In Service to Jamaicans: New PICA Building to Improve Efficiency, Effectiveness, Productivity

The Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) chairman Joe Issa, is hailing the construction of a new head office for PICA as an excellent move to enhance staff morale and customer service, stating it will impact effectiveness, efficiency and productivity.

“The move by the Minister to get a new head office for the staff of PICA to work and serve customers better, is an excellent one. It will make for a much improved environment than the present, overcrowded location,” says Issa, who is well-known to providing employees with pristine working conditions. 

 

Issa made the comments in an interview following the announcement by National Security Minister, Robert Montague, of a new head office for PICA, which is to be constructed on 7^th Avenue on lands already acquired near the current headquarters on Constant Spring Road in Kingston.

 

“We have instructed that the architects move a little faster to complete the designs... as we just need these and the approval of the Kingston and St. Andrew Municipal Corporation to construct the facility and get the staff into more comfortable surroundings,” he said. 

 

Stating that he believes the level of comfort and staff morale in the workplace is directly related to the level and quality of service they provide to the public, Issa argues, “If they have more space and better facilities in which to work, this will improve their morale and the ‘feel-good’ factor often necessary to drive performance.”

 

Issa posits that the new PICA facility will raise the profile of the agency and the satisfaction of customers, who often complain about the overcrowding at the current head quarters, emphasizing that “the manner in which employees go about doing their work and serving clients is a function of the environment in which they are put to work,” and stating, “The new investment in land and building will eventually pay off through improved staff effectiveness, efficiency and productivity.”

 

He asserts that “the more modern and spacious building will enable managers to better manage staff time and other inputs and prioritize their use, which results in greater effectiveness...that means ‘doing the right things’.”

 

Similarly, Issa explains that “the new facility on 7^th Avenue will make for better management of the output of workers, in terms of organizing, processing, approving and dispatching passports, citizenship certificates and work permits, etc.,” noting “it will lead to greater efficiency...‘doing things right’.”

 

“To the extent that more is accomplished with the same staff at the new location relative to what is being achieved at the current building, this constitutes increased productivity or output per worker,” concludes Issa, who is a past student of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in the United Kingdom, where he developed a penchant for giving back to disadvantaged Jamaican children through education.