Smile, you are a civil servant

Friendly reminder: A smile campaign poster placed around the National Registration counter in Putrajaya.

KUALA LUMPUR: “A smile is a curve that sets everything right” and, for that, Cuepacs wants civil servants to make 2013 the year of the smile.

Its president Datuk Omar Osman made this suggestion after finding that smiling had yet to be a culture among most government employees.

“Many smile campaigns have been held, but the awareness to make smiling a culture is still low.

“Don't bring personal problems to the office. If we can have a happy mood at the office, our productivity will increase,” he told Bernama.

He said department heads should emphasise the matter at every meetings to get their staff to make smiling a culture, especially when attending to customers.

“We do acknowledge that every department have their own work charter where smiling as a culture is included in some, but it is not practised.

“Some offices even made it compulsory for their staff to wear the smile tag on their uniform, but the tag is worn merely as an accessory,” he added.

Omar said he had received several complaints of unsatisfactory service or treatment by civil servants from the public.

He said department heads could invite Cuepacs to give talks to their staff on making smiling a culture.

The Government has been trying to get civil servants to smile more for the past three years with a national campaign that kicked off in 2011.

The campaign started with a circular by the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Manage-ment Planning Unit (Mampu) in December 2010 instructing all ministries to encourage public servants, especially frontline staff members who deal with the public, to smile more.

This led to numerous ministry-level “smile” campaigns, including one by the Finance Ministry, which Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak officiated in April 21 2011.

At the launch of the two-month campaign, Najib said the campaign's slogan “Smile Always” was in line with efforts by the Government to get public servants, especially the frontliners, to strengthen a service culture.

Government bodies which have since introduced smile campaigns include the Meteorology Department, which promoted smiling as a means not only to provide better service to the public but as a way for the department's staff to relieve stress while on duty.

The Federal Territories and Urban Well-being Ministry, which conducted a year-long “Service With A Smile” campaign in 2011, continued its efforts with another campaign the following year with the tagline “Keep Smiling”.

Last month, the Terengganu Health Department launched a “3S” campaign (Senyum, Salam, Sapa or Smile and Greet) to further improve the service by staff at the state's hospital and clinic.

-thestar/maa.