In Focus-I & R Excellence

1. In Focus-I & R Excellence Quality, Training, & Coaching-Best Practices for I & R Contact Centers Amy Latzer Chief Operations Officer Alliance of Information & Referral Systems 32nd Annual Conference 211 LA County

2. Goals of theWorkshop • Establish best practices appropriatefor your organization • QA, Training, Coaching Program Development • Evaluation form development & result analysis • Identify coaching styles, techniques, & practice • Overcoming coaching challenges • Integration of QA results to coaching & training opportunities • Measuring effectiveness of your program • Documentation 211 LA County

3. Tools for Quality Monitoring • Silent monitoring of live calls • Side by side monitoring • Call recording • Caller survey • 3rdparty partner monitoring • Peer to peer monitoring • Self evaluation 211 LA County

4. What is Quality Assurance? Call Quality Assurance is a practice by which you, the agency, can ensure that your callers are receiving the best possible service. Generally performed by a standalone team (ideally, not reporting into the call center line management), QA consists of a few key steps. 211 LA County

5. Quality Assurance Best Practices • Definition of an ideal call • Produce a scoring form that breaks these definitions into discrete, measurable observations • Call calibration • Use QA results as a coaching tool • Tie QA to overall performance expectations 211 LA County

6. Gaining Staff Buy-In • When do you start? • If you are thinking of a quality monitoring plan or have already started developing one, you should start gaining buy-in NOW! The success of your plan hinges on staff buy-in. 211 LA County

7. Suggestions for gaining staff buy-in • Form a QA planning committee • Include front-line and resource staff in calibration sessions • Share information about the program and the positive outcomes • Coaching, coaching, coaching! • Provide a scoring manual to define each measurable item • Be flexible and willing to take suggestions and make changes 211 LA County

8. What are we listening for? • What is important to the organization? • What is important to the caller? • What is important to the funder/contract? • What is important to the call specialist? • AIRS standards 211 LA County

9. Form Development • Each item scored should be separate and distinct. • Separate form into skill based categories. • Meet the needs/requirements for contract compliance, AIRS standards, and organization goals. Now that I have a form, how do I use it? 211 LA County

10. Quality Guide and Calibration • Utilizing a guide that is the compliment to the form provides guidance to QA for consistency and provides insight to staff being evaluated. • Calibration sessions are critical for fair consistent scoring. 211 LA County

11. QA Guide Sample 211 LA County

12. Internal and External Quality Perspective • Internal Perspective • Best practices • Contract compliance • AIRS standards • External/Caller Perspective • Outcome according to the caller • Immediate response on experience of call • Follow up response-effective referrals 211 LA County

13. Scoring Methodologies • 0-100 or start at 100? • Yes, No, N/A • Points • Weighting • Meets, Partially Meets, Fails to Meet • Scale • Blending methodologies 211 LA County

14. Data…Data…Data Now you have all this data, how do you use it to improve service delivery, create funding opportunities, build consistency, and support staff development? Deliver the results! Coach, train, and share the outcomes. 211 LA County

15. How can QA help exceed the callers expectations? • Identify service gaps • Identify training needs • Notice and report trends • Define and refine protocols • Contribute to creating a consistent environment 211 LA County

16. How QA can help with funding opportunities… • Provide trend information based on call monitoring for new programs • Recorded success stories reinforces the value of your agency • Accessibility of information 211 LA County

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18. What effect does training, especially ongoing training, have on agent performance? Training 211 LA County

19. Types of Training • Skill based • Knowledge based • In-house • External • Hands on • eLearning • Refresher • Any combination of the above 211 LA County

20. What is Coaching? A process that enables learning and development to occur and thus performance to improve. The facilitation of the exploration of needs, motivators, desires, skills, and thought processes to assist the individual or group in making real lasting changes. 211 LA County

21. Why Coach? • Improved work performance • Improved job satisfaction • Consistency in the organization • Produces measurable results in relation to the set goal(s) in a specified time frame. • Protects investments in staff 211 LA County

22. Coaching Style Matrix 211 LA County

23. Matrix Styles • Supervising • The coach clearly defines the roles & tasks & supervises their execution. Decisions are made by the coach & communication is unidirectional. • Coaching • The coach still determines the tasks and roles but also asks the coached person for suggestions. Decisions are made by the coach but communications are dialogue based. 211 LA County

24. Matrix Styles Continued • Support • The coached person accepts the decisions and executes them. The coach facilitates decision-making but is no longer in the driver’s seat. • Delegating • The coach is still involved in problem-solving, but the coached person is in the driver’s seat. The coached person decides when and how the coach is involved. 211 LA County

25. The skill-will balance of a person is not a constant given; it evolves as time goes by. Nevertheless, it is a good guideline for estimating your timekeeping as a coach, especially when you are coaching an entire team. For instance, you can map every individual of your team on this matrix and balance your time-keeping as a coach accordingly. Remember to Adjust and Re-Adjust-Things do not stay the same! 211 LA County

26. Effective Coaching Techniques • Identify the issue or area of improvement • Establish the goal • Examine the current reality • Explore the options • Establish the will 211 LA County

27. Tips for Coaching Success • Know your own role • Practice by coaching yourself • Ask great questions • Listen well • Document results • Follow up and follow through 211 LA County

28. Key Question “How can I help support you to be successful and achieve your goals?” 211 LA County

29. Overcoming Coaching Challenges • Try a different technique or style • Ask the person how you can best help them • Perhaps see if someone else is a better coach for them • Spend the time it takes to know someone-gains trust and confidence • Lead by example 211 LA County

30. Documentation Is it really necessary to document coaching? YES! 211 LA County

31. Best Practices • Know the person you are coaching • Fully understand the problem • Set a goal that is Specific-Measurable-Realistic • Ask open-ended questions • Allow the person to offer the solutions and provide guidance • Partner • Follow up • Document, document, document 211 LA County

32. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IF YOU LET IT! -Mary Poppins- Take action now! Quality, training, and coaching can’t take a back seat any longer. 211 LA County

33. Questions 211 LA County

34. Contact Information Amy Latzer Chief Operations Officer 626-299-2979 alatzer@211la.org 211 LA County