Scope of Work:

The Virginia Taxation Department began to feel that the pressure to do more with less was finally too great.  The Department’s physical setting, tax processing systems, organizational structure, employee development approach and taxpayer strategy all needed reexamination and upgrading.  Despite a budget surplus, the Department felt that it was not collecting the amount of revenue it should or in the way that made the best sense.  The Leadership Team decided to begin a business process re-engineering project with a goal of building a customer-first, team based, “best-practices” organization.  VA Tax contracted with a national technology firm because of its experience with state revenue agencies.  The firm, American Management Systems (AMS), and VA Tax also recognized that a majority of re-engineering efforts have failed because of a failure to integrate culture change and other human resource issues with the plans to build high-performing technology systems.

Sterling Institute was asked to join the re-engineering partnership with its library of tax-specific materials and experiences in other revenue operations to provide the “human side of change” support in creating effective organizational change and workforce development programs for employees at all levels.

Accomplishments:

Sterling Institute’s role and responsibilities involved assessing the current level of management effectiveness within the department, starting at the executive level, and providing follow-up coaching and leadership support.  In addition, workshops on change management strategies using tax-specific video case studies were provided to all managers and change agents.  The areas of greatest change, the “Fast Tracks”, received top priority concerning the change readiness and change management assistance that Sterling Institute provided.  Internal VA Tax professionals received “train-the-trainer” programs from Sterling Institute and were able to deliver performance consulting services and change workshops in-house.

Sterling Institute provides on-going support and is assisting the VA Tax Department with basic supervisory training.  In addition, all managers will be participating in Sterling Institute’s “Developing People” program as the Department continues its effort to enhance workforce development.