Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22

October 2016 //

Canadian Government Executive /

Lean Management

regardless of their level of responsibility.

Weekly team huddles were established

to assess performance, drive account-

ability and improve teamwork. Huddles

occur on Tuesdays to review the previous

week’s operational results. Unit huddles

occur first thing, followed by Area huddles

in the late morning. The Claims Customer

Service huddle occurs at 2 pm so that is-

sues and problems are escalated up to the

Senior Director level within hours of being

raised by the front line staff. For example,

the 2015 leap year was the first one for the

new claims system. On March 1st at the

morning huddle, staff identifed an issue

related to coverage on February 29th for

customers whose policy normally expired

on February 28th.

By 4 pm the same day, direction was is-

sued to 2,500 staff on how to handle claims

made on February 29th and ensure con-

tinued consistent quality service to their

customers.

Practices were embedded in the daily

routines of supervisors and managers

to reinforce coaching and improve work-

force skills. This helped to drive a culture

of change and improvement.

One approach taken to identify coaching

opportunities was to have the staff com-

plete a skills matrix on all job duties within

the department. The managers and super-

visors also rated staff. Where gaps were

identified, the supervisors then scheduled

coaching and/or training sessions with the

staff based on the standards set in the de-

partment. This is an ongoing process and

as a result staff have become much more

confident in handling their work, have re-

duced the time to complete their activities

and the number of questions have reduced.

Scheduling has become streamlined as staff

are growing proficient in all activities. This

has also reduced scheduling time for the

supervisors.

Problem solving: Employees were

coached on problem solving tech-

niques (Data analysis, 5 whys, Fishbone,

Value Stream Mapping, 5S) and escalation

routes to assist higher performance.

The Dial-a-Claim department held nu-

merous problem solving events following

the training, including completing the

5 whys when the area was struggling

to meet a year-end target for Average

Handle Time per call. With this tool, the

team quickly identified issues, put plans

in place and the target was met. More re-

cently the department initiated a Value

Stream Mapping (VSM) event regarding

car seat reimbursements. In a huddle,

a staff member raised this as a problem

area, and this was documented on the In-

formation Centre. The reimbursements

process was cumbersome, outdated and

lacked transparency for customers. A

team was put together for a VSM and as a

result corporate policy changes are being

made to provide a more updated, stream-

lined and customer friendly approach.

These changes will reduce the processing

time for staff by 50%, and more impor-

tantly, provide a much more timely and

simple process for customers.

Over a period of eight weeks, in addi-

tion to making several changes to claims

allocation (based on claim complexity

and adjuster expertise), Dial-a-Claim was

immersed in cycles of learning and Plan,

Do, Check, Act (PDCA) through repeated

processes of training, designing, imple-

menting and reviewing each of the four

elements. Structured discussions really

probed the mindset of the team, focused

on customer value and clearly defined and

agreed what they needed to do each day.

Once this was agreed, daily coaching was

established with leadership shadowing

people in their roles in order to observe

how they were doing against set KPIs and

to help them to achieve these consistently.

Front line managers and staff em-

braced this new way of working as they

started to see value in incorporating these

elements in their daily work tasks. Clarity

of purpose has also changed behaviour

towards problem solving and customer

service. People are eager to come forward

with their problem solving ideas rather

than immediately look to managers for

answers. Positive customer feedback that

the team regularly receives is displayed

on the IC. This has reinforced the need

for teamwork and improved staff morale.

Some of the most notable changes in

the business area include:

• Jumping to solutions has been replaced

with fact based and structured root-

cause analysis and thoughtful solution

identification, validation and implemen-

tation resulting in more sustainable im-

provements;

• Staff and front line managers are em-

powered to call out problems, and the

problems are being fixed;

• Managers, including new managers,

spend more time engaging with front

line staff in problem solving and coach-

ing; and

• Staff are realizing the potential of Lean

and Lean management principles to fur-

ther improve how they work, remove

barriers and non-value add work, and

create new capacity to improve custom-

er service.

The Results

The most significant result the business

area has realized is the change in staff

mindsets and behaviours. A culture of con-

structive feedback, a greater understand-

ing of the business from an end-to-end

process perspective and a more engaged

team has developed. Quantitative benefits

realized within two months of the rollout

of Operational Excellence in this business

area include:

• Call abandonment rate dropping from

10.6% to 6.3% from June 2015 to May 2016;

• A 15.7% increase in call volume was ab-

sorbed with a 5.6% increase in staffing

levels; and

• Contact centre staff schedule adherence

went up from 91% to 94% - representing a

savings of four FTE.

• 50% improvement in adjuster productiv-

ity; Monthly claims closed per adjuster

improved from 57.8 per FTE to 83.6 FTE

from Q1 2015 to Q1 2016.

Looking at what has been achieved at

Claim Customer Service through Opera-

tional Excellence, implemented over a

short period of two to three months, it

must be noted that none of the changes

were fueled by technology. Investing in

people and introducing new ways to look

at work and do work is the way to sustain

improvements and get the most from busi-

ness operations.

aneef

hagani

is a Partner and

National Leader, Lean Perform

Operational Excellence Practice

PwC Canada

Staff and front line managers are

empowered to call out problems, and

the problems are being fixed.