Public servants must wear many hats and provide an array of services. Whether you’re a firefighter, public health provider, librarian, or teacher, you know that your job can be overdemanding and underappreciated all at the same time. Despite these challenges, it’s vital for public service professionals to maintain a set of best practices in order to effectively serve the population they engage with. Maintaining these principles isn’t just a matter of competence. It’s also a matter of limiting liabilities. Anybody who works as a public servant should maintain the following four best practices when they’re on the job.

Be Prompt

People often turn to public servants because they need a specific service within a certain time frame. It is the duty of every public servant to provide these services as promptly as possible. This is especially true in contexts that include a posted time limit for services. Patrons will become upset if these limits are not met, and understandably so. A public servant should strive to complete all services in a timely manner in order to best serve the patrons.

Be Correct

It’s important to note that promptness should never come at the expense of correctness. It is never appropriate for a professional to disregard rules in order to complete a task more quickly. On the contrary, this defeats the purpose of the servant’s services. A public servant should be thoroughly aware of all laws and protocol that govern their duties, and they should always act within the bounds of these guidelines.

Be Sensitive

Public servants may deal with people from a variety of different backgrounds, and in some cases, they may engage with people who are particularly vulnerable. For this reason, it’s important that they always act with sensitivity. Characteristics such as a patron’s age, sex, and disability may interfere with their ability to seek out services. It is every public servant’s obligation to recognize these factors, identify any undue challenges, and work to alleviate those challenges.

Be Helpful

In addition to sensitivity, a public servant should be helpful. This often means going above and beyond the confines of one’s job duty. If a patron needs help with food insecurity, for example, a public servant should help them find any resources which may be able to help. Though this likely isn’t strictly required, it demonstrates a general concern for the patron, and this is imperative to working in public service.

Be Careful

It’s important for every public servant to maintain a carefulness throughout every task they complete. When completing documents for a patron, it’s important to carefully transcribe the correct details. When they’re recommending a resource, it’s important to be careful in describing its features. Simply being careful can prevent many liabilities from emerging in the public service sector.

About PGUI

Professional Governmental Underwriters, LLC., is a full-service risk management company dedicated to assisting public, educational and non-profit entities in the management of their professional liability exposures including educators liability insurance. We are dedicated to providing state-of-the-art professional underwriting management and loss control advisory services on behalf of our designated carriers. For more information, call us toll-free at (800) 586-6502.