2. An Overview
Vangent, Inc. is a government contractor offering services in mainly
the healthcare and IT sectors.
Customers have included the U.S. Census Bureau, the Federal
Student Aid Program, and the Department of Health and Human
Services Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Vangent has recently become a part of the General Dynamics family.
This presentation will focus on one specific Vangent program,
initiatives within the program, as well as the culture within the
program. The program will not be named for business purposes.
3. Culture and Structure
The demographic culture is comprised of mostly young adults between
the ages of 18-25 from urban areas.
The culture of the site can be described as cynical; it is known for its
resistance to change, being externally motivated, and being numbers
driven.
The hierarchy in each site consists of a site manager, 3-5 call center
managers who have under them approximately 10 supervisors each;
each supervisor can have anywhere from 8-25 customer service
representatives on their team. Above the site manager there is a
regional manager, deputy program manager, and director. The
hierarchy starts to get a little fuzzy here because there are a host of
vice presidents at this point as the subsidiary that is Vangent starts to
integrate into GDIT.
4. Initiatives and Implementation
Behavioral Analytics Schedule Adherence
Training classes
Training classes also
offered offered
Supervisors were
Supervisors did not
able to embrace agree with what was
before presenting to presented or didn't
teams understand it
Support during
Support was received
implementation came mainly from peers
from peers
5. Initiatives and Implementation
Behavioral Analytics Schedule Adherence
Implementation was
Implementation was
successful successful
Has become the norm to
Keen awareness of
speak/think about BA. performance metrics and
consequences
Lesson learned: lead staff
need to have the support
Lesson learned: People
of many so they can think they are entitled to off
understand how the phone time instead of
initiative will help the site viewing it as a privilege
6. Resistance and Sustaining Change
Behavioral Analytics Schedule Adherence
The CSRs felt that if they were passing There was more resistance from supervisors than
from CSRs because of how the new system
their quality assurance evaluations then worked.
what was the problem? Many CSRs did
and still do struggle with taking The newly implemented program did not allow for
ownership of another’s problem; or, late breaks or lunches due to long calls or
meetings that lasted longer than anticipated.
apologizing for something they did not
cause. These CSRs did not understand Leadership held supervisors responsible for
how the behavioral program was meeting a goal percentage each day for
supposed to help them with their soft schedule adherence but it felt like they were
setting supervisors up for failure by denying the
skills. What we found was that many schedule exceptions.
CSRs were apathetic in their approach
to the callers though they gave accurate Supervisors were slipping in segments for time that
and complete information. was not considered production time. Eventually
audits were performed and leadership removed
those segments. Certain permissions were
removed from supervisor and CSR control.
CSRs did eventually show resistance to the new
reporting system once they realized that they
had a daily goal they were really being held
accountable for even when they couldn’t control
the circumstances.
7. What Went Well
For the behavioral analytic program, the With schedule adherence, there were
investment in training and follow-up. training sessions prior to
The initiative provided peer ePros. Like implementation. Everyone got to attend
peer mentors, these ePros had as well as participate in question and
additional training, participated in answer periods. FAQs were made
conference calls with other sites, and available. Due to the supervisor
provided guidance and support to the exception audits, a SOP was created.
rest of the supervisory staff. The also As accountability of schedule adherence
performed audits on coaching notes, sat grew, leadership kicked back manual
in on coaching sessions, and met with exceptions and questionable exceptions
CSRs who were having trouble to reinforce personal and team
adjusting to the new performance responsibility for ensuring schedule
expectations. The initiative also allotted adherence. The head of the department
for job aids, quality scorecards, and a attended supervisor meetings regularly
consistent means of measuring soft and participated in question and answer
skills. All sites use the program because sessions. This initiative was also a
of the success it has had which is success and implemented across all
regularly measured by customer sites. The numbers show that we handle
satisfaction scores. more calls in more efficient timeframes
since the program implementation than
before.
8. Opportunity Knocks
The initiative with the most areas of opportunity for improvement would be schedule
adherence. Supervisor exception audits and wasted time could have been reduced
dramatically had a SOP been in place in the beginning of the program. This would
have helped outlined the proper uses for the system. In addition, supervisors should
not have felt threatened with their jobs to meet a number. CSRs were also held to
the grindstone because of these numbers that very few agreed with.
9. Reflection
It appears that management attempted to use lessons learned
as they transitioned from one program initiative to another.
They learned to get more support from the supervisory staff
prior to implementation. They have learned to communicate,
communicate, communicate throughout the entire
implementation process.
