Now that DWP has defined what business and digital transformation means for the department, we’re fully focused on developing some of the things we need to make it happen. One of the important building blocks is a business design, made up of an operating model for the department and a transformation roadmap that tells us what needs to happen when. We’re not starting from a blank sheet of paper. There are design decisions being taken every day across the department in our programmes and elsewhere, a range of operating models, an existing business architecture model and a number of separate transformation roadmaps. So our first priority has been to harness all the expertise we have, creating a business design and transformation community to work together to transform delivery across the whole department. The community crosses strategy, change, IT, operations, estates, HR, analysis and more. Our first tool for doing this was to create a "rich picture", a one-page sketch of where we are as a department, where we think we might be by 2020 and the changing environment and challenges along the way. It’s intended to be a tool to help us make the right design choices and stimulate debate. Our business design and transformation community co-created this picture through a couple of workshops, with the help of an artist who used the discussion on the day and the outputs to draw and then iterate and refine the picture. Rich picture, a one-page sketch of where we are as a department, where we think we might be by 2020 and the changing environment and challenges along the way We’re using a tried-and-tested business design methodology, which is helping us to pull off the art and the science of business design. As this approach is different from what we’ve done before, we created a Business Design Academy to explain the method to our community. We all spent a day learning about the approach, and we now have a shared understanding of business design and the methodology, and we’re starting to populate the model with knowledge from around the department. Learning at the Business Design Academy And we’ve been working across the department to develop the business design in an agile way, with a weekly sprint cycle, collaboration and iteration built in to everything we do and regular show and tells to make sure it’s all visible and delivered incrementally. We’d love now to learn about what others are doing in business design, so we can extend our community across government. We’re also planning to build our team as our need for business design expertise increases. Please feel free to get in touch.

Callum Davies - HR Fast Stream Graduate Back in December, I blogged about my first experience of an agile Discovery. We were discovering how we can improve the way we attract people to apply for digital and technology roles in DWP. Since then, we’ve launched a public beta - made up of a campaign microsite with some social media (@digitalDWPjobs, blogs and jobs posted in relevant online communities). It was my first experience of agile and very different from other projects I’ve worked on. The one thing that stood out was the way we designed the service around the users’ needs. Agile (even with a small ‘a’) is a state of mind What struck me most is that agile isn’t just a methodology or way of working - it’s about attitude and behaviours too. Sometimes it’s about being the ‘user in the room’, and standing firm in the face of differing opinions about content and design. Agile is also about being brave, being prepared to test and learn and put a product out there for users to critique and test. Working in an agile way needs a lot of collaboration and teamwork - we had that in spades, and it helped when the world around us had different views about the product. We found this happened more and more as the product started to emerge. I think that the more we ‘showed the thing’, the easier it was for people to have an opinion about it. Have we built a service that meets users’ needs? We had a lot of discussions around ‘when we say ‘user’, who do we mean’? The truth is that we mean a person who’s going to actually use the thing. The reality is that people within any organisation have an opinion about what users want, or what they want to present to users, and it’s difficult to overturn this without good evidence from real users. So, we want you to test it. Well, we want you to test it if: You’ve looked or applied for a job outside Government in the last 12 months You’ve been working in the private sector and you’ve looked or applied for a job in Government in the last 12 months You’ve a proven track record of designing services around user needs. If you’re not one of the above and you’ve just got a burning need to put your stamp on the product or what you want users to experience - then, well, we’ve heard loads of those opinions. Nice to hear but not, well, representing the users. I’m excited that we’re trying something different - it’s not revolutionary (and who has the energy for that?), but it’s a different approach to recruitment. Users will tell us whether it works for them. Let us know what you think - have a look at the campaign microsite and follow us on twitter.

When we brought the Digital Academy together in February this year, we did some user centred design of the future Academy schedules. The Digital Academy is growing, and the ambition is to run 9 Academies at the same time over several locations. To do this, we need to test whether a shorter Academy schedule will still deliver the right learning. Our aim is to reduce the time of the Academy from 5 weeks to 3 weeks or even less. That’s quite an ask isn’t it? We asked previous graduates of the Academy to design a shorter schedule, by posing these questions to the group: What is a ‘must do’ in the schedule? What can be removed? What is a ‘nice to have’? The feedback provided us with heaps of insight and extremely valuable recommendations on how we can do this, such as: Time to work on a project is a ‘must do’ and it would be better if there was more of it - we’ve almost doubled the project time for the Discovery session The session on social media can be removed - so we have! Real input from projects is a ‘nice to have’ - we’ve commissioned videos from digital programmes. So what did we do next? Well, we sifted through all the post it notes using affinity diagramming, which painted a great picture for us. From this, we were able to come up with a proposal of a structure for a 10-day Academy schedule. We’re testing this proposal with users right now. We’ve carried out A/B testing of the new Academy schedule with two different cohorts in March - one Academy is for people from the same division and the other is a cross-DWP Academy. We’ll evaluate the course and make a decision on future schedules based on the user needs.

DWP Business Transformation - Guiding Principles About a year ago DWP established a set of Guiding Principles to drive our business transformation. More recently, we shared our vision of how DWP will operate in 2020. We are now working through the details and putting some of the building blocks in place. I'm Richard Barton in the Business Design team in DWP and I'm reflecting on the impact that digital technology will have on DWP’s products and services. From internet engagement to digital delivery No doubt you will be aware that the modern way to serve customers and citizens is 'digital'. If you believe many of the articles written about the subject, digital seems to involve delivering applications on smart watches, attracting 'Likes' on Facebook and dealing with complaints on Twitter. Fortunes are about to be won and lost on the back of this transformation whilst, in the executive suite, arguments rage between Marketing, IT  and the new, all-powerful, Chief Digital Officer (CDO). These articles may be entertaining but they don't reflect reality. Clearly, digital technologies do help to make all sorts of customer-facing interactions more flexible and useful. Why wait in a high street store or a telephone queueing system to talk to someone when you can raise your request or get answers to your questions whenever you want and wherever you happen to be? In addition, smart organisations are cleverly structuring their customer communications to uncover new information and improve their services. However, as Matthew Hancock explained recently, real transformation comes through using digital foundations to deliver goods and services. Digital delivery Digital delivery started in industries which were already information rich, such as Financial Services. After all, a business which can deliver by changing the balance of an account does not have to undergo a great deal of change to become digital. Entertainment, including music and television, has been on a digital transformation journey since compact discs (CDs) and NICAM broadcasts became common 25 years ago. What is really exciting now is the way that other products are becoming infused with information or being enhanced with information - creating new candidates for digital disruption. Currently, Tesla Motors and Uber provide differing, but equally high-profile, examples of how information can enrich transport. There is a lot of interest in exposing and exploiting the information hidden away in the operations of the energy sector. Less attention is going into things like food at the moment but there are already signs of what may come later - fancy a bite of my 3D-printed, personalised chocolates? The common factor in all of these examples is a shift of focus from the tangible to the intangible creating opportunities which can be unlocked with digital technology. This shift has already started for our public services. Our understanding of health and wellbeing used to be dominated by the physical aspects - think of surgery and mass-produced pharmaceuticals. Our attention is now being drawn to personal lifestyle choices (and even more personally to our unique DNA). Opportunities are also being created in welfare as the focus shifts from top-down, centralised provision to an approach based on empowering people to make well informed choices for themselves. The shift is uncovering useful information which was previously hidden and giving us ways to enrich welfare services with new information. Benefits at internet speed At DWP, we are already using these opportunities. Tailoring services to people's needs can produce better outcomes and we can save time and money through automation. As an example, we use Real-Time Information about earnings collected by HMRC to make adjustments to benefits payments. This makes it easier for people, avoids a heap of administrative work from our busy staff, eliminates costly mistakes and reduces the opportunity for benefit fraud. There is still plenty of work to be done to deal with some complex legacy systems and we also need to build new tools and develop new ways of working. This work is not always as glamorous and high-profile as launching a new digital service but it is just as demanding, exciting and important. The results will be public services which are more satisfying and better value for everyone - taxpayers, our customers and delivery teams.

The Cross Government Design meeting took place recently, with more than 60 people gathering at Digital DWP. This was the 9th gathering of designers from across government, along with designers from the Government Digital Service (GDS). It was also the first time the meeting had been organised outside London so we were really happy to host the event and welcome everyone to visit our transformation hub in Leeds. Ben Terrett, Director of Design, GDS  Ben Terrett, Director of Design at GDS, opened the meeting, reflecting on how far the Design Community had come in a few years, and how designing services around users’ needs is now at the forefront of every department’s approach. In a series of updates from the Heads of Design, several departments talked about their challenges and the need to embed design in how their department delivers services and policy. The common themes were: the need to build design capability, grow the skills in the Civil Service and recruit new designers into departments embedding design into early conversations about service delivery, and the role of design in improving services the importance of working in the open and sharing design patterns, standards, and ways of working across Government departments. Ben Holliday, Head of UX, DWP In the afternoon, we heard about design in HMRC and MOJ. First up, Pietro Desiato, Guy Tristram, and Katy Beale from the HMRC payments team showed us the service design improvements that have made it much simpler, clearer, and faster to make payments for self assessment - during a question and answer session Caroline Jarrett went as far as to say this is now her favourite form of all time. Next up, Kell Matheson and Ana Cecilia Santos from MOJ Digital talked through their work on ‘Help with Fees’ - you can read more in Ana’s blog post Helping people with court fees. To finish the day we had a guest speaker, Adrian McEwen, co-founder of DoESLiverpool, a community of makers, entrepreneurs and change makers. The feeling was that this was the best Cross Government Design meeting yet. I hope to welcome everyone back to Leeds at some point next year. It was also great that our Director General, Kevin Cunnington, was able to spend some time with us during the afternoon - as Ben said, it’s great to see this senior support for the design community in Government. Get involved  If you’re a designer already working in Government, get involved. Your design community really does need you. Cross Government Design meetings happen every 6 weeks, while our DWP Design community and User Experience team meets every month. Contact me to find out more.

In DWP we regularly ask our customers about their experience of dealing with us and whether they are satisfied with the service they received. This feedback is one way we can identify whether the services we offer can be improved. However, simply asking whether people are satisfied is not enough. As the Head of Digital and Customer Analytics, I wanted to share a bit about how DWP measures satisfaction and uses this to improve customer service. But first, let's briefly talk about cat food. 8 out of 10 cats are less important than the other 2 It’s well known that 8 out of 10 cats prefer a certain market-leading cat food. Let’s call it Catisfaction. This is obviously great news for the makers of Catisfaction. They are officially the tastiest purveyor (no pun intended) of cat food and that statistic proves it. However, when faced with the challenge of improving an already successful product, knowing that 8 of 10 cats prefer their product is a pretty useless statistic for the board of Catisfaction Inc. Instead it is far more important to know about the 20% of cats that would rather dine on Catisfaction’s rivals. The same is true for DWP. We recently released our latest Customer Satisfaction score. In 2014/15, 82% of DWP customers were very satisfied or fairly satisfied with the service they received. This is really good news and a result we are pleased with; but DWP isn’t in the business of standing still, we are always striving for ways to improve our customer service. DWP’s Claimant Service and Experience Survey Satisfaction is a really blunt tool and on its own it doesn’t tell us anything about how we can improve our services, but if you know how to dig a little deeper and collect the right data you can uncover some priceless customer insight. That's why DWP conducts a Claimant Service and Experience Survey; last year we conducted almost 15,000 interviews with claimants who had contact with the Department. Instead of just focussing on the 82% who are satisfied, we use the results to: understand people’s views and experiences of DWP’s services detect variations between recipients of different benefits identify which aspects are viewed most favourably and which need improvement This information lets us analyse things such as the ease of contacting DWP, the extent to which people were kept informed on the progress of their transactions, whether payments and communication were helpful and accurate, and the treatment they experienced from DWP staff. The findings from the survey help to identify areas where service can be improved and helps to reduce unnecessary costs across the Department and provide a more efficient service. Lessons from Europe Measuring satisfaction doesn’t just make good sense, it is also now a requirement placed on Member States by the European Parliament. I recently represented DWP at a European Commission event looking at how Member States measure satisfaction within Public Employment Services - and more importantly how findings are used to drive service delivery improvements. The methodology behind DWP’s Claimant Service and Experience Survey and how we use the results to improve our services is one of the best in Europe. A number of Member States will be visiting the UK next month to learn more from the success of DWP’s approach. But measuring satisfaction isn’t easy and a number of important themes emerged from the workshop; these affect the Member States who have measured satisfaction for a long time, such as the UK, as well as those Member States who are just starting to measure satisfaction for the first time. The themes are: everybody needs a measurement mechanism but there is not one perfect methodology keep it simple at first - collecting some useful data is a great place to start. Detailed dashboards and sophisticated reporting mechanisms can come later measure things that you are able to change and improve - there is no point focussing on things that can’t be changed you need to know what you will do with the data and how you are going to communicate the findings interpreting the results can be subjective; a strong link between the analytical teams and operations staff is invaluable for developing worthwhile recommendations senior management buy-in is critical as you have to take action on the results. You need to know whose responsibility it is to respond to the recommendations It was great to share DWP’s expertise with other Member States and to learn from some innovative examples of satisfaction measurement in Europe. Transforming DWP As DWP transforms it business we’ll need to consider how to best measure satisfaction and the experiences people have using our services. The lessons we've learned from the Claimant Service and Experience Survey and the opportunities presented by collecting good data will be vital for measuring satisfaction with digital services in a transformed DWP. And just like the makers of Catisfaction, DWP will need to focus on all our service users, not just the satisfied ones. This way, satisfaction with services should increase. And by using satisfaction data intelligently and listening to the views of real users we can make more improvements to ensure we deliver our services effectively and efficiently.

What is TRID compliance? The (TRID) TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule consolidates four existing disclosures required under TILA and RESPA for closed-end credit transactions secured by real property into two forms: a Loan Estimate that must be delivered or placed in the mail no later than the third business day after receiving the consumer’s application, and a Closing Disclosure that must be provided to the consumer at least three business days prior to consummation (TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule). What is the new rule? As per the new TRID compliance rules (with effect from October 3rd, 2015), the creditors/lenders are required to comply with newly integrated simplified forms - Loan Estimate and the Closure Disclosure forms. Failure to meet the new TRID compliance, lenders will be required to pay heavy fines which can go up to millions of dollars per day. Implementation of the new TRID rule goes well beyond switching forms on October 3rd, 2015. These changes require: Process Technology Operations Procedures Netwoven - one of the leading Microsoft partners recently partnered with one of the nation’s leading private mortgage banking firm to deliver accurate Closing Disclosures documents in a timely manner. The areas of consulting included design, implementation and integration of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to their internal disparate systems. Trailing documents still continue to be industry’s pain point. Lenders need to know where the documents are and what has happened to them after closing. That is where Netwoven’s technical expertise can help fully automate your TRID compliance process. Netwoven leverages Microsoft SharePoint, Dynamics CRM and xRM product capabilities to provide the solution. What did we deliver? Integrated the mortgage banking-firm document vendor systems to have newly integrated disclosure documents Built automation around mortgage fees and mortgage insurance calculation for retail, wholesale and correspondent channels. Integrated with financial analysis providers so that providers can make key business decisions in areas of how to sell loan to Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mae What was the ROI? Prepared the  customer for TRID compliance Optimized over $400M of unfunded loans for wholesale channels Saved over $6M+ in OPEX for processing "Servicing" loans Saved 1000+ Man-hours per month in loan processing by integrating CRM with SmartGFE, Genworks and other vendors Optimized loan pipeline data management so that business decisions such as cost analysis can be done in minutes compared to days Netwoven can work with you as a strategic partner to help you refine your reporting capabilities and integrating your TRID compliance systems with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft SharePoint. For additional information or to speak with one of our experts, please email us at info@netwoven.com or call (877) 638 9683.

This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post Business blog. Much like a doctor or an attorney, being the resident HR professional in my peer group lends itself to lots of questions. One of... Visit site for full story...

Second of a two-part series on ACA and the finance industry In Part I of our ACA series, we discussed the significant impact that firms with 51-100 full-time employees will experience when they are... Visit site for full story...

For Immediate Release September 17, 2015   Contact: Michael Cupps (972) 523-6690 mcupps@oc.com   CareFirst, OpenConnect to Discuss Improvement of Claims Auto-Adjudication CareFirst Vice President of Large Group Operations to serve as featured speaker at the Health Plan Claims & Service Operations Conference   Michael Cupps, OpenConnect Senior Vice President, and Sally Miller, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst) Senior Vice President of Operations for Large Group Strategic Business Unit, will serve as featured speakers and panelists at this year’s Health Plan Claims & Service Operations Conference on October 26, 2015.   Cupps and Miller’s panel will focus on key areas in which analysis and automation can improve the claims process by reducing costs and decreasing pended claims. Miller will speak to CareFirst’s success in significantly improving operations through the identification and utilization of previously uncaptured data, and the capacity to deploy software robots to process work.   "The opportunity to improve operations first pass rates and to demonstrate significant savings for health plan claims is a prime target for RPA," said Cupps. "Utilizing analytics to target the most costly claims or edit codes, then automating them allows organizations - as CareFirst has demonstrated - to optimize human capital, improve customer service and lower administrative costs in an increasingly competitive market."   WHAT: Health Plan Claims & Service Operations Conference   WHO: Sally Miller, CareFirst Vice President of Operations, Large Group Strategic Business Unit and Michael Cupps, OpenConnect Senior Vice President.   WHERE: Westin Las Vegas Hotel, 160 E Flamingo Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89109.   WHEN: Monday, October 26 - Tuesday, October 27, 2015. Miller and Cupps will speak on October 26 at 1:10 p.m.   CONTACT: Michael Cupps at (972) 523-6690 or mcupps@oc.com. The post CareFirst and OpenConnect to present at Health Plan Claims Conference appeared first on WorkiQ Blog.

Dear David, We’re tasked with continuing to build our hospital system into a national brand, but our CEO doesn’t see our nurses as a part of the brand equation. Our senior leaders see them as entirely replaceable, and accept high turnover as part of our culture. I’ve heard that the answer is better training, but training alone does not create retained, engaged employees. We train them and they leave. I don’t believe training is a magic bullet; the culture has to value its skilled staff. How do you convince the president of a company that employees matter? Sincerely, Searching for the Solution Dear Searching, Thank you for asking a challenging question that is relevant to every employee and senior leader—not just those in healthcare. How do improvements in employee engagement, commitment, and retention fit into an organization’s brand equation? And how do you convince a harried and skeptical team of senior leaders? Your challenge will be to show that a) these improvements are possible, given your current situation and the turnover in the profession, and b) these improvements are worth the investment, given the strategic goals that keep senior leaders up at night. Begin with Their Existing Goals and Strategies. You suggest that your senior leaders have a clear objective: to build your hospital system into a national brand. Make it very clear that you support this goal. Your desire to improve engagement, commitment, and retention needs to be positioned as an essential strategy for achieving this strategic objective. But how do you convince skeptics that it really is essential? How do you change their hearts and minds? Create Personal Experiences. The mistake we make is to try to change hearts and minds with our mouths. We think that if we find the right words, the right data, and the right tone of voice, we can somehow bring the skeptics over to our side. The sad result is a mix of lectures, sermons, data dumps, and rants. Verbal persuasion is the least effective way to convince others. Personal experience is the gold standard for changing hearts and minds. Find ways to put senior leaders into situations where they will experience for themselves the importance of engagement, commitment, and retention. But how can you do that? Partner with them on their current strategies for building your brand. We’ve worked with several hospital systems that were engaged in similar initiatives, so I can share some common strategies. Your team will need to build at least one world-class heart center, cancer center, and children’s hospital. You will need to either purchase or partner with at least twenty community hospitals in your area to expand your reach to where patients live. And you will need to build research facilities and partner with a medical school in order to raise your profile to a national level. You and I know that these building projects will remain hollow monuments unless they are filled with passionate, committed nurses. The best way to convince senior leaders of this truth is to have them visit other hospital systems that have succeeded or failed at these same strategies. I recall one CEO who returned from visiting a new children’s hospital and said, "They thought they could move their people into a new building without moving their old culture. It was a colossal failure. We won’t be making that mistake here!" Educate Their Eyes. As Yogi Berra once quipped, "You can observe a lot by just watching." But sometimes we fail to recognize what we’re seeing. You can help senior leaders recognize what they’re seeing by providing them with questions and cue sheets. There is a wonderful and popular HBR piece titled, How to Read a Plant, Fast. The author, R. Eugene Goodson, describes how to make the most of a plant tour. He and his team can tell the cost of sales, sales per employee, overhead, and time to assembly after a half-hour plant tour. I have a neighbor, a retired COO of a major restaurant company, who can answer similar questions within twenty minutes of having been seated at a restaurant. You have similar talents within your senior team. Work with them to create a checklist and list of questions to ask as they visit other hospitals. This preparation will ensure they see the cultural and interpersonal dimensions—as well as the spiffy new buildings. Begin with a Specific Project. Remember that structure drives behavior. This is one of the reasons that new buildings get more attention than engagement, commitment, and retention. Building a building is a clearly defined project, while improving engagement is not. The solution is to begin with a specific project that will improve engagement. Achieving Magnet Status is an example of this kind of project. In the case of Magnet Status, it’s a large, demanding project that would have a huge payoff in terms of branding. If Magnet Status is too difficult a place to start, then select a smaller, more feasible project that will build engagement. For example, work with a member of the senior team to select one or more of the Institute for Healthcare bundles—small, straightforward set of evidence-based practices for improving patient outcomes—and build mastery across your hospital system. This kind of project demonstrates that engagement is possible, and that it pays off. Make Respect Visible. I was once at a meeting when a hospital VP made a joke that compared nursing turnover to prostitution. The CEO of the hospital laughed, and added to it. The division manager was also at the meeting, and he didn’t laugh. In fact, within the week he had removed both the CEO and the person who had told the joke. There needs to be a commitment to respect your own workforce. Of course most senior leaders have an enormous respect for their people. But how do the people see this respect? Senior leaders need to make it visible. For a wonderful example, take a look at this brief video. It seeks to honor the men and women like yourself, who seek to save lives every day. I hope this helps. Sincerely, David

Here at Fierce, we honor a person once a month with the coveted title of Fierceling of the Month. The qualification for a Fierceling is someone who has been nominated by peers for exceptionally exhibiting the fierce values and the 7 principles of our work. There are some great internal perks including choosing your favorite restaurant to catering a company-wide lunch. Each month, I look forward to interviewing these amazing people.This month, I had the honor to connect with Matt Dunn.Why did you come to work here? I came to Fierce for the opportunity to be a part of a mission that makes a difference in the world and to develop professionally/personally.What are some responsibilities of your role? Some responsibilities in my role include:Being a Brand AmbassadorMaking sure clients’ feedback is being relayed to our marketing and Senior Leadership teamHelping clients make the best training choices depending on their budget, time restrictions, and competencies they would like to developHelping to create reinforcement/sustainability plans to ensure Fierce is being used after workshopsHelping our clients achieve the results they want to seeWhat’s the coolest thing you are currently working on? I’m fortunate to work with amazing people and organizations. One of the things I love about my position is how each client has their own unique goals and roadmaps for how they would like to build training. I’m grateful to work with such passionate people that strive to develop their team members, so that they can work more effectively together and solve so meaningful opportunities/problems. I feel honored to help clients reach their desired results and being their trusted advisor.What is your favorite thing about working at Fierce? This is such a fun working environment. We have a close "Fierce Family" where we do a ton of fun things together. We have monthly happy hours, company outings, and sporting events. It’s often we are also spending time with each other outside of the office. It’s special when you can wake up and look forward to the people you are going to see at work and also rally together to support a common mission.When you’re not at Fierce, what are you most likely doing? When I’m not at Fierce I’m most likely spending time playing or watching sports. I like to stay active, and I like competing. Sports are a great medium for me to do that.What Fierce Principle are you focusing on this month? The Fierce Principle I am working on this month is "Be Here, Prepared to Be Nowhere Else". This is essential in working with clients and giving your team members the proper respect.What inspires you? What inspires me is knowing the work I am doing is making a difference in the world. In my position as Director of Business Development, I get the privilege of interacting with our clients on a regular basis. I thrive off of their success stories, whether they are gaining confidence to confront an issue, building a stronger relationship with a team member, or even on a deeply personal level, saving a marriage. At Fierce, we develop professional and personal skills that are essential in building strong relationships, and when I hear these success stories it fuels me to spread this mission with others.What else do you want to ask Matt? Tweet @fierce_inc #fiercelingofthemonth to ask any other questions.The post Meet Our September Fierceling of the Month: Matt Dunn appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on Gallup and identifies the five drivers that encourage employees to make their organization’s desired mission, brand, and culture a reality.Culture is defined as a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or organization. It is also so much more than that. It forms the basis of an organization’s identity, and it can either inspire customers and employees or have them running for the door.A recent Gallup article, An Organization’s Identity Has to Inspire Customers, found that when customers are aligned with a brand’s promise, they give that brand twice as much share of their wallet (47%). To create a culture that delivers on a company’s promise, leaders must first focus on engaging employees in a way that reinforces the organization’s values.Are your actions creating a gap between reality and your brand’s aspirational identity?"Too many companies establish and deliver their selection, engagement and development programs in silos. This approach doesn’t deliver business results, and it doesn’t support an organization’s desired identity. A new employee might be attracted to a company because of its promised focus on strengths, but in his performance review, all his manager talks about are his weaknesses and how he’s missing goals."Read the article.The post Fierce Resource: An Organization’s Identity Has to Inspire Customers appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Imagine if every person acted like a lady or gentleman….. Etiquette Tip: Ladies and gentlemen are diplomatic when communicating by email. Without the context of tone and body language, your emails may not be interpreted how they were intended. Your word choice will determine how your email is received. For example, if you’re sharing an innovative idea with your organization, but you begin by pointing out the shortcomings of your colleagues or criticizing your organization for being behind-the-times, your fresh idea will be spoiled by its negative context. You can act as a lady or gentleman by pointing out challenges and sharing solutions without blame and condemnation. It’s especially important to express tact when replying to emails because a written response can be saved for future reference or forwarded to others. Everyone receives emails that are frustrating or upsetting, but if you respond while you are upset, you may regret it. It’s best not to send an email when you are upset, stressed or exhausted. Anytime you’re at risk for sending an emotionally charged note, do not hit send — there may be unwanted consequences to your action. Wait until you can respond in a less reactionary and more professional manner. Sometimes, the correct email response is to ask for a situation to be resolved in person—rather than through email. One of the Service Values at The Ritz-Carlton states "I am proud of my professional appearance, language and behavior." Our employees—known as our Ladies and Gentlemen—choose their language carefully when crafting an email and recognize that the written word is another opportunity to express refinement. ∞ The motto of The Ritz-Carlton is "We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen." This motto sets a tone of goodwill and grace for all. The Blog Post Etiquette & Engagement: Diplomatic appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Having built a fantastic course is only a few paces away from a successful course. What is a successful eLearning course anyway? A course that engages its learners in a meaningful way. A course that becomes an organic, growing body of active participants, each ready with their two cents to share on a topic. We are not talking about evaluating the course or having the learners’ comments on how effective (or not) it was. We are talking about action plans derived from the learning resources presented in the course. When your learners talk about 101 ways to apply a learning resource, that’s when the course is successful. It makes the course "live longer" as in, you will have many learners enrolled at different times of the year. Engaging learners in this way is not only a sure-fire way to market your course through the conventional "word of mouth", but it is also a great way to share knowledge and manage it using experts in the field. The question for this article is: How do we create such successful courses? First things first, let’s identify the various forms of eLearning. Then we will determine how to create active collaborative environments in each. When a learner registers for your eLearning course, he or she would engage in any one of the following methods: · Passive and alone learning. · Passive and collaborative learning. · Active and alone learning. · Active and collaborative learning. Most of the time, instructional designers create courses that are designed for "Passive and alone learning" or "Active and alone learning". For example, we create courses with built-in videos, interactive diagrams and branched scenarios that are absorbed by the learner. They are then required to test their progress through a periodic quiz. This is it. Most courses are designed this way. What if you added a layer of collaborative tools? For example, when the learner views a video, or they visit an external resource, require them to write about their perceptions. Write directly under the activity page of the course. This is similar to commenting under blogs. The main difference is that, with this type of reflective commenting, you provide a checklist for commenting. Learners would need to write in an academic pattern. Peers would need to respond in the same pattern as well. This will help introduce your learner to others. You would become a mentor, moderating and directing discussions. Of particular importance here is the exercise of reflecting and recollecting experiences related to the activity. This gives your learning activities a powerful, multi-dimensional perspective. Need some similar ideas? How about these: Recommend that learners use a search engine during a scavenger hunt task. Make sure they do so in teams. And keep this activity within the scope of the assignment by providing a list of curated websites. Ask teams to create a newsletter together, complete with designing, graphics, layout and information. Request that they share and have other teams evaluate the newsletters using the provided criteria. Think of other possibilities where you can combine learners under one activity and have them engage with each other. Passive and alone learning is boring. Move your eLearning courses towards the collaborative learning style. Here’s a good checklist to ground you during your course design and development period. How can I use this method for passive learning (learner as a receiver of the message / training routine)? How can I use this method for active learning (learner as a creator of the message / training routine)? How can I use this method for individual learning (message / training routine consumed or created by a single person)? How can I use this method for collaborative learning (message / training routine consumed or created by a team of people)? A successful course will have all of the above elements. It will emphasize the last one. Create activities that require learners to engage passionately. Good luck! The post Create an Active and Collaborative Learning Environment for your Course appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Stepping up from one level of leadership to the next turns out not to be so easy. Learn what organizations can do to help.

"The idea of lightbulbs in the course "Make things Easy to Understand", the idea of "it is not about you,it is about them in the course "Handle Negativity",  the importance of hooking audiences to keep the audience engaged and the activity of "circle of knowledge" and many other takeaways I have got from Jason Teteak's courses were the things I had gained through scattered workshops all through my teaching career. However, Jason put all these takeaways with many new ones in a sequence with practical tools that can be applied immediately.And that really gave me great pleasure.Having found many answers to "What is In It For Me" in these courses, I wait for new courses to be released though. Those who are willing to be a lecturer,  trainer or a teacher MUST take these courses.If only I had had these practical lessons at university." The post Banu Hizel - ASFA Schools - Head of Language Dept. appeared first on Rule The Room.

The incessant gathering, analyzing, and processing of personal information the digital era has enabled is both creating new and lucrative business opportunities and posing some serious privacy concerns. In What Stays in Vegas, Adam Tanner shines a light on big data, showcases some of the most avid data gatherers and brokers, and explains why they do what they do. Tanner offers a vivid look into the world of personal data collection and its implications. Drawing heavily on the experience of Caesars Entertainment Las Vegas, What Stays in Vegas is steeped in personal, behind-the-scenes stories from entrepreneurs, casino owners, private detectives, data brokers, and others. According to Tanner: Customer lifetime value is directly tied to customer satisfaction and can drive astronomical growth. Satisfied, repeat customers are much less costly than one-time customers, and exponentially much more profitable. Big data gives customers what they want. Collecting a wealth of personal data on individuals enables the kind of personalized, customized marketing that is most useful and appealing to them. A little bit of data can reveal a lot. A birth date and a zip code are enough information to piece together a very complete picture of an individual. In the Internet era, privacy and anonymity are an illusion. Because of digital technology, data about individuals is being captured and used whether those individual realize it or not, and that is not likely to change. Consumer awareness is the most important ingredient in consumer privacy. The more people understand about how their personal data is being captured and used, the better able they will be to control the process. To learn more, please visit http://www.bizsum.com

It’s no secret that collaboration creates high performing teams and organizations, yet leaders in some companies still struggle to get people to work together instead of protecting their silos. In our new book Collaboration Begins with You: Be a Silo Buster, my coauthors Jane Ripley, Eunice Parisi-Carew, and I describe how you can break down silos and bring people together to achieve fabulous results at every level in your organization. As the title suggests, we believe that collaboration is the responsibility of every single person. Although it’s up to the leader to declare and introduce a culture of collaboration, it is up to each individual to promote and preserve it. Silos exist when people who are more interested in organizational hierarchy want to protect resources and information as sources of power. But in today’s diverse, global environment, collaboration is the key to communication, innovation, and success. We must all be silo busters. Establishing a culture of collaboration isn’t an overnight fix—it requires a completely new mindset. We call it the inside-out mindset of Heart, Head, and Hands. The Heart aspect refers to who you really are as a collaborator—your intentions and character. The Head aspect is about your beliefs and attitudes about collaboration. The Hands aspect relates to what you do—your actions and behaviors. People with this mindset understand and live by the statement None of us is as smart as all of us. From this inside-out mindset, five factors are generated that help build a strong culture of collaboration. We created the UNITE acronym to make these factors easier to remember. Everyone must be vigilant about Utilizing differences; Nurturing safety and trust; Involving others in crafting a clear purpose, values, and goals; Talking openly; and Empowering themselves and others. I’ll explain these concepts in detail in future posts. In the meantime, remember that collaboration begins with you—and it can begin today! Editor’s Note: Collaboration Begins with You: Be a Silo Buster will be released October 12. Place your pre-order at www.Amazon.com.  

Here at Fierce, we honor a person once a month with the coveted title of Fierceling of the Month. The qualification for a Fierceling is someone who has been nominated by peers for exceptionally exhibiting the fierce values and the 7 principles of our work. There are some great internal perks including choosing your favorite restaurant to catering a company-wide lunch. Each month, I look forward to interviewing these amazing people.This month, I had the honor to connect with Matt Dunn.Why did you come to work here? I came to Fierce for the opportunity to be a part of a mission that makes a difference in the world and to develop professionally/personally.What are some responsibilities of your role? Some responsibilities in my role include:Being a Brand AmbassadorMaking sure clients’ feedback is being relayed to our marketing and Senior Leadership teamHelping clients make the best training choices depending on their budget, time restrictions, and competencies they would like to developHelping to create reinforcement/sustainability plans to ensure Fierce is being used after workshopsHelping our clients achieve the results they want to seeWhat’s the coolest thing you are currently working on? I’m fortunate to work with amazing people and organizations. One of the things I love about my position is how each client has their own unique goals and roadmaps for how they would like to build training. I’m grateful to work with such passionate people that strive to develop their team members, so that they can work more effectively together and solve so meaningful opportunities/problems. I feel honored to help clients reach their desired results and being their trusted advisor.What is your favorite thing about working at Fierce? This is such a fun working environment. We have a close "Fierce Family" where we do a ton of fun things together. We have monthly happy hours, company outings, and sporting events. It’s often we are also spending time with each other outside of the office. It’s special when you can wake up and look forward to the people you are going to see at work and also rally together to support a common mission.When you’re not at Fierce, what are you most likely doing? When I’m not at Fierce I’m most likely spending time playing or watching sports. I like to stay active, and I like competing. Sports are a great medium for me to do that.What Fierce Principle are you focusing on this month? The Fierce Principle I am working on this month is "Be Here, Prepared to Be Nowhere Else". This is essential in working with clients and giving your team members the proper respect.What inspires you? What inspires me is knowing the work I am doing is making a difference in the world. In my position as Director of Business Development, I get the privilege of interacting with our clients on a regular basis. I thrive off of their success stories, whether they are gaining confidence to confront an issue, building a stronger relationship with a team member, or even on a deeply personal level, saving a marriage. At Fierce, we develop professional and personal skills that are essential in building strong relationships, and when I hear these success stories it fuels me to spread this mission with others.What else do you want to ask Matt? Tweet @fierce_inc #fiercelingofthemonth to ask any other questions.The post Meet Our August Fierceling of the Month: Matt Dunn appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Each month, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center (RCLC) features an interview with an employee—also known as a Lady or Gentleman of The Ritz-Carlton—in order to share an insider’s view of the organization. This month’s interview is with Mercedita (Mercy) Fernandez, Director of Housekeeping at The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre. RCLC: Can you please talk a little about your role with the organization? Ms. Fernandez: Essentially, my role is to oversee and maintain the cleanliness of the hotel, or ‘the house’ as I like to call it. For me, however, my most important role is to lead and nurture my wonderful team of 51 Ladies and Gentlemen as well as an additional 54 contracted staff. They refer to me as ‘Mom,’ so I like to see myself as the Mom of the house! RCLC: How long have you worked with The Ritz-Carlton, and why do you stay? Ms. Fernandez: I started in housekeeping with The Portman Ritz-Carlton, Shanghai in 1998, before moving to The Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain and finally The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre in 2009. There is one reason I have stayed for 17 years and that is the people that I am fortunate to work with every day. I always promote from within, and it gives me so much pleasure to watch my Ladies and Gentlemen, some of whom start in housekeeping with zero skills, blossom into fantastic housekeepers and leaders. RCLC: What do you value about the culture of The Ritz-Carlton? Ms. Fernandez: I value everything about the culture, and I realized this when I no longer needed to study the Credo Card. The Ritz-Carlton philosophy has become my own philosophy, and I believe those Ladies and Gentlemen who embody it will become the most successful. RCLC: What is your favorite Service Value or Gold Standard? Ms. Fernandez: Of course Service Value number 12, "I am responsible for uncompromising levels of cleanliness and creating a safe and accident-free environment," is always at the top of my mind, but my favorite is the Employee Promise. Trust, honesty, respect and integrity are the basis of how a team and a hotel function, and helping my Ladies and Gentlemen fulfill their aspirations gives me the greatest pleasure. RCLC: How does the culture impact your work? How do you convey this to your Ladies and Gentlemen? Ms. Fernandez: The culture is the foundation of how we work and how the division operates. I try to be a role model and walk the talk every day, which starts each morning with Line-Up. I also hold a second Line-Up with my leaders and try to be a mentor to each and every one of them. I am still very present around the rooms and believe it is essential for Ladies and Gentlemen to regularly see their leader on the front line. RCLC: How do you engage your Ladies and Gentlemen in less glamorous positions? Ms. Fernandez: I always try to communicate and help them understand the importance of what we do in housekeeping, and how it truly impacts the guest experience. I also try to teach the importance of motivation and passion; loving what you do makes it easy. It is also essential to ensure they understand that there is an opportunity to learn and grow and that if they are dedicated and passionate, there is an exciting career path for them within the company. RCLC: Do you feel that an emphasis on customer service is even more important for luxury brands? Ms. Fernandez: Yes, absolutely because customer service or guest experience define luxury, particularly in Dubai and much of the Middle East where luxury is found on every corner. We need to place the guest at the center of everything we do. RCLC: Do you have any interaction with customers or any opportunities to create "Wow" moments? Ms. Fernandez: My main interaction opportunity now is with long-stay or regular guests, with whom I try to build relationships. They appreciate that a senior leader from housekeeping is interested in how they like their clothes hung, or their pillows arranged, and this gives me a chance to personally anticipate and fulfill their needs. It is also important that I do this to set an example to my team, who I challenge to create "Wow" moments on a daily basis. RCLC: The Ritz-Carlton has a reputation for employee retention. Is there any aspect of the culture that you feel directly contributes to employee engagement? Ms. Fernandez: I believe in promoting from within wherever possible, and this gives our Ladies and Gentlemen a tangible goal to reach for. I also think that you can’t stop people from leaving if a promotion arises, and I always try to encourage my team as much as I can to apply for transfers in other departments or hotels if they are ready and the opportunity is right. RCLC: What does it mean to be a team player? How have you mentored or supported others? Ms. Fernandez: Being a team player means being there for and supporting your Ladies and Gentlemen. However senior, you cannot work alone, and teamwork is fundamental to success in any hotel environment. As well as mentoring within my division, I have also taken part in six task forces (editor’s note: task forces spend time working at other Ritz-Carlton properties), which I think is a fantastic initiative that allows experienced Ladies and Gentlemen to share best practices and knowledge with our colleagues, which ultimately benefits everyone. RCLC: You won an award for your contributions to The Ritz-Carlton. What was that experience like? Ms. Fernandez: I was lucky enough to be awarded the J. Willard Marriott Award of Excellence by Marriott International, and it is really very difficult to describe the experience in words. I felt the most proud to be Ritz-Carlton than I ever have in my entire career, and the experience we were treated to in Washington, D.C. was really out of this world and embodied everything The Ritz-Carlton stands for in terms of creating memorable experiences. It was the first time I had traveled to the U.S., and it was like winning every lottery possible in one go! What inspires you each day? Ms. Fernandez: The interactions I have with my team, colleagues and guests, and knowing that I am able to make a difference in peoples’ lives. I also enjoy the challenges that every day brings; no two days are the same, and every day throws up something new, which I love and embrace. It’s how we manage challenges that make us successful, and inspires me to be the best I can be every day. ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation. The Blog Post Our Ladies and Gentlemen: Mercedita (Mercy) Fernandez appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

While TalentLMS is a hugely capable eLearning platform on its own, its capabilities grow exponentially (that’s mathspeak for "quite a lot") when you take advantage of its myriads of integration possibilities. From our suite of built-in integration options to over 300 websites and services ready to be integrated with TalentLMS through its support for the Zapier middleware, if a service or software is even remotely popular, you can integrate TalentLMS with it. We’re happy to announce that, come next release, this list will also include Salesforce, the widely popular Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. So what does this integration buy Salesforce-TalentLMS users? Single-sign on, for starters, as you’ll be able to access your eLearning courses from within Salesforce, through the aptly named "TalentLMS" tab in the CRM. No separate login required, and no more manual replication of your CRM accounts to your LMS. TalentLMS also gets the ability to automatically import Salesforce users, which are then given the same access to the eLearning capabilities of the platform as any user created in the usual way. The Salesforce administrator will be able to control which users get access to TalentLMS, by specifying one or more Salesforce user groups. Oh, and keeping with the legendary TalentLMS’ ease of use, integrating Salesforce will be an one-step process. We believe that the upcoming TalentLMS/Salesforce integration provides an ideal extended platform for Salesforce-using businesses looking to train their sales staff, or new businesses looking for a robust CRM platform and a best-of-breed LMS. As for our own sales staff, they’ll be glad to answer any question you might have regarding TalentLMS and its integration capabilities. Watch this space for integration instructions come release day, and may the Salesforce be with you. The post A force to be reckoned with: Salesforce integrated with TalentLMS appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

If engaging Millennials is the goal, we must understand what defines their leadership experience—not just their preferences.

Oftentimes, people labor under the impression that once a sale is made, the sales and negotiation process ends. This, however, could not be further from the truth. The initial acquisition is the first in an extended series of talks, negotiations, compromises, and pitches that will continue throughout the newly established working relationship. Seek Feedback Feedback is just as useful to you as it is to maintaining relationships with your clients. They want to be heard, and you can use the information to improve the product or service, or even your own sales tactics. Engaging your customers will show them you genuinely care and haven’t forgotten about them. When consumers don’t like a product or service, they are likely to not return rather than voicing their opinion. Well, they will voice their opinion; it just won’t be with you. However, if you take the time to ask them for feedback, they’ll be more inclined to seek your service in the future because they know you care about their needs. Stay Organized If you’re maintaining ongoing relationships with clients, you probably have a variety of client types with an assortment of needs. Keeping your clients organized by what their wants and needs enables you to make more meaningful connections with them. It also helps you make better sales in the future. Knowing exactly what customers bought and how they feel about it makes them feel respected and "special," and keeping their information systematically organized is the most efficient way to do this. Additionally, keeping things organized internally gives you insight into your product or service. Are you consistent in your delivery? Do you have a set schedule for following up with clients? Do all your employees abide by the same sales policies? Answering these questions can improve your business and your ongoing relationship with clients. Look For More Opportunities Don’t build relationships with just one person within a company. Get to know other people within the office and identify his or her needs. Make an effort to understand the company culture, goals, and mission. You never know; someone else in the company could come to you for a product, or someone could move on to another company and tell them about your exceptional service. Keeping your options open and eyes peeled allows you to identify opportunities in the future. Plus, it’s easier to maintain a relationship with your client if his or her coworkers like you, too.   Sources: http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickhull/2013/12/06/tools-for-entrepreneurs-to-retain-clients/ http://www.inc.com/adam-heitzman/5-strategies-guaranteed-to-improve-client-retention.html http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217513