Cost improvements result in $1.7 million in annualized benefits.
Enrollment personnel productivity increases 40%.
Strategic Intent
The short-term goal is to improve cost competitiveness and retain a major government contract by proactively improving productivity of enrollment administration.
Situation
- Subsidiary of largest U.S. health benefits company
- Healthcare services provider to active and retired military personnel
- Operates 70 service centers nationwide, with 1,400 FTEs
- 12-year-old contract up for renewal
- Favorable historical performance metrics for service
- Reduced application turnaround time, from three days to one day, results in significant overtime and overstaffing
- Aggressive competition threatens to win business with lower bid
Issues and Barriers
- Lack of clear performance standards makes it difficult to set and enforce employee productivity expectations
- Limited workforce flexibility and cross-functional skills
- Excessive management time spent “fire-fighting” rather than actively supervising
- Supervisory focus is on “zero defects” rather than proactive initiatives
- Poor linkage between goals and expectations; rewards and recognition
Key Implementations
- Establish clearly defined performance targets and corresponding metrics
- Increase proactive supervisory involvement in day-to-day operations through one-on-one coaching
- Install associate training program to promote cross-departmental movement to meet workload demands
- Develop and deploy fully integrated management system
- Implement systematic, sustainable improvement process
Results
Significant Productivity Improvements in Both Areas
Productivity and labor cost improvements resulted in $1.7 million in annualized benefits for client. Organization submitted a competitive, low-cost bid that didn’t jeopardize margin. Client attained increased confidence about ability to win renewal of valuable government contract. Results include:
- Productivity of enrollment personnel increased by 40%
- Enrollment labor costs reduced by 25%
- Productivity of referral personnel increased by 82%
- Referral labor costs reduced by 13.2%
- New department staffed without new hires
Client Perspective
The tools we now have allow us to measure each associate’s production and the lost-time issues that impact them on a daily basis. They allow us to see the big picture and to see how each associate’s performance impacts the group as a whole.
—Supervisor
