Process Improvement: Getting Employees Involved

Lana J. Chandler
July 9, 2008 | COMMENTS

Staff is the first to pick up on a process that seems cumbersome and not so client friendly,” points out Denise Hagen, vice president of human resources and training for Washington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU) in Olympia, Washington. Employees know better than anyone what makes the clients grumble, which processes tax their workloads, and what's obsolete.

In 2006, WSECU realized that it had several “dragons” that needed to be addressed in the form of process improvement. To tackle the issue, management hired two consultants who introduced the “Breakthrough Approach” – ideas, innovation, implementation.

WSECU named the approach “Breakthroughi3,” shortening it to “Bi3” internally. Here's an overview: identify an opportunity, take it down the “funnel” until it's a tight opportunity, launch a team that creates a process change, implement the new process, and measure results.

Working Smarter

Process improvement (PI) is creating efficiencies in processes, new performance levels, new ways of doing things that ultimately have a positive effect on services to clients and the financial performance of the organization. “Everyone in the organization needs to be constantly vigilant about why they're doing what they're doing,” emphasizes Hagen. This thought process starts with every individual, as they perform their daily jobs, keeping in the back of their minds these questions:

• Is this the most efficient way of doing things?
• By doing this, am I getting the best result?
• Is this the best thing we can do for our clients?

Identify Opportunities

Where do employees take their cues for PI opportunities? Client complaints top the list, especially the ones employees hear repeatedly. Organizational “dragons” are common triggers. Examples are budget or evaluation processes that are labor intensive, and programs that your institution has outgrown or that have outlasted their usefulness.

When considering an opportunity, ask yourself these questions:

• Is it urgent and compelling?
• Is it worth it to the organization or work unit?
• Does it benefit clients?
• What performance result will the team focus on?
• How will the result be measured?
• What obstacles are there to changing this process?
• Can we overcome the obstacles?
• Are people ready to participate?
• Is it largely achievable with existing resources?
• Do we have the right people on the team to make it happen?

Informal and Formal Activities

“Encourage staff to pursue both formal and informal PI activities,” advises Hagen . Informal PI is as simple as recognizing that you can do something different today in your own job to effect a positive change. Even small changes sometimes net big time and money savings. Formal activities consist of specially designated teams that have a specific goal, a plan of action and a specific timeline. Consider these examples:

• Informal activity. You've always kept a paper copy of a form that you fill out electronically to send to accounting just in case there's ever a question about it. In three years you've never had anyone question it. Stop making and keeping the copies!
• Formal activity. A branch wants to reduce the amount of time it takes to get a loan check in the hands of their clients. They look at the process, the forms, and why they're doing what they're doing. Set a goal, make a plan, test the plan, educate the employees about new processes and implement.

Tips for Success

To create an environment that encourages PI, Hagen suggests:

• Ingrain the idea of PI in the organization. There are various levels of PI. They range from individual ideas to major organizational initiatives. “Employees need to feel that they can suggest and make improvements to their jobs, while always keeping in mind their ultimate goal of making clients' lives easier,” says Hagen .
• Make PI a priority for your organization. In every organization there are projects that take resources from various areas. People get excited about it periodically, but it's never a high enough priority for all areas at the same time. “When PI is a priority for your organization, a project team can be launched with the support of management. You can complete a project that drug on for months or years within a few short weeks,” says Hagen .
• Educate staff on the criteria for a good PI opportunity. This will help employees identify what will work and what won't work. WSECU has an electronic suggestion box. When a PI suggestion is received that doesn't fit the criteria, Hagen takes time to explain to the person why that particular idea may not work. “Even if that happens sometimes there's another way to look at it that may be workable. We try to encourage people to come forward with any idea because there may be a spin-off opportunity,” says Hagen .
• Break large projects or problems into small chunks. Bite-size pieces seem more doable in a short period of time. Your PI team can stay committed for a few weeks to complete that. The team can then identify and recommend next steps, so another team can be launched for another few weeks and so on.
• “Before you know it the majority of the project is done and you haven't burned people out,” Hagen says. “It takes much longer, and can be overwhelming to tackle a large revamp of a system all at once, so it isn't even attempted because the resources just aren't available.”
• Involve representatives from all viewpoints of a project. “When management alone does PI, it's the same as management writing a new procedure without involving the people who actually do it,” Hagen says. “It almost always fails the first time because you haven't involved the employees who will use the procedure.”

PI needs the perspective of everyone involved. Here's an example: You want to improve the timeliness of invoice payment. Everyone knows that accounts payable pays the invoices, but only having those people make the changes to the process is short-sighted. Accounts payable needs to involve their clients in the process, such as purchasing, administrative services, training, IT, and branches.

• Ask people outside of the process to give a third-party's perspective. Consider having a third party facilitate the PI activity. Because they are not directly involved, biases don't exist and they can help the group step out of the box and look at it from various viewpoints.
• Empower people to make improvements. “Empowerment of team members is essential for them to be able to succeed,” Hagen says. “Once management deems the opportunity worthy to move forward, they must empower the team by letting everyone in the organization know that it's a priority.”
• Give PI teams a high level management sponsor. Teams need a high-level management sponsor, a team leader and the team members. The job of the sponsor is to smooth the bumps in the road so the team can do its job.
• Be prompt about responding to ideas. Suggestions should be responded to in a timely manner and implementation should be swift (immediate, if possible).
• Follow up on completed projects. Make sure that the level of achievement is maintained.
• Keep an ongoing list of opportunities. Maintain the list in a central location and review periodically to use for cross-divisional PI teams.

Lana J. Chandler is publisher of Branch Manager's Letter. This story appeared at www.branchmanagersletter.com and is reprinted with permission. Denise Hagen may be contacted at 1-360-754-6134 or DHagen@wsecu.org.