Total Quality Management
Case Study
Office of Personnel
Part One:
The mail notice read:
A faculty ID card must be shown to withdraw books from the library, to use the
faculty dining facilities, and to obtain the faculty discount at the University
bookstore. To schedule an appointment for an ID photo, call the Personnel Office
at 555-5858.
Ann Mills had been a full-time instructor at the University for a year, but had not yet obtained a faculty ID card. Last year she had been informed that ID photos would be taken only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 3:30-all times when she was teaching classes. When the August notice came around, Ann placed a call to Personnel.
Male voice: Personnel
Ann: Hi. I need to schedule an appointment to get a faculty ID.
Male voice: Okay. How would Friday afternoon work?
Ann: This Friday is bad. Do you have any times next week?
Male voice: I could give you next Wednesday at 3 o’clock.
Ann: That would be fine.
Male voice: How do you spell your name?
Ann: ANN MILLS
Male voice: And your ID number?
Ann: 210-58-5858
Male voice: And what department are you in?
Ann: Operations Management
Male voice: Okay, you’re all set.
Ann: Thanks.
On Wednesday Ann arrived 30 minutes early at the Personnel office, hoping the picture could be taken and she could leave. She waited in line for a few minutes behind two men who were completing application forms. When she arrived at the head of the line, Ann informed the woman behind the desk that she was early for a 3 o’clock appointment for a faculty ID card.
Woman at desk: The appointment wouldn’t be for 3 o’clock. Faculty ID pictures are taken at 3:30.
Ann (politely): The man I spoke to told me 3 o’clock.
Woman at desk: Man? I see your name here but, we only take pictures at 3:30. I don’t know who would have told you that.
Ann: I didn’t ask for his name, but he did say 3 o’clock.
At this point a tall young man walked over and rather sheepishly said:
I guess that would be me. I said 3 o’clock.
Ann (to young man): Well, good for you for speaking up!
Woman at desk (to Ann): Do you have your letter?
Ann: Letter?
Woman at desk: We need a letter to verify that you are really faculty.
Ann: I’m sorry, but no one told me about a letter.
Woman at desk: Well, we’ll need a letter. (Looking around) You can wait or come back.
Ann: Come back when?
Woman at desk: At 3:30.
Ann returned at 3:30. She waited five minutes behind two men who were instructed regarding verification of information and signing their faculty ID cards, then was handed hers. Her name and ID number were correct and she signed the card and completed an information sheet as instructed. The woman at the desk reminded Ann that she needed to have a letter verifying her faculty status sent to the Personnel office and gave her an addressed envelope to use. The woman moved from behind the desk to a small room about six feet away and took pictures of the two faculty and two other new employees. Ann waited 20 minutes to have her picture taken while the others were completed, then another ten minutes for her picture to be affixed to the card, laminated, and handed to her. She left the Personnel office frustrated and angry about the interaction.
Study Questions:
1. What could the people in the Personnel Office have done to make Ann’s encounter more positive? Discuss the pros and cons of each option identified.
2. As an employee of the same organization, what is Ann’s responsibility for improving
quality? Discuss the pros and cons of each option identified.
Part Two
Joe and Mary walked down Sunday Avenue to the University Office of Personnel after their first Quality Lunch, and neither had much to say. They had been enthusiastic when they asked Mike, Bill, Ann and some other professors in the university, to meet with them to discuss starting a Quality Improvement Program in the Office of Personnel, but the discussion had taken an unexpected turn.
The meeting had started out well enough with a lot of general enthusiasm about quality management concepts all around the table, but during dessert, Bill turned to Ann and asked, “Did you show Joe and Mary the case you wrote?” Ann looked a little uncomfortable, but began her story about her recent visit to the Office of Personnel.
This is my first year here and I’d already been through the new faculty orientation, but I still needed to get an university ID card to be able to use the library and some other facilities. So I called your office and made an appointment for 3:00 one afternoon. When I got there I was rather rudely told that I could not have the ID made until 3:30 and the receptionist informed me that no one would have told me that 3:00 would be possible. Finally a work-study student stepped up and admitted that he had scheduled the appointment. He hadn’t told me about needing a letter from my department chairman, either, but they told me they would make the card for me anyway. I had to either wait or come back later, so I left and came back and then had to wait for another half-hour behind two other faculty members. Making the ID couldn’t have taken two minutes! I was really frustrated and upset when I left-so I wrote a case about it to use in my Quality Management course.
Ann had been matter-of-fact in her description of the incident, but Mary, the Director of the Office of Personnel, was embarrassed. “The first few weeks of a new semester are always really hectic and we’re very short staffed. We don’t have the resources to deal with the peaks in demand. We only have one receptionist and she’s responsible for answering phones, greeting people, making IDs, scheduling … ”
Mike interrupted. “Mary, that’s not a quality answer. You know that there are busy times and they’re pretty predictable. If you really want to serve your customers better, you’ll be prepared.”
There was awkward silence around the table for a few seconds, then Mary said “Ann, can I have a copy of your case?”
“Sure,” Ann replied. “The real point of the case is that no one is to blame, but the system needs to be fixed to. serve customers better.”
Talk had turned to more general quality topics and the rest of the lunch was uneventful. As Mary and Joe approached their offices, though, they agreed that it was time to pay some attention to the Personnel Reception Area. They knew, from Ann’s story and from other complaints, that customer satisfaction was generally not high.
The Work of the QIT
One month later, enough general quality training had been done in the department and the Office of Personnel’s first Quality Improvement Team was formed to address issues of effectiveness and customer satisfaction in the reception area. There were four team members: Paul, Amy, Adam, and Susan. Three managers agreed to function as a steering committee, offering help and resources when necessary. During the first team meeting the group agreed to collect data on the kinds of tasks the receptionist performed. They all felt that a written questionnaire to get customer feedback would be a good idea and that developing the questionnaire together would be their first joint task. Adam also suggested to identify the steps for scheduling and producing a faculty ID card.
The group met for one hour each week for a month. By the end of that time Adam presented the steps he had identified for producing a faculty ID. First, a mail notice was sent by the Office of Personnel to all faculty, reminding them that IDs were made on Monday and Wednesday afternoons and that appointments were necessary. Then, when a faculty member called, whoever answered the phones would check the schedule, offer a time, and write the appointment on the calendar. The faculty members were informed that a letter verifying faculty status was required to make an initial or replacement ID.
When faculty members arrived at the Office of Personnel, the receptionist (or work-study students) would greet them and ask them to fill out a form with name, social security number, title, and signature. The receptionist would then ask for their letters of verification of faculty status and, if the letters could be produced, ask them to wait until all ID customers arrived so that picture taking could be done in a “batch.” Once pictures were taken faculty members waited again for the photos to develop and for the cards to be laminated.
This procedure was not written down, but was the way staff at the reception desk had been told to do faculty Ids. Work-study students often helped the staff and the procedure was not always followed because the students were not certain of the steps involved.
Study Questions
3. What other actions you might suggest to the QIT team members during their first meeting?
4. Draw the process flowchart of the procedure used for processing faculty ID cards. Recommend any change that could improve the service.
5. Discuss what are the main issues that should be included in the questionnaire.
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