HIE's approach to its customers

Customer comment encouraged

We encourage customers to tell us what they think about the service they receive from us and we are committed to dealing with complaints fairly and quickly.  Our service charter sets out the standard you can expect from HIE. Copies of our service charter are available in all HIE offices or to download from the related documents, here, right.

Charter Mark

Charter Mark is the Government's award scheme for recognising and encouraging excellence in public service. It is unique among quality schemes in the way that it concentrates on results - service the customer actually receives. HIE was awarded the Charter Mark, which is held for periods of three years, in 1994 and 1997.

In 1998 a revised set of Charter Mark criteria was introduced, with a new emphasis on encouraging responsiveness, partnership and innovation. HIE is committed to developing its standards of customer service within the revised framework. In 2000, HIE became the first organisation in the Highlands and Islands to gain this recognition for the third time.

Most recently, HIE again achieved Charter Mark status in 2004.

Key resources

HIE's greatest single asset is its staff and we continually seek to improve their skills and, consequently, the overall performance of the organisation. At the heart of this process is the business development programme Investors in People, which encourages companies and organisations to develop individual skills in line with overall business objectives.

Measuring progress

Evaluation is an integral part of our activities. A formal year-end evaluation of each business unit's activities looks at achievement against targets and at qualitative performance against a set of management standards. We subject programmes and projects to independent external evaluation, under the guidance of an internal steering group.