Employee Written Evaluations Emphasized Revenue Production and Efficiency More Than Customer Service

Our analysis of evaluations written when IRS’ old mission statement was in effect showed that, overall, written evaluations of enforcement employees emphasized revenue production and efficiency more than customer service. Features of Current Evaluation Process Could Be Used to Reinforce Customer Service

The current IRS evaluation process contains four features that provide supervisors with opportunities to reinforce the customer service orientation reflected in IRS’ new mission statement. The narrative portion of an employee’s written evaluation provides flexibility to supervisors to focus on employees’ customer service skills. Midyear Progress Reviews

Midyear progress reviews provide supervisors with opportunities to provide interim feedback on all aspects of case handling, including any deficiencies, relating to agency customer service (and other) goals. If the features were to be used more, IRS would need to consider the potential implications for the way in which supervisors allocate their time between these and other administrative tasks. IRS Initiatives to Promote Customer Service

IRS has implemented a number of initiatives to promote customer service, setting the stage for the reform of IRS’ entire performance management system over the coming years. Thus far, IRS has revised its strategic goals; aligned them with its new mission statement; and introduced organizational performance measures that are to balance customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and business results. IRS has also taken several interim actions to promote customer service in evaluating enforcement employees. IRS recognizes that revamping its performance management system is a major effort. IRS has incorporated into the evaluation process a new performance standard relating to the fair and equitable treatment of taxpayers that employees must meet at a passing level to retain their jobs. However, because of the magnitude of the changes IRS is undertaking, it is uncertain when such a system will become fully operational and a new employee evaluation process put in place. In the meantime, IRS could take better advantage of opportunities within the current evaluation process to reinforce the importance of customer service among its frontline enforcement employees. Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

	Objectives

Our objectives in this report are to (1) determine the relative emphasis on revenue production, efficiency, and customer service in enforcement employees’ annual written evaluations; (2) identify features of the evaluation process that might be used to greater advantage to reinforce the importance of customer service; and (3) describe IRS initiatives to promote customer service, including those to encourage enforcement employees to be taxpayer oriented. We reviewed the two latest evaluations for the period ending June 1998 for each employee in a statistically representative sample of 267 of 19,096 examination and collection enforcement employees.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the extent to which the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employee evaluation system can support the new mission statement during the period IRS will need to revamp its performance management system, focusing on: (1) determining the relative emphasis on revenue production, efficiency, and customer service in enforcement employees' annual written evaluations; (2) identifying features of the evaluation process that might be used to greater advantage to reinforce the importance of customer service; and (3) describing IRS initiatives to promote customer service, including those to encourage enforcement employees to be taxpayer oriented.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) IRS could take advantage of opportunities within the evaluation process to reinforce the importance of customer service among its frontline enforcement employees; (2) there are a number of reasons for doing so; (3) most importantly, the evaluation process is not aligned with IRS' new mission statement because it emphasizes revenue production more than customer service; (4) also, it is uncertain when a new performance management system that IRS is planning will become fully operational; (5) enforcement employees' two most recent written evaluations for the period ending June 1998 emphasized their revenue production and efficiency skills more than their customer service skills; (6) available evidence indicates that four features of the evaluation process could be used to greater advantage to reinforce the importance of customer service among enforcement employees; (7) if the features were to be used more, however, IRS would need to consider the potential implications for the way in which supervisors allocate their time between these and other administrative tasks; (8) the narrative portion an employee's written evaluation provides flexibility for supervisors to focus on employees' customer service skills; (9) midyear progress reviews, which are required, provide supervisors with opportunities to give interim feedback on aspects of case handling in relation to customer service (and other) goals; (10) mandatory reviews of sampling of completed cases present another opportunity for supervisors to comment on customer service skills because these are ex post facto examinations of documents prepared by employees to support their case decisions; (11) field visits present an excellent opportunity to reinforce customer service; (12) IRS has implemented a number of initiatives to promote customer service; (13) it has: (a) revised its strategic goals; (b) aligned them with its mission statement; and (c) introduced organizational performance measures that are to balance customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and business results; (14) in the meantime, IRS has taken several interim actions to encourage enforcement employees to be taxpayer oriented; and (15) it has incorporated into the employee evaluation process a new retention standard relating to the fair and equitable treatment of taxpayers that employees must meet at a passing level to retain their jobs.