Class work

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changed. The new coaches were observing call center reps as they were answering calls, and would ask the call center reps to assess the call based on the competency model before providing additional feedback and suggestions for how to handle situations better and more efficiently. There was an intentional teaming process put into place. This consisted of managers and coaches participating in workshops, large-group facilitations, one-on-one coaching, and even small-group coaching.

The six-month result was that customer satisfaction levels rose from 83 percent to 90 percent. There was a 33 percent improvement indicated by the employee engagement survey, issued multiple times throughout the year.

The HPI practitioner cited many factors that led to the overall success of this project. First, the call center director played an active leadership role in the effort. Second, the skill set of the project team was diverse and was selected specifically to address each of the multiple root causes of the problems identified. And finally, the solution addressed the three different levels of the organization—the organization, the workgroup, and the individual—as this HPT practitioner believes all sustainable solutions should.

Department of Transportation Construction Safety Improvements

One of the state Departments of Transportation (DOT) was experiencing more than its share of lawsuits (in their eyes) due to people being injured on road construction sites, safety and injuries on the job, or just long delays in getting a job accomplished. There are many safety precautions that road crews are to employ to ensure the safety of the workers and motorists who have to travel through a construction zone. The DOT employs approximately 750 construction inspectors whose job it is to make sure that each job site is complying with all safety measures, using a high quality of construction, and meeting all environmental concerns at a building site. The request to the HPI practitioner was to make sure that all large DOT projects were completed on time, within budget, and met all state and federal guidelines.

The primary decision makers for the project were the state DOT commissioner and the chief of learning and development. The key stakeholders were the 750 construction site inspectors, their managers, and some district managers.

The project team consisted of three external HPI practitioners who also had project management skills and three members of the DOT learning and development department, who were skilled in the specific HPI processes and tools used by the external HPI practitioners. This team had to be innovative, as they only had three weeks within which to do their analysis. They employed a set of HPI tools called Performance DNA to guide them in their front-end analysis.

The team quickly conducted 25 interviews using the Performance DNA tools. What they learned was that construction inspectors need to be working onsite to do their jobs effectively, yet they were spending much of their time in the office doing paperwork and entering data into the computer, along with other process and training needs. The technology that was in place was not working effectively for all construction inspectors. The agency did not have high-speed Internet access in some locations, and the construction inspectors (in some cases) had limited computer skills, coupled with cumbersome and somewhat technical software to contend with. There were computer crashes and excessive time invested reading manuals to use the technology. The failing technology was costing the organization a lot of money in wasted employee time. The team also learned that many of the construction inspectors were not trained in blueprint reading and other skills needed to do their job effectively. Those that were able to read blueprints got their training at local community colleges, even though there was a course offered by the organization. Inspector supervisors were reluctant to inform the inspectors about the availability of the training because they wanted to inspectors to be in the field, not attending training, and because the additional cost to send inspectors to the training site was prohibitive to their district budget.

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The project team proposed the following solutions: (1) add administrative staff to do the paperwork and free up inspectors to get back into the field where most of their productive work takes place; (2) encourage the construction inspectors to attend the blueprint reading training already available, and work with management to ensure that people could attend these classes; (3) improve technologies by getting the inspectors cell phones (where they were needed), high-speed Internet access, etc. The team also proposed another 15 or so changes.

While this project is relatively recent, already the organization is experiencing less anxiety among its construction inspectors, and they suspect it will also result in a reduced rate of turnover. The overall goal for reducing lawsuits and getting construction projects completed on time and within budget has not been measured at this time.