Quality Service
The Office of Physical Plant (OPP) is the administrative unit of The Pennsylvania State University, responsible for the stewardship of the University’s physical assets. Quality Service is the cornerstone of OPP and its parent organization, Finance and Business. The strategic plans of both organizations focus on providing quality service to their customers.
To help meet this goal, all OPP employees attend a comprehensive Quality Service Training Program. This program provides a framework for each Department to establish its own quality standards. The training also provides a customer service skills refresher for employees.
In Phase I of the program, the [OPP] Executive Steering Group (ESG) established the quality service philosophy and standards for the Office of Physical Plant. “We seek to exceed our customers’ expectations and strive for excellence in our work through these quality service standards”:
- Ease of Service – providing products and services that are responsive to our customers’ needs through well-communicated and uncomplicated processes with clearly defined entry points.
- Safe Environment – providing for the health and safety of people and the environment through daily work processes, environmental protection, maintenance practices, and facilities design.
- Service Attitude – being sincerely interested in the customers’ needs and proactively seeking solutions. Key attributes include reliability, accountability, and courtesy.
- Efficiency – delivering high quality products and services in a cost-effective and timely manner.
- Stewardship – preserving and enhancing the physical assets and visual qualities of the University through thoughtful decision-making and wise resource allocation.
In Phase II, employees are provided with an overview of the quality service philosophy at OPP and its support of the organization’s mission, vision and strategic plan.
In Phase III, employees learn the necessary skills, knowledge, and behaviors to deliver quality service.
In Phase IV, employees in each work unit identify their internal and external customers, and create an action plan for providing quality service.
After each work unit completes its action plan, an overall quality service plan will be created for OPP that is in alignment with each other work unit, OPP’s philosophy, and the Finance and Business standards.
Links:
- Office of Planning Institutional Assessment Newsletter A bi-monthly publication. Questions, comments or suggested items for future newsletters, please contact Louise Sandmeyer, Executive Director of the Office of Planning and Institutional Assessment, or Carol Everett, Associate Director, at 814-863-8721 or psupia@psu.edu.
- Spotlight on Quality Improvement Check out the Spotlight Archive!
- Learn how the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute developed an on-line operations manual to provide administrative support for research.
- Learn how Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology improved their financial processes and created an on-line directory of budget and project information for the department.