Radical change at a relaxed pace

The Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (better known under the Dutch acronym: IND) is making huge changes to its organisational structure and operational management. The aim is to improve the quality of its services and ensure strict enforcement of the law. “We are evolving into a different type of organisation with a sharper focus on service and law enforcement”, says Hans Blokpoel, who joined the IND management team two and a half years ago with the specific aim of helping to guide this massive reorganisation.

The IND’s Achilles heel has always been the backlog of applications waiting to be processed. External factors such as the war in the Balkans have triggered huge flows of asylum-seekers. The sudden influx of newcomers has only added to the existing backlog. “One of the typical features of this organisation is that it has always lagged behind. Every time it has managed to catch up, it has been swamped by a fresh flood of applications”, comments Hans Blokpoel. “Our people are deeply committed to giving their customers in the immigration chain good service. They feel responsible for dealing with new applications quickly and thoroughly. Because of the constant pressure, there has simply been no time to stop and think about how to enhance the organisation’s operating processes.”

The breakthrough came in 2005, when a team of auditors from the Netherlands Court of Audit decided that the IND needed breathing space to improve itself. “It was a bold move on the part of the auditors”, is how Blokpoel sums it up. “Instead of producing the usual list of matters needing improvement, they came up with this recommendation. The Minister also deserves a compliment for the statesmanship she displayed in setting this operation in motion. In doing so, she created the conditions for critically analysing the organisation and making the necessary changes.”

Analysing the problems

When Blokpoel joined the Service, he was told that the problems were caused by frequent changes in the organisation’s processes. However, as he looked, listened and observed he found it difficult to pinpoint the precise nature of the problem. “During my conversations with staff members who knew the immigration chain inside out, I came to the conclusion that legislative changes had a more dramatic impact on the IND than on any other government department. This is because all decisions taken by the IND are open to objection or appeal. That is simply how the Dutch law works. The IND takes a decision and the courts then assess its validity. We deal with hundreds of thousands of cases every year, thousands of which end up in court. We often have to take all sorts of subjective criteria into account when we make our decisions. There are always differences of interpretation. After all, who can determine exactly how distressing a particular situation is? There are no objective criteria you can apply when making a decision of this nature. If the Council of State, the highest court of appeal in the country, decides to quash one of our decisions, that automatically creates a new rule which we then have to apply in similar cases in the future. That is what makes the situation so confusing for our staff.”

Eureka

“Our ‘eureka’ moment came when we realised that it was not our processes that were the problem, but the constant rule changes. We came to the conclusion that we could use a generic process model to implement all the relevant statutory regulations. A change in the law did not mean that the process itself had to change. From that moment we took a completely different approach to our work.” And so the unique idea was conceived of distinguishing between the primary process on the one hand and legislation on the other. Armed with this knowledge, the IND turned to the outside world, asking for feedback and whether they were on the right track. The academics responded enthusiastically. The only problem was that not a single market party had ever used this model on such a large scale.

Dialogue with suppliers

The IND then launched a competitive dialogue to encourage suppliers to take a direct interest in the further development of the model. It was the first time that a government body had awarded a contract on the basis of an interactive tendering procedure of this scale. Three consortia submitted bids. “In the course of this dialogue, we invited the bidders to comment on our contract specifications and we shared our assumptions with them. The dialogue generated a range of new ideas that we definitely would have missed out on if we hadn’t organised this type of tendering procedure. The Ordina/Accenture consortium demonstrated that, by taking the rules as a starting point, we could set up a dynamic process based on our operational activities. These vary, depending on the case in hand, and also depending on the applicant’s country of origin. In certain cases, for example, it may be worth asking the applicant about his or her religion, whereas in other cases, it is an irrelevant question. This open dialogue with the market delivered extra flexibility.” Another important requirement was that the change should be based on the use of standard applications. “We believe that we should be able to support a generic process model such as ours with standard applications. If the suppliers had objected, we would undoubtedly have listened to them, but Ordina clearly showed that this is indeed possible.”

Different processes and organisation

The overhaul of the IND is now firmly underway. Apart from a profound transformation of processes and information flows, the operation also includes the formation of a completely new organisational structure, based on units working with a wider range of responsibilities and specialisms that are geared towards meeting customers’ demands. The new process model works with a digital client file, in which activities can be planned to run parallel with each other, bringing cases to a swifter conclusion. The new information system also allows the IND to respond to signals from other government departments that a change has occurred in an immigrant’s situation, resulting in improved law enforcement practices. All in all, the new-look IND meets the demands from parties from across the political spectrum: a higher standard of service combined with more effective law enforcement.

No stress

In other words, the future holds tremendous changes for the staff of the IND. Hans Blokpoel: “From day one, we sat down with our staff and discussed where we were heading and what we expected from them, openly and frankly. The message was always the same: we are going to dramatically raise the standard of our services to our customers, and at the same time we are going to enforce the law more strictly. It is all about boosting our efficiency. And yes, we are also going to reduce our staff complement. The management has held in-depth discussions with the Staff Council, and these have culminated in an agreement on a redundancy scheme that has the support of 98% of our staff.” Despite the radical changes in the working environment and the fact that a great deal of work is going to be computerised, Blokpoel is gratified by the large number of professionals who are totally unconcerned by the changes. “Some of them have been with the IND for ages. They are the ones who are most relaxed about the whole operation, because they know that their profession is not under threat. As we have made clear that we will remain a highly qualified and professional organisation, they realise that their role will not be marginalised.”

The idea is to gradually phase in the new processes and systems after the summer of 2009. The absence of hard deadlines is a deliberate choice, explains Blokpoel. “There is no big bang, no date on which someone waves a magic wand. We want to manage the risks during this process and make sure it is a stress-free operation. Business has to continue as usual whilst all this is going on. So we are retaining our old processes for the time being. We will transfer clients to the new system, one at a time and as fast as we can. If the operation takes longer than planned, then so be it. This, too, helps to ensure that everything proceeds at a relaxed pace.”

Next Chapter: Solvency II