Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22

/ Canadian Government Executive

// October 2016

Haneef

Chagani

Transforming

Frontline service

o how can organizations sustain

improvements in their frontline

services? What do organizations

need to do to make the change

stick? Organizations that simply pursue

project-based implementations will be

hard-pressed to sustain improvements

over the long-term.

The Insurance Corporation of British

Columbia (ICBC), a provincial Crown

corporation, has approximately 4,800 em-

ployees. One of BC’s largest corporations

and among Canada’s largest property and

casualty (P&C) insurers, it manages an

enormous mandate that includes driver

licenses, vehicle registration, and road

safety. Its insurance products and services

are available through a province-wide

network of approximately 900 indepen-

dent brokers, government agents and ap-

pointed agents. ICBC processes approxi-

mately 900,000 claims annually through

its 24/7 telephone claims handling facil-

ity, 38 claim centres and other claims han-

dling facilities across the province. ICBC

Lean Management

also provides driver licensing services

through 120 points of service, including

driver licensing centres and government

agents. All BC motorists do business with

the ICBC.

The Corporation launched its Opera-

tional Excellence program, based on Lean

thinking management principles, in 2013.

Today it is an enterprise-wide program

that touches all business areas within ICBC.

Operational Excellence is a core element

of ICBC’s business strategy, with a goal to

create a customer-centric organization and

a culture of continuous improvement.

ICBC implemented Lean management

principles in two major cutomer-facing

business operations: Claims Customer

Service and Driver Licensing Offices. Lean

management principles designed specifi-

cally to drive changes in staff mindsets and

behaviours were introduced in a strutured

manner to improve service and create an

environment of problem solving and ongo-

ing improvement.

Claims Customer Service:

The Challenge

Claims Customer Service’s Dial-a-Claim con-

tact centre works with customers to open

over 900,000 claims annually. Claim volume

continues to grow due to more vehicles on

the road, more crashes and other factors.

Prior to the rollout of Operational Excel-

lence in this business area, a new claim

system had just been implemented and

the new operational data reporting was

gradually coming on-stream. With the new

system, new processes, and new operating

approach, there was a need to holistically

revisit operational performance to deter-

mine new standards. Leadership had to

start affresh to determine if the business

area was operating at acceptable level of

performance or whether there was oppor-

tunity for further improvement.

The Approach

As part of the rollout of Operational Excel-

lence, four key elements of Lean manage-

ment principles were introduced:

Information Centres (IC) were estab-

lished to make team performance vis-

ible by way of whiteboards or using One-

Note for teams managed remotely. For

adjusters, four key performance indicators

(KPIs) that aligned to the team and to the

overall vision, purpose and goals of the or-

ganization were established and tracked

on the IC. ICs were aligned vertically from

the unit level up to the full Claims Cus-

tomer Service level. Adjusters, unit man-

agers, operations managers and the direc-

tor began receiving weekly reporting on

performance against these four indicators

with information presented such that each

person could see their performance trends

at the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia