The power of continuous improvement

Over the past 4 years, the OneCX Program has been building nsw.gov.au as the single source of truth for information across NSW Government. The team are working through the migration of over 450 agency websites. This requires careful and considered planning to ensure nsw.gov.au is designed to address customer needs, rather than government structures.  

The OneCX Program spans across all of government and is complex in delivery. With 117 websites across 10 portfolios delivered to date, we continue to learn and iteratively improve our processes.   

Our team have long been advocates for Agile ways of working. Using an efficient and streamlined way of working is pivotal to the program's success. This is why we introduced the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) in mid-2022. SAFe is a set of organisational and workflow patterns for implementing agile practices at scale. It promotes alignment, collaboration, and better business outcomes. SAFe has improved the delivery of the OneCX Program in many ways, including:   

• better alignment and planning,  
• improved visibility and collaboration,  
• earlier identification of risks,  
• and greater quality benchmarks.  

Continuous improvement is a core element to the success of the program.  

The power of continuous improvement  

Continuous improvement is the ongoing process of identifying and implementing small changes to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of a product, service, or process. It is a systematic approach to improvement that can be applied to all aspects of an organisation.  

Kaizen is a Japanese business philosophy that means "continuous improvement." It is an approach based on the idea that small, ongoing positive changes can reap significant business improvements.  

SAFe includes ‘relentless improvement’ as one of its core values as well as a continuous learning culture. 

SAFe and Kaizen are both philosophies that can help organisations to improve over time. They both emphasise the importance of making small, gradual changes and involving everyone in the improvement process. 

What we are doing in the OneCX Program 

The OneCX Program runs as an agile team that is focused on improving the customer experience across all channels. Agile teams don't just focus on delivering products or services on time and within budget. They also make time to look back at their work and identify ways to improve their processes, tools, and communication.  

This commitment to continuous improvement is one of the things that makes agile teams so successful. By constantly looking for ways to improve, agile teams are able to deliver better products and services to their customers faster.  

Here are some examples of how we continuously improve:  

Hold regular retrospectives (retros). Retros are meetings where the team takes a step back to reflect on what went well and what could improve from the previous sprint or iteration of work. The team then identifies specific actions that they can take to improve their performance in the next sprint or iteration.  

For example, at the end of a program iteration (PI) we invite all teams to provide their thoughts and feedback. We collate this information to help inform new focal points in the next iteration. There is also a retro held every 2 weeks to review and adapt along the way.  

Seek feedback from employees, customers and stakeholders. The OneCX Program regularly seeks feedback to help identify areas of improvement. 

We encourage employees to continuously improve our ways of working, what we deliver, and how. Employees, customers and stakeholders can submit suggestions for improvement at any time via various channels. These include Agency satisfaction surveys, Help Hub feedback forms, Thumbs up, thumbs down function on the website and People Matter Employee Surveys (PMES).

These suggestions are reviewed, assigned a business value and implemented where possible. This approach is proving successful with an improvement backlog to work through.  

Experiment with new tools and processes. We're not afraid to experiment with new tools and processes. If we think that something new might help to improve performance, we will give it a try.  

For example, the engagement team recently reviewed the lifecycle of communications to an agency. From when they first hear about the OneCX Program, right through to business as usual (BAU) stage post migration. Improvements were identified, adjustments were implemented, and additional resources were created to address the gaps and improve the experience for agencies. This created efficiencies for the migration squads as agencies are better prepared before beginning their migration journey.  

The OneCX Program is helping agencies improve the security of information, minimise risk and adhere to privacy laws. We introduced an enhanced privacy impact assessment (PIA) process. This strengthens privacy governance for our partner agencies, and minimises the sensitive information we store.

By continuously improving, agile teams can stay ahead of the curve and deliver better value.  

How can you factor continuous improvement into your workplace?  

Here are our top 8 tips:  

1. Create a culture of continuous improvement. This means encouraging all employees to look for ways to improve their work and the work of their team.  
2. Set clear goals and objectives. What do you want to improve? Once you know what you want to improve, you can start to identify and implement changes.  
3. Measure your progress. It is important to track your progress over time so that you can see what is working and what is not.  
4. Celebrate your successes. It is important to recognise and celebrate improvements. This will help to motivate employees and keep them engaged in the process.  
5. Allocate time to continuous improvement. It is important to set aside time each week or month for employees to focus on improvement activities.  
6. Provide training and resources. Employees need to have the training and resources they need to identify and implement improvements.  
7. Empower employees to make decisions. Employees should feel empowered to make decisions about how to improve their work.  
8. Encourage collaboration. Improvement is most effective when employees work together to identify and implement improvements.  

Benefits of continuous improvement  

The OneCX Program is already seeing many benefits from continuous improvement, including:  

• Improved efficiency by eliminating unnecessary tasks from its processes. For example, excess meetings.  
• Improved quality of service to agencies, and a better digital experience for the people of NSW, on nsw.gov.au.  
• Increased employee engagement by providing employees with a voice in the improvement process. This is a two-fold benefit, as our team working within the processes is best placed to suggest how we make improvements.  

We believe implementing improvements continuously is how we can deliver a more efficient, and effective outcome for our partner agencies and people of NSW.

How does your team allocate time to your continuous improvement? Consider if there is an opportunity to implement some new approaches.