Week Nine: Quality Control

I received an email this week from my HR Director with a link to a survey meant for employee feedback.  This survey took me by surprise because nothing like this has been done the past 4 years I have worked at this company.  Not to mention, an employee survey has never been distributed by HR in the 20 years the company has been in operation:

Hey Team, your opinion matters! Please help us to continue to make this a great place to work by taking about 5 minutes to fill out our employee survey. It is simple, user friendly, and anonymous--just a few clicks and you will be able to tell us what you think about a variety of topics. 

 The variety of topics included: benefits, employee morale, compensation, relationship with management, etc.  It was a very comprehensive survey and I would be quite curious to see the results.  I plan to email the HR director to inquire if they will be sharing their findings with the company.  I am a bit skeptical of the intentions behind this survey...they say to improve as an employer, however, it's been my experience with the management involved they treat their employees as disposable. And when they ask for feedback, and feedback is given, it is ignored.

Is this more of a "for show" survey?  I don't want to come off as a harsh critic but I am curious as to what prompted this survey all of a sudden.  Within the first day over 25% of employees responded, I have a feeling there is going to be plenty said.  The question is, will they listen?

Week Eight: Over My Head?

After careful review of my survey results for my work coverage plan project I have discovered how diverse the operations are in each NCG office.  The company was supposed to have remedied this matter before, when they claimed they would be rolling out an updated/streamline job description for the office managers.  That was told to us in November....and we have yet to see such a document. As of now I cannot think of ONE approach that would work with all of the different sites....I am still not giving up.  I have however been able to pin point a few things all office managers can do to make a few things go smoother, for example: one office manager mentioned how the site director cannot complete staples orders without her present for her login/password.  This caused me to include in the plan a template with all of the accounts office managers have (staples, iron mountain, atrezzo, medicaid portal, toxicology, etc) for each office to complete, then have securely with site director--possibly make it a shared google doc.  With less than a month to solidify this plan, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I know if anything I will implement a lot of great improvements.

Week Six/Seven: All's Fair in Business......?

For today's blog I am going to stray away from the work coverage plan I've been working on and discuss something a bit more personal (don't worry, it's still very much so job related).  During my weekly supervision my boss told me he had been instructed by his boss (the regional director) to inquire with me on what we should do with me once I graduate.  So even though my company has not given me one cent to assist with tuition, or any other assistance for that matter, they are under the impression that my staying is inevitable.  My regional director also suggested I take on the role of human resource specialist (part time, working from home) and keep my job as office manager (part time, in the office)...with the SAME PAY.  Does this make any sense to you? Yes, please let me work two jobs, for the price of one....on top of paying off my student loans with the same salary.  Aside from the obvious ways this was unprofessional, I think the most insulting of all is how they would treat a valuable, hard working employee this way.  If my regional director was so interested in keeping me, wouldn't he have reached out to me personally? 

I responded to my boss by saying if the regional director wished to put together an offer, I would be willing to look it over.  As far as me coming up with a plan FOR him in order to keep me, that was completely unacceptable and not going to happen.  Besides, he already made it clear he was tightening the purse strings with my salary-master's or no master's.  I know this may sound like my ego is getting in the way...but after 4 years of proving myself with 100% performance evaluations, employee of the year, employee of the month (8 times), countless recognitions of excellence...I feel confident I will have better opportunities to grow & flourish professionally with another company.  My boss whole heatedly agreed with me and said he felt this company did not value me and in short, I have gotten everything I can out of this position.  I see some of their corporate employees, lazy, short sighted, yet are making twice as much as me.  Why wouldn't my regional director want to hire someone who would actually be earning that salary?  Instead of ripping off the hard, deserving worker. 

I know there's politics in the corporate world, no matter what company you go to.  I just wish my company had a more concrete process of advancement and not treat their employees (minus the corporate ones) like they are disposable.  Either way, my decision has been made...I will begin applying for new jobs in September since I plan to graduate in December.  The time has come to move on.

Week Five: Let's Get a Little Perspective, Shall We?

Since my last posting I have dispersed my finalized survey to all of the office managers within my company. Now...it's time to wait.  I gave them a 10 (business day) deadline and threw in the mention of those who choose to participate will be entered in a drawing for a gift card.   I have also sent out an inquiry to the site directors of each site (the site director position oversees/supervises the office manager).  It was during my weekly supervision that my own site director suggested I seek out the other site directors feedback as well, which I completely agreed with...and was kind of bothered I didn't think of it myself.  Hence the title of this blog, it's such a critical factor to inquire to all parties involved (or in fancy terms...the stakeholders)to seek out guidance/advice/suggestions, etc....you know what they say, "Great minds think for themselves" (NOT alike)...no matter how smart you are, you can't possibly think of everything.  Especially in performance improvement projects, and I even work in this company/in the position that the project focuses on.   

Week Four: Survey Rough Draft

So since I have been running into difficulty compiling the survey I will be sending out to all Office Managers company-wide to assist with my project, I figured I would use this blog as an outlet to brainstorm questions.

The main purpose of the survey is to find out processes/resources/feedback.
Unfortunately I cannot make this survey anonymous because I may have to contact the Office Manager at a later date for more information specific to their site.  I do not believe this will present an issue seeing that I am not collecting any controversial data.  Upper management is already aware work coverage is a problem for our positions and has requested I take this project on to resolve it.

1. Location of NCG site: 
2. How long have you been employed as an Office Manager with NCG?
3. Do you feel you cannot take PTO due to there not being a set work coverage plan at your site?
I am asking this question mainly because I want to make sure it is a problem company-wide, not just regionally, etc.  Just want to cover my bases.

4. Do you have an additional Office Manager at your site?
4a. If so, are they full time or part time?
5. How many employees total (supervisors, clinicians, office manager(s), site directors) are currently employed at your site?
6. Do you have a set list of tasks per every week day?
6a. If yes, please list those tasks (be as detailed as possible)
7. If you were out of the office an extended period of time (aside from billing) what tasks could not wait to be done upon your return?
8. Do you have anyone at your site that is knowledgeable enough to perform those tasks?
8a. If yes, please list who matched with which task they can execute.

9. Please give any suggestions/comments you feel could be useful in determining a streamline work coverage plan:

Week Three: Just Another Manic Monday

First I'd like to apologize for this blog not being posted by my typical Thursday deadline, last week was a bit hectic for me.  I left off with my work project still in the beginning phases and unfortunately it is still very much so in this phase.  I didn't make my qualtrics survey by the deadline I had set in my previous post but am giving myself until this Friday to have it complete.

On a more personal note I feel like I am running into a wall at my current job...maybe a better term for it would be I'm feeling burnt out?  I haven't taken a full week off since I began this job 4 years ago and just found out my study abroad trip has been canceled, which was kind of my "light at the end of the tunnel".  I think I am going to give myself a mini vacation (sooner rather than later) because at this point it is effecting my morale and overall work ethic.  I'm coming into the office late....I call out last minute, etc.  And believe me, I don't like this..it's not who I am: professionally or personally.

Anyway, this is going to be a short entry..but I will check back in Thursday.

Week Two: First Things First (Giving and Receiving Information)

I just finished up a conference call I have monthly with my fellow office managers working across the state.  During the call I informed them of my pending work project of comprising a comprehensive work coverage plan for our position.  I also told them my project would entail having to gather information from each of them regarding their processes, deadlines, responsibilities and overall scheduling of tasks since I am well aware of it being different across the board (each NCG site operates differently).

One of the research tools I will be using to compile the needed data is a survey questionnaire, which will be emailed out to each office manager.  I did inform them that this is not MANDATORY, and  I am sensitive to their busy schedules ensuring them it would take no longer than 15 minutes to complete.  To add a little incentive for their efforts I disclosed for those who choose to participate in the survey will be entered in a drawing for a gift card.  Depending on the outcomes of the distributed survey, I will possibly contact individual office managers via phone/email for clarification or expansion of their feedback.

During the conference call I also encouraged office managers to feel free to contact me aside from the survey should they have suggestions, concerns or input of any kind.  After all, this project is intended to HELP the office managers and to improve their work experience.  So far I am feeling very inspired and encouraged with this project-after I presented it in my meeting I received nothing but positive from my coworkers.  Everyone was in agreement that this has been an issue consistently discussed, yet never addressed.

The game plan now is to comprise my survey questionnaire over the weekend.

Short term goal: Email out questionnaire to office managers by next Thursday (02/07/13).

Week One: Laying the Foundation

Every week I meet with my Site Director for supervision where everything from landlord issues, staff morale to upcoming team building events are discussed.  We also are always addressing concerns and looking for ways to improve productivity, efficiency and performance within the workplace and my job as an Office Manager in particular.  Last week I addressed the matter of my needing a project for my Performance Analysis and Needs Assessment course that would identify and resolve a problem area within the office.

Coincidentally, we had just discussed earlier in the meeting how our company does not currently have a work coverage protocol for my position.  This is a major problem because there are job duties/responsibilities that only those in my position know how to do and have certain deadlines that cannot be extended.  In short, no one in my office can do my job.  The words "cross training" apparently mean nothing to them with administrative positions.  Therefore the company is finding their office managers can never take leave, are coming in to the office sick and when they do take leave are planning the dates around the established deadlines.  Upper management is aware how this is not fair to those in my position and also at times unavoidable, emergencies come up.

What really caused for urgency to remedy this matter was the fast approach of my taking a leave of absence to study abroad in May.  I did offer six different work coverage plans for my office specifically in my proposal, however, those plans are not applicable to all 18 of our offices.  For example, corporate is just now updating our job description (has not been updated in 19 years) and should be distributing it out within the next month upon our CEO's review and approval.  When they first decided to revise the job description they put together a Performance Improvement Team (PIT) that consisted of myself and three other office managers in my company, along with our director of human resources.

Between myself and the three other office managers (about a quarter of all office managers in the company) it became quite clear how different the work load, work duties and overall organization of each office was.  With this in mind, it will be just as difficult to streamline a work coverage plan for the company.  You need to know the details of the work being covered for an effective work coverage plan, right?  The idea of this project is to not have to tailor each work coverage plan per site, however, to have an overall streamlined office manager work coverage protocol that can be rolled out to all offices. The same.  Easier said than done is the feeling I am getting. 

I first plan to create a survey for all of my office managers to complete and will do follow up phone interviews if needed.  That's as far as this project has gotten for now.

Stay tuned...it's going to be a bumpy ride!