HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) is a highly complex and large public service organization that resulted from the merger of HM Customs & Excise and Inland Revenue office in 2005. The British government depends on the HMRC organization to find several of their policies and wanted to implement lean to their taxation system. The revenue raised by the organization is in the form of taxation and it is used for funding the welfare state, armed services, healthcare, and other government spending areas (Beech & MacIntosh, 2012, p. 255). The new Department’s goal was to balance its three main objectives: maximizing revenues, reducing their costs and improve customer experience.
2. Thesis Statement
The HMRC installed a PaceSetter program and used it as a change agent for achieving its objective of running an efficient taxation system in the UK and implemented lead to run the organization effectively.
3. Introduction
HMRC has installed a PaceSetter program, which is inspired by the lean management approach to business improvement. Applying the PaceSetter program has required frontline teams of experts who are working together to analyze and redesign the present business processes. In addition, training has been provided to the teams at the frontline on important techniques such as problem solving and visual management. Thus, enabling them to improve continuously in their work (HMRC, 2011).
4. Key Points
Development of a merged public sector organization meant that a single agency would be responsible for the collection of taxes in the country and would save money in terms of operational costs and wages of employees (Kaffash & Crump, 2015). In addition, a single agency would ensure that an impartial system is developed in the country that works perpetually to close the tax gap and help fulfill all needs of the welfare state. Under one roof, the agency would be able to run a fair and professional manner of tax codes and also take care of customs and payments to ensure they were solely in charge of all taxation. Overall, the goal was to achieve higher levels of efficiency in managing needs of businesses and individuals (Shah, Malik, & Yaqub, 2010, p. 123-132).
One agency for taxation in the country meant that they could reduce their operational costs by eliminating the waste and cutting jobs (BBC News, 2004). In addition, revenues of the organization would be boosted with the addition of excise and other payments to the system. Also, the merged agency could take better care of the specialized needs of the customers and ensure everyone was educated about their responsibilities. The merged public sector organization developed would be better able to improve the service and product quality for customers, increasing the accountability of the agency (Shah, Malik, & Yaqub, 2010, p. 123-132).
5. Challenges
Like other public sector organizations, the agencies needed to ensure that they had to perform their tasks with limited resources at hand. Another big challenge that existed at the time of the merger was the cultural clash between the merged organizations. This means that many employees had to go through a period where they were highly dissatisfied their role at the new agency as their level of autonomy was reduced to new lows. Also, there was a threat of losing jobs as achieving efficiencies meant that more jobs could be removed from the system to achieve lower operational costs (Shah, Malik, & Yaqub, 2010, p. 123-132).
6. Conclusion
References
BBC News. (2004, 17 March). Customs and Inland Revenue merge. Retrieved 14 January 2017 from, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3518742.stm
Beech, N., & MacIntosh, R. (2012). Managing change: Enquiry and action. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
HM Revenue & Customs. (2011, July 15). PaceSetter: HMRC’s programme to improve business operations. Retrieved 14 January 2017 from https://www.taxation.co.uk/files/PaceSetter%20report.pdf
Kaffash., J & Crump., R. (2015, 27 May). Ten years of HMRC has been a qualified success. Retrieved 14 January 2017 from, https://www.accountancyage.com/aa/feature/2410328/ten-years-of-hmrc-has-been-a-qualified-success
Shah, H., Malik, A., & Yaqub, M. Z. (2010). Accounting for Merger: The Case of HM Revenue and Customs. European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences, 18, 123-132.
