Baguio gov’t employees told to ‘wear a smile’

FILE: A new policy makes it mandatory for city employees to smile when interacting with the public or with people who have transactions at city hall (Pixabay photo)

BAGUIO CITY — Employees of the city government here have been required to always wear a smile when serving clients.

A new policy makes it mandatory for city employees to smile when interacting with the public or with people who have transactions at city hall, said Edith Dawaten, assistant human resource management officer (HRMO) of the city government, in an interview Thursday. She said this is being implemented as part of the local government’s values restoration program, which aims to instill in its employees a higher standard of conduct.

Dawaten, recently designated as Values Restoration officer of the city government, explained that they expect the program to eventually translate into an improvement in the delivery of services to the people.

Their efforts towards adjusting the behavior of city employees are focused on 54 core values, on top of which are professionalism and honesty, she said, adding that one-on-one sessions are held with employees to ensure that they understand why the values restoration program is necessary for public servants.

“All employees of the city government are required to attend the flag raising (ceremony) at the city, which is a good venue to disseminate the values restoration program aside from devoted sessions with the different sections under the local government,” Dawaten said.

She explained that the new policy was prompted by complaints from clients about the work attitude of some employees. “There were a number of complaints in the past, mostly involving courtesy — the way employees talk, their facial expression and action when serving the clients.”

Dawaten related that there was one incident when a city employee behaved rudely when giving back the change of a taxpayer, which in turn caused the taxpayer to file a formal complaint. “As public servants, we are expected to act appropriately when serving our clients because they are the reason we exist and they contribute to our salaries as government workers, hence, the necessity to provide them the best service we can,” she said.

“We have to act on them no matter how simple the complaint is,” she added. The Civil Service Commission (CSC), she explained, has prescribed rules on the behavior of government employees and there are corresponding penalties, depending on the gravity of the offense.