernization:PQA Core Values (cont.) • Long-range View of the Future • Management by Fact • Partnership Development • Organization Responsibility and Citizenship • Results Focus

Modernization: Goals • Service to each taxpayer • Service to all taxpayers • Productivity through a quality work environment

Modernization:Areas of Change • Revamped business practices • Four Operating Units • Balanced measures of performance • Management roles with clear responsibility • New technology

Modernization:Four Operating Units • Individual taxpayers with wage and investment income • Small business and self-employed taxpayers • Large business taxpayers • Employee Plans/Exempt Organizations and state and local governments

Modernization:Balanced Measures • Customer Satisfaction • Employee Satisfaction • Business Results

Citizen Advocacy Panels • Provide citizen input • Elevate identified problems to the appropriate level • Refer individual taxpayers to the appropriate IRS office for assistance

President’s Quality Award • Self-assessments • Action plans • In partnership with NTEU • Goal: Institutionalize in day-to-day management of the IRS

For details …. • The main IRS Internet web site at http://www.irs.gov/ • The Commissioner’s Section at http://www.irs.gov/welcome/index.html • The National Director of Quality at 202-622-6450 or 202-622-5710

Internal Revenue Service Initiatives in Performance Excellence