Service Excellence Education Program

 

 

At the U of A we know that service excellence is a shared commitment to continuous improvement. It is about the way we serve colleagues, students and external stakeholders, and it means consistently meeting and exceeding the needs of our diverse community.

The Service Excellence Education (SEE) program reinforces our commitment to U of A’s service culture and continuous improvement by revitalizing and expanding the original Service Excellence Training Program (SETP) implemented in 2021/2022. 

The newly designed SEE program grounds the program within the U of A context and to meet the diverse and evolving needs of staff and faculty. U of A’s seven service principles are the heart of the SEE program as are the service excellence competencies focusing on personal effectiveness, communication, working with others, process excellence, problem solving and innovation and service orientation. 

SEE is a multi-tier program that helps individual contributors, teams, and supervisors build their knowledge, skills, and behaviours in service excellence delivery. It takes participants on a journey that establishes foundational knowledge, builds skills, and identifies personal behavioural goals that support service culture and positive workplace behaviours. 

 

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PROGRAM OVERVIEW 

Tier 1: Foundations

Foundations is the entry point for all learners and it is the prerequisite to all other streams in the program. Focusing on developing a common language, Foundations lays the groundwork for a deeper dive into skill and behavioural development related to service excellence. 

In this asynchronous, self-paced online course, participants develop knowledge in service principles and complete a self-assessment for their journey with service excellence at the U of A.  At the completion of the course, participants test their knowledge of service principles and reflect on their current service excellence competencies with the Service Excellence Self-assessment. 

Estimated time for completion: 3 hours.

 

Tier 2: Focus and Deepen 

Focus and Deepen offers individuals or teams the opportunity to deepen and apply their knowledge through a self-selected, skill-building  project centered on improving a service excellence principle. Completion of the project is supported through live application sessions that unfold monthly over four weeks. 

 

Tier 3: Supervising for Service Excellence 

Supervising for Service Excellence is designed for managers, supervisors, team leads and those with people leading responsibilities to build service excellence in their team.  Supervisors  develop the knowledge and skills needed to help employees develop service excellence competencies and to understand how every team member impacts the overall service delivery for the team. This skill development is supported by practical tools that support peer mentorship strategies and for integrating service excellence competencies into the performance development process.