Systems Thinking underpins Culture Change and benefits Benefits Customers
Graeme Ratten spends a day with Dawn Kelly, Benefits Manager at Rushmoor Borough Council
Customers of the benefits service at Rushmoor are receive some of the fastest most accurate performance in the country.
In 2003, Rushmoor took an average of 81 days to process new claims, and 17 days process a change in circumstances.
The average new claims processing time is now 6 days, and change in circs is 3 days. Not only that, many new claims are processed in 45 minutes on the spot when new claimants walk into the department.
How has it been done?
In 2003, external help was sought to review the processes and challenge the thinking. This lead to an assessment of what was important to the customer, and the whole purpose of the department. Although it sounds negative, the department started to track when they moved a claim forward ‘VALUE’ or could not through missing data ‘FAILURE’.
This VALUE/FAILURE ratio helped to explain why processing took so long, and informed decisions on what to change. In 2003 the ratio for new claims was VALUE 10% FAILURE 90% which of course meant that assessors had to keep going back to customers for more information and then wait for the response (often over and over again).
Extending the VALUE/FAILURE ratio to cover all new claims, change of circs and telephone enquiries gave a ratio of VALUE 27% FAILURE 73%. As well as changes to the new claims process, a major programme was undertaken to educate the customers.
By 2004 impressive results had been achieved: new claims processing dropped to an average of 18 days, with change of circs at 5 days. The overall VALUE/FAILURE ratio had moved to 42%/58% clearly illustrating how the benefits assessors were able to process claims first time, and take a huge amount of days out of the process.
The other payoff was a big reduction in calls in from claimants questioning the progress of their claim.
The next key change
In 2007 the Customer Service front end changed from the ‘one stop shop’ approach to putting benefits assessors on the front desk – the first point of contact for benefits customers. This was underpinned with the culture of giving the customer what they want, and to eliminate steps in the process which were not VALUE, but FAILURE.
A fresh initiative followed in late 2008, with further process and structural changes in the department, again underpinned by the philosophy of putting the individual customer’s needs at the heart of the operation. Management roles and responsibilities have changed, with one manager taking care of ‘Today’, and another responsible for ‘Tomorrow’.
Processing times now stand at 6 days for a new claim, and 3 days for change of circs, and the overall VALUE/FAILURE indicator stands at 81%/19%.
Walk-in claimants often get their claim processed on the spot in 45 minutes, and overall 60% of new claims have all of the data necessary to enable assessors to process them first time.
Throughout the changes of the recent years, processing accuracy has been maintained at 92% – and that is despite (!) processing claims in front of the customers with the consequential pressure on the assessor.
The assessors have more autonomy, make their decisions in ‘real time’, and can make better quality decisions because they can question the claimant directly. As well as being able to explain their decisions to the claimants verbally, resulting in reduced queries and challenges down the line.
Big Efficiency Improvement, any cost savings?
Yes. The changes have created extra capacity, and Rushmoor have looked at this from 2 angles, what could they ‘cash’ and what should they invest. To date they have cashed around £50k, and invested the equivalent of double that figure in adding quality into the process, and getting on with the work that previously they were unable to get to. Investing time in some of these areas has lead to the performance improvements, and to will also bear fruit in the future – enabling Rushmoor to have more options to ‘cash’ or ‘invest’ in the future.
