From control to control – A Tax Agency in (constant) change
On January 30, 1976, plainclothes police stormed into the middle of a rehearsal of Strindberg’s play Dance of Death at the Royal Dramatic Theatre and arrested the world-famous director Ingemar Bergman. Bergman is suspected of tax evasion – a suspicion that is later dismissed and the charges dropped. However, the incident attracts widespread international attention and Prime Minister Olof Palme famously says that the Swedish people do not want a police and control state hanging over them.
More than 40 years have passed since then and the Swedish Tax Agency has worked hard in recent decades to become a service authority where taxpayers are regarded as customers. Whether the customer is a private individual, a company or an organization, they should receive good service and support to easily do the right thing.
– The big change now is that we will be in the customer’s environment, says Daniela Eriksson, HR Director at the Swedish Tax Agency. “We need to develop our own operations and enable the Swedish Tax Agency, together with other public and private actors, to adapt and simplify based on the customer’s different situations.
Replace the employee survey
To drive further change, the Swedish Tax Agency needed to replace its previous employee survey with something that could more actively support business development. Ageru’s method is based on a dialog about sustainable performance.
– “The old employee survey was no longer appropriate in our context,” says Ulrika Lindhoff, business developer in HR at the Swedish Tax Agency. “The classic employee survey asks if I enjoy my job. That might be interesting to know, but what do you do with that information? Managers at all levels must provide their employees with the right conditions, and this is where the dialog on sustainable performance can be used. The method also captures the self-leadership that we want to see at the Swedish Tax Agency, where we release the power of all employees in the organization through a dialogue where everyone can be heard and participate in an active way.
The Swedish Tax Agency’s vision is to make society possible together.
– The concept of working together is important to us at the Swedish Tax Agency. Employees need to understand where we are and where we are going and see how they are affected and can contribute to the journey. It is crucial that there is a context and a direction that we talk about together,” says Daniela Eriksson.
– Part of this is recruiting the right managers and developing the ones we have. Our leaders must be able to translate the Swedish Tax Agency’s vision, strategy and business plan to their employees. We work hard on these issues throughout the organization. An ongoing dialogue is important in a courageous organization that constantly needs to develop.
Daniela Eriksson, HR Director, Swedish Tax Agency
A clear mission
The dialogue on sustainable performance builds on the work mission of all individuals and groups in an organization.
– At the Swedish Tax Agency, we look at the mission and have a dialog about it. When the mission is clear, we can use the dialog about sustainable performance to ensure the right conditions for success in the job and thus create the commitment needed for the movement we want to make.
– We have worked a lot on the words we use in this context, says Ulrika Lindhoff. “We decided not to talk about surveys and measurements because the most important thing is that we get a development in the business – not that we get a result based on the organizational structure. And if you want to conduct the dialogue based on a different structure than the organizational chart, go ahead. The groups themselves choose when they want and need to do it.
Team-based and cross-functional
– Classic measurements follow an organizational structure. We are increasingly working in an agile, team-based and cross-functional way,” says Daniela Eriksson. The Sustainable Performance Dialogue can be used in the ad hoc groups and projects outside the line organization where people are located and help clarify what the group’s mission is. Group ownership is very important and means that no results from the dialogues are shared with senior managers at the Tax Agency. Only once a year does the Swedish Tax Agency’s management team take part in a how the employees at the Swedish Tax Agency as a whole feel about their conditions.
Group responsibility and ownership
– “That was both unusual and a little scary at first,” says Daniela Eriksson, “because we were releasing something that had always been done. Previous measurement results have been safe to stick to and follow. The management team often receives a summary of the figures and then draws up an action list. We want a different kind of leadership at the Swedish Tax Agency, where the leader’s task is to find the right conditions for their employees through everyday dialog.
– The most important thing for us is to be able to follow a development,” says Ulrika Lindhoff. “We don’t need to know every decimal point in a set of numbers. We want to make sure that the different groups have the right conditions to do a good job. That is much more important than being able to compare themselves with each other.
From check to check
What role does leadership play in the Swedish Tax Agency?
– We want to be a brave authority in constant development. To succeed with that and our mission, leadership is very important,” emphasizes Daniela Eriksson. “Our leadership has gone from being in control to being in control. At the Swedish Tax Agency, we link it to trust, that is, a belief in the inherent ability and desire to perform that people have. At the same time, we are not naive and leave things unattended. This means that the leader sometimes has to step in and act if things are not working well.
– Part of this is recruiting the right managers and developing the ones we have. Our leaders must be able to translate the Swedish Tax Agency’s vision, strategy and business plan to their employees. We work hard on these issues throughout the organization. An ongoing dialogue is important in a brave organization that constantly needs to develop.