PRO.A.C.T.IN(Proactive Acquis Communautaire Training Initiatives)

Bucharest, September 2 - 4, 2008

Prof. Umberto TriulziPro-Actin Scientific Coordinator

TRAINING THE TRAINERS: BASIC CONCEPTS INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION

NATIONAL TRAINING OPERATIONAL PLANS AND SUPPORT SYSTEM

INFORMATION GATHERING GOOD PRACTICES MODELS WEB PLATFORM

EMERGING TRAINING NEEDS, EXPECTATIONS AND CONSTRAINTS IN ROMANIA

DISSEMINATION

INDEX

• Human resources development is recognised as a key factor to drive change in Postal Services and to achieve the ProActin Project targets

• Individuation for a selected target group of Trainer-Experts (Target Group A)• The single trainer should dispose of basic training capacities and technical

skills, in order to be able to educate (Trainees) Postal Operators staff and other key officials in understanding the effects of EU accession on their business activities

• Full familiarisation with the EU Postal Acquis through the Trainers • Compliance and implementation of the Internal Market Postal Acquis

CONCRETE PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED (5 TARGETS OF ACCORD II)CONCRETE PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED (5 TARGETS OF ACCORD II)

• Quality of services (Directive (97/67/EC)• Financial accounting and reporting Directive (97/67/EC and following

modifications)• Adoption by postal staff of a culture of customer awareness, marketing and

sales• Role of Independent Regulatory Authorities in the new EU postal market• Lack of efficient planning and management tools and methods

TRAINING THE TRAINERS PROGRAMME BASIC CONCEPTS IN PROACTIN PROJECT

ACTIVITY 1ACTIVITY 1• General Operational Planning and National Training Operational

Plans in the BCs• Access to information and INFO/data gathering• Scientific Coordination supervision• Reporting to the Project National Contact Point

ACTIVITY 2ACTIVITY 2 Training the Trainers’ Sessions in the Beneficiary Countries

ACTIVITY 3ACTIVITY 3Dissemination to Target Groups Final Information Gathering

TRAINER INVOLVEMENT IN PROACTIN TRAINER INVOLVEMENT IN PROACTIN ACTIVITIESACTIVITIES

Preparatory SessionApril 10-11, 2008 Brussels

BC Training Sessions

BC date topic

Croatia 7/2008 Accounting, HR

Romania 9/2008 Quality of service

Turkey 10/2008 Customer relations

Bulgaria 11/2008 Regulation

Trainer to Trainees Session30 postal-acquis Trainer-Experts 200 Trainees of the BC

POs …..multiplier effect

BASIC TRAINING SESSIONS FOR THE TRAINERS AND

TOPICS PRIORITIES

“GOOD PRACTICES”Selected by the PSC and on the suggestions of the BC/EU ProActin Partners

PREREQUISITS TO GOOD PRACTICES• positively evaluated by national/international operators • have clear aims and objectives that are easy to identify• be user– friendly and appealing to all parties involved • be adaptable, innovative and transferable to different conditions,

structures, countries • be sustainable and have a long–term perspective• be easily identified and their results easy to evaluate• be coherent with other good practices, ideally in both concept and

delivery • cclearly out-perform other practices (efficiency, effectiveness over a

range of relevant indicators)• be able to improve continuously

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION: GOOD PRACTICES MODELS

Year 1 Semester 1 Semester 2

Activity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

General planning (activity group 1)                        

forming the PSC, groundwork activities, coordination, reporting                        

analysis of the constraints/training needs, country reports                        

national operational training plans (for each BCs)                        

training materials (TMG, Glossary etc)                        

design, upgrading and start-up of the new database / web-platform                        

recruitment (trainers, technical experts, etc), individuation of trainees                        

implementation of the new, multi-lingual database and web-platform                        

                         

Training sessions (activity group 2)                        

1st training session inBrx                        

2nd traning sessions                        

INFORMATION GATHERING ACTIVITIES (1° YEAR)

It will enable the Project Steering Committee (PSC) and the Trainers of the Project Partners to operate immediately and to comply with the scheduled project timing.

The "National Training Operational Plans and Support System" of the ProActin Project will be composed of the following output:

a) General Operation Plan :– Working Plan of "ProActin Multilanguage Web Platform database"– Operational Plan of Project Steering Committee– Operational documents of the Project Steering Committee (PSC)– Operational guidelines for Demo, slides– Abstracts of selected Files, Hypertext of the Operational Plans CD

b) National Training Operational Plans of the Beneficiary Countries (BCs)

– Bulgaria Training National Operational Plan CD/Text– Croatia Training National Operational Plan CD/Text– Romania Training National Operational Plan CD/Text– Turkey Training National Operational Plan CD/Text

National Training Operational Plans and Support System

• National Training Operational Plan and documentation, information materials available or produced by the project

• Different materials according to the level of education of the staff

• Data base on particular answers to particular questions • Good practices experiences and business references

presented on the web page• Web site: simple, updated regularly • Forum consisting of experts available on the website • Web site should offer the possibility of communicating with

moderators • Practical way of information dissemination and learning

activities (distant learning, e- learning)

WEB PLATFORM CONTENTS

• EU Institutions and policies/programmes

• Acquis related to EU enlargement• Implementation of the Acquis• Good practices• Bibliography and Glossaries

Web Platform Web Platform The Postal Acquis ApproachThe Postal Acquis Approach

WHAT WE EXPECT FROM WHAT WE EXPECT FROM Project Project PartnersPartners

• The web master draft translation in your own language of:– introductory ProActin web pages;– areas description;– menu items;

• Files related to the good practices and case studies

SUMMARY

• Romanian Post had implemented independent measurement systems for transit time both for domestic (beginning 2008) and international traffic (beginning 2005) for priority letter mail, according to CEN Standard EN13850.

• Romanian Post is in position to put in practice beginning 1 July 2008 a New Procedure regarding Inquiries and Complaints handling, which is using much of the rules specified on CEN Standard EN 14012.

• The quality standards imposed by National Regulatory Authorities are the same as the ones précised on the European Directives:

EMERGING NEEDS AND CONSTRAINTS IN THE BCs COUNTRY COUNTRYAN OVERVIEW FROM THE PROACTIN COUNTRY REPORTS: AN OVERVIEW FROM THE PROACTIN COUNTRY REPORTS:

ROMANIAROMANIA

EMERGING NEEDS AND CONSTRAINTS IN THE BCs COUNTRY COUNTRYAN OVERVIEW FROM THE PROACTIN COUNTRY REPORTS: AN OVERVIEW FROM THE PROACTIN COUNTRY REPORTS:

ROMANIAROMANIA

• The customers of all kind, the customer representative organizations and stakeholders are informed about the objectives regarding the transit time, the number of Claims and Inquiries.

• The customer satisfaction is taken into consideration by Romanian Post using specific measurement instruments like:– Focus group;– Face-to-face interview;– Omnibus;– Desk research;

• Therefore, Romanian Post has made a big efforts to improve the quality of its existing postal services and to develop some new ones, according the costumers needs

• To help the National Regulator to focus and to set up training activities according to national priorities.

• Providing the mandatory regulations (UE Directives) regarding the Postal Services field, especially the Human Resources(HU) and Training activities

• Specialists and “know-how” (documentation, training sessions) to implement the concrete measures in order to integrate the activities of the Romanian Post with the Postal Acquis institutional changes

• Benchmarching with international standard procedures

MAIN EXPECTATIONS and PROACTIN PROPOSALS

• Main constraints in the implementation of the EU regulatory frameworks:– luck of knowledge of the mandatory regulations (UE Directives)

regarding the Postal Services field.– “know-how” to implement the concrete measures in order to integrate

the activities of the BCs POs with the Postal Acquis institutional changes.

– the organization of the Postal Services in the Bcs

• The sector or operating services that need more technical assistance to the implementation of the acquis communautaire:– human resources and the recruitment process– an evaluation system in the POs in line with with the EU standards; – an internal motivaton system - based not only on financial rewards; – more frequent links and communication/information campaign for the

customers

MAIN EXPECTATIONS and PROACTIN PROPOSALS

Target Group A:• 30 Postal-Acquis Trainer-Experts and 200

Trainees representing managers and staff of the BC POs.

Target Group B:• 80 representatives of National Institutions• Wider Postal Industry Organizations• Other services of general interest utilities• Small and Medium Sized Enterprises• Consumer Associations, Civil Society, Research

Institutions etc.

TARGET GROUPS FINAL BENEFICIARIES

Internal dissemination (postal staff) External dissemination (stakeholders)

For the EC: External dissemination is EQUALLY important as the Internal one

Successful dissemination: key element to a further BSP on Postal Acquis

CONCRETE DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIESCONCRETE DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES:

• 4 internal national seminars for each POs (“trainers train the trainees”) (2 days)• feedback reporting from trainees• best practices collection• study visits at EU POs (2 days)• help desk • national dissemination campaigns in all BCs • final information gathering from Target Groups A (internal) B (external

stakeholders)• 1 final conference in Brussels• final database and web upgrading • final report for the EC

DISSEMINATION CAMPAIGN

Year 2 Semester 3 Semester 4

Activity 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

coordination, reporting (cont'd)                        

2nd training sessions in BCs (cont'd)                        

implementation of the new database and web-platform                        

3-monthly reports                        

Dissemination (activity group 3)                        

on-field study visits                        

internal technical national seminars at each BC POs                        

Focus group meetings                        

setting-up national Help Desks + necessary training                        

dissemination campaigns and final information gathering                        

final conference in Brussels                        

final training program evaluation                        

project follow-up of the with interested POs                        

final report to EC                        

INFORMATION AND DATA GATHERING, DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES (2° YEAR)

• Each Focus Group should be composed of 12/15 representative members of stakeholders in the wider postal industry sector such us:

– Express mail and Direct marketing companies;– Transport and logistics, distributors;– Public utilities;

• and others economic representative organizations:

– Large distributors;– Large Scale Enterprises; – Small and Medium-sized Enterprises; – Financial intermediaries;– Business interest group associations;– Postal clients and consumers associations; – Media and information.

Dissemination Campaign Through Focus Groups

The Focus Groups should also include:

* Representatives of national/local competent authorities; * Social partners;* Consumers associations.

In these meetings the PROACTIN project Trainers should approach, through aninteractive non formal discussion, the postal wider industry and usersin order to get a qualitative feedback about theirperception/impression of the changes related to the introduction of thePostal Acquis (Directive 97/67/EC and 2002/39/EC) linked to the EUinternal market.

During the Focus Groups exercise the Trainers should discuss with theparticipants on the effects (changes) of the Postal Acquis on Postal Organizationsand the wider postal industry and on how such changes can increase the quality ofpostal services and the Human Resources capacity to face the increased national/internationalcompetitiveness.

Dissemination Campaign Through Focus Groups

• After collecting the recommendations, each CEEC Focus Group will organize in its own structure one Acquis Information Day with the involvement of the interested European/national/local authorities (30 to 50 expected participants).

• During these events a specific questionnaire for PCU assessment will be distributed to the involved Target Groups.

• The “Postal Acquis Information Day” alternatively could be organized in form of “stand”, located by stakeholder’s premises, or “press conference” (with publication on house organ).

Postal Acquis Information Day

• The aim of this part of the dissemination programme is to inform businesses operators and the general public of how the postal operator will change its services in response to both EU directives and the needs of its consumers.

• The external dissemination will be targeted towards a selected cross-section of BCs enterprises and businesses (particularly Small and Medium Sized Enterprises and POs wider industry).

• Each “PROACTIN National Help Desk” will organize the dissemination campaign in his/her country with appropriate businesses communication tools and contents. This part of the project could involve a number of different products, such as posters, leaflets, postcards, bookmarks, which could be placed in post offices and elsewhere.

• The PROACTIN Teams will draft Poster Templates, different ones targeting consumers and businesses. The templates will be sent to the BCs partners in order to adapt the communication and for the translation and printing activities.

Acquis Information Campaignthrough POs National Postal Network Offices

Dissemination tools will enhance the efficacy of the dissemination campaign in BCs and will be composed by the following documents:

• SUMMARY OF MAIN PROJECT ACTIVITIES, PROJECT PARTNERS ROLES AND ASSIGNMENTS, TIMING, EXPECTED RESULTS AND OBJECTIVES FOCUSED ON BCs BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

• Country Reports guidelines for trainers (training constraints/needs analysis)

• General Operational Plan, Web operational plan• Training for Trainer Tools • Trainer Methodological Guidelines (TMG) • The ProActin Trainer -Expert Vademecum• Glossary and EU INFO KIT ON THE POSTAL ACQUIS• Collection of “Good Practices” and “Case Studies”

NATIONAL TRAINING OPERATIONAL PLAN

DISSEMINATION TOOLS

• Special Training Tools • Final ProActin Multilanguage Web Platform database release• Translation of relevant documentation • Feed back questionnaires• Reporting activities produced: teaching materials, administrative operational template samples, good practices etc.• Useful Links

–Institutional links - National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) –International institutions–Postal operators (Universal Service Providers - USPs)–European Postal operators' organisations –Other Postal industry stakeholders–Postal industry news links –European Commission –Other EU and national Institutions–EU Consultative Bodies

• Main Bibliographies• Quality of Service Abbreviations

NATIONAL TRAINING OPERATIONAL PLAN DISSEMINATION TOOLS

Thanks for your attention

Prof. Umberto Triulzi

University of Rome “La Sapienza”

email: u.triulzi@dte.uniroma1.it