February 26 –
Often times, we’re excited when we find the opportunity to implement a new process or technological upgrade. It could be a new service, a new medium, or even a new fancy physical bucket to place the envelopes in for the mail room. When exploring new technology (with or without vendors), adopting a latest patch, or finally doing away with a fax machine, make sure you actively understand the impact on your Workforce Management principles. I found it helpful to focus on a few key elements:
Understand the Impact to Workflow
What are the specific changes to the current state of the process? Are there upstream or downstream impacts? Is there a measurable improvement in one area of the workflow, but a degradation in another (ex: a change in the peanut butter you use for your sandwich isn’t as good as the previous one, so now you need more jam to offset the flavor). Do you require another tool to optimize the change?
Understand the Impact to Reporting
When changes are made, ensure that all elements of your WFM reporting can capture the needed, integral data. Check server configurations, routing points, VDNs, language compatibility, measurement systems… even power consumption rates across continents if needed! At the end of the day, the change is likely tied to an approved business plan that has an estimated “Return on Investment” (ROI). If you end up making the best change ever, but can’t measure it, your ROI will be questioned heavily.
Try to see it in action before you change – and as close as possible
This piece is likely one of the hardest lifts you will have – a controlled, in production pilot. Be sure that you have allocated enough resources to run two similar environments simultaneously. In order to not overburden resources, consider when you run it (match your forecast low points so that additional workload can be more absorbed) and set clear measures of success. If the pilot is not running well, cancel it early, iterate with the results you have, and go back. If it is running well, end it and move to production quickly, so that you’re not holding two ways to do the same work – especially when one of them is “newer, faster, and slicker!”
This week’s tip is provided by SWPP Board Member Brandon Emms of GreenShield. He can be reached at brandon.emms@greenshield.ca