Product category:
Decision support software
News Release from: eg Solutions | Subject: Eg work manager
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 05 June 2006
Improving Efficiency At HBOS
Unsettled financial market conditions, customer demand and increasing regulation has required HBOS Financial Services to significantly improve their service levels and cost management.
Unsettled financial market conditions, customer demand and increasing regulation has required HBOS Financial Services, like other Life and Pensions companies, to significantly improve their service levels and cost management As one of the first companies to implement eg work manager more than 12 years ago, HBOS has first hand experience of it's ability to cut costs and instil a wider understanding of cost management across the business
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 7 Nov 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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Eg work manager promotes an active style of management and provides data on: quality; service standards; staff skills; work throughput; available resources; productivity and unit costs.
However, due to staff changes and new processes over the years, knowledge of how to use the system to full effect had been eroded.
eg agreed to help HBOS re-align eg work manager with current business practice and achieve further returns on their earlier investment.
The key to achieving the requirements lay in helping the teams to help themselves.
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To achieve these requirements, eg proposed to re-launch the eg principles of production management, through a training and development programme for the division's Managers and Team Leaders, based on the use of eg work manager.
The programme was designed to achieve:.
* A consistent Process for Managing across all teams in the division.
* Best practice use of eg work manager.
* Skill transfer with champions in the division so they can maintain Team Leader skills.
* An accreditation system to be used by the champions in sustaining the programme's implementation.
To achieve the maximum benefits from eg work manager, eg believe Managers and Team Leaders need to play a key role in the change process.
Involving them in the design and implementation of the consistent, proactive management practices is seen as the foundation to improved efficiency.
eg started the programme with an initial training needs analysis, involving face-to-face interviews with Team Leaders.
The interviews were carried out using a structured analysis questionnaire and ratings were made against a set of attributes from eg's process for managing model.
The findings were then summarised under seven headings: measuring; planning; communicating; allocating; monitoring; analysing and improving, and presented in percentage terms to a management workshop, where details of the proposed approach and implementation plan was agreed.
In order to deliver against the performance targets agreed by the management team, staff productivity had to increase.
The programme therefore needed to involve the team on an ongoing basis, and gain buy-in and commitment to increase target levels of performance.
Staff members also needed to be fully trained in the full functionality of eg work manager.
A tailored programme was designed based on standard eg modules.
Each Manager and Team Leader attended a series of two to three hour workshops delivered across a period of two months covering: Planning and Forecasting; Communication and Motivation; Measures; Quality and Process Control and Improvement.
A programme of classroom-based training followed covering the new functionality of eg work manager.
Sessions were tailored to the individual's level of entry and anticipated level of usage.
In addition, eg's skills were transferred to a HBOS Project Team as the project was rolled out across the division, to ensure the practices and behaviours could be sustained through continuous improvement.
This was achieved through he development of a team of champions who now provide day-to-day support in the implementation of the programme's key messages and the accreditation process.
Specific action plans were developed by each Manager through the programme to ensure the correct level of challenge and support was provided to each Team Leader and regular observation and coaching took place to ensure these plans were successful.
The Managers and Team Leaders have benefited through improved personal skills, greater control of workloads, reduced backlogs and improved customer relationships.
A total of 600 people including 11 Managers and 46 Team Leaders have been affected by the changes in management practices and the implementation of eg work manager.
Teams reacted positively to more challenging targets for accuracy, effectiveness and efficiency with accuracy figures reaching 90%+ across the division.
Outstanding hours reduced by 2464, throughput increased to 1.1 and unavailable hours reduced by 21%.
There were individual team success stories too, with one team reducing the number of cases more than 10 days old from 600 to below 50.
Another team increased its completed work rates by 28% and its standard effectiveness by more than 20% to reach 95%+.
Quality assurance is now being measured through eg work manager with 94% right first time.
The level of commitment to the programme across the division is very high as a result of the energy, pace and enthusiasm of the management population and the very clear message that this is being driven from the top - i.e senior management.
This was demonstrated recently when two team members n one area had to go home at lunchtime due to illness.
Determined to achieve their daily plan, the rest of the team pulled together and upped the pace dramatically to ensure they hit all their targets.
In another team, people came in at 6.30am to ensure plan was hit and not adversely affected by the interruptions that occur between 9.00am and 5.00pm - a true "winning together" spirit! The active involvement, encouraged and developed from all levels of management within Individual Business at HBOS was seen by eg to be a critical factor in the success of the programme.
This, together with tangible targets, clarity of training design and anticipated outputs, supported by the assessment process, ensured achievement of results and resulted in a significant behavioural change from individuals.
Chrystal Mogg, Head of Customer Services Division, HBOS Financial Services "The eg trainers have a professional and positive attitude, their 'can do' approach gave us all confidence in achieving the results we were hoping for.
They also have the ability to relate material to 'real life' situations enabling us to easily see how best to use the tools.
We all learnt a lot from the experience, especially the importance of working together with consistent methods and a common set of principles.
Engendering team spirit and fostering commitment to achieve is a vital ingredient for success.
Buy-in from Team Leaders along with 'top-down' drive, energy and encouragement, from senior managers, through to department managers is also essential.
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