FY 03 ORS Performance Management Provide Administrative Support

FY 03 ORS Performance Management Provide Administrative Support (1) Team Members: Dinah Huffer, Debra Levick, Marcia Potts January 9, 2004 1

Overview • PMP Template • • • Customer Perspective: Critical Measures • • # of Administrative employees Financial Perspective: Critical Measures • • Types of Service Requests by Department Types of Service Requests by Method Travel Orders & Time and Attendance Learning and Growth: Critical Measures • • Customer Survey of Administrative Services Internal Business Process Perspective: Critical Measures • • Value proposition and strategy Performance objectives and measures Unit costs of discrete services Conclusions and Actions 2

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Performance Plan for FY 04 - 05 4

Performance Objectives – Strategy Mapping 5

Strategy Mapping Conclusions We identified a major outcome (strategic objective) that needed to be addressed – IB 1. Improve Exception Processing • Strategy Map Analysis: • We can achieve our customer goal (C 1. ) Increased satisfaction if we focus on meeting (IB 2. ) Right the first time, every time, be consistent. Reaching this goal will depend on our achieving (L 3. ) Make our knowledge and expertise more available. Meeting our (IB 2. ) goal will help us meet (IB 4. ) Improve exception processing which translates into lower unit costs (F 1. ) Minimize unit costs. 6

Customer Perspective Critical Measure: Customer Survey 7

Customer Survey of Administrative Services • Customized ORS Customer Scorecard to measure the Quality attributes of Administrative Services • Effective Explanation of Policies/Procedures • Consistency • Usefulness of Information • Responsiveness of AO’s • Competence of AO’s • Handling of problems by AO’s 8

Survey Distribution FY 04 Administration Number of surveys distributed Number of respondents 1, 622* 422 293 ORS, 99 ORF, 30 skipped question Response rate 26% 160 respondents made comments (38%) on the survey *Note: Number distributed based on count of emails in the ORS and ORS global email list as of November 2003 and also includes 100 hard copy surveys given to individuals without email access. 405 respondents answered via the web, 17 via hard copy. 9

Who are you? N =391 10

What is your organization? N = 392 11

Do you know who is your primary AO? N = 393 12

How often have you consulted with any AO? N = 392 13

Which of the following services have you used during FY 03? N = 392 Note: Multiple responses allowed. 14

FY 03 Satisfaction with ORS Administrative Services by Organization N = 99 N = 293 Unsatisfactory Statistically significant difference (p <. 05) Outstanding 15

FY 03 Satisfaction with ORS Administrative Services Compared to ORS Overall N = 340 N = 5, 698 Unsatisfactory Note: Comparisons made to ORS overall where possible. The number of respondents varied for each question so an average N was calculated. Outstanding 16

Explanation of Policies/Procedures Satisfaction Rating Frequency by Rating N = 338 Mean = 6. 86 Median =7. 0 Note: Graph shows the distribution of responses by ratings selected. 17

Usefulness of Information Provided Satisfaction Rating Frequency by Rating N = 345 Mean = 7. 0 Median = 8. 0 Note: Graph shows the distribution of responses by ratings selected. 18

Consistency of Guidance Given Satisfaction Rating Frequency by Rating N = 341 Mean = 6. 9 Median = 7. 0 Note: Graph shows the distribution of responses by ratings selected. 19

Competence of AO(s) Satisfaction Rating Frequency by Rating N = 338 Mean = 7. 4 Median = 8. 0 Note: Graph shows the distribution of responses by ratings selected. 20

Handling of Problems Satisfaction Rating Frequency by Rating N = 336 Mean = 7. 3 Median = 8. 0 Note: Graph shows the distribution of responses by ratings selected. 21

What did the customer data tell us? What actions do we plan to take? Pointed out areas where we need to address better delivery of AO services (eg ORF vs ORS) Demonstrated the relation between knowing policy and procedures and being consistent in answers and guidance Feedback will be input for new branch chief to make recommendations: - more hands on training of AO’s on specific systems questions - more lessons learned – exchange of information sessions 22

Internal Business Processes Perspective Critical Measures 23

Total = 4, 500 action queries per year * Total 1, 183 action Queries. Annual Extrapolation = 4, 500 action queries Actual Data from Recording all Actions One week in each month for 12 months 24

E-mail contact is involved in over 40% of the 4, 500 annual action queries 25

Total = 482 26

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What did the internal business process data tell us? What actions do we plan to take? Most important responsibility of the AO is to be knowledgeable of rules and regulations – government wide and NIH wide Most queries (40%) come via email – this is a more effective method than phone calls, visits and other. Need more FAQ’s on all systems, policies and procedures that touch most people – need to be web based with easy searching capability More hands on training for AO’s in current systems More exchange of information among AO’s – have more meetings where lessons learned are shared 29

Learning and Growth Perspective Critical Measures 30

Administrative Employees – Chart of FTE 2002/2003/2004 31

What did the L & G data tell us? What actions do we plan to take? The community thinks the AO staff is competent and knowledgeable. We need to have more consistent service delivery to all groups served. We need to do several things: see under Internal Business and Customer 32

Objective F 1. Minimize unit costs Measure: F 1. 1 Unit costs comparison Yr to Yr 33

Financial Perspective Critical Measures 34

Objective F 2. Achieve cost saving from reduced rework and reprocessing Measure: F 2. 2 Payroll correction items Total = 108 35

What did the Financial data tell us? What actions do we plan to take? Financial costs on a unit basis even hourly seem to provide little management guidance. Customer Service ratings seem to be the more informative measure. 36

Conclusions from PMP • • More important to be right the first time and be consistent in our answers Our responsiveness is more effective using email over the other means of communication Customer satisfaction seems to be most important measure of our service delivery Key Initiatives • To be determined after the admin group reorganization is complete and fully functional. 37

Appendices 38

Appendix 1 Accountable Property Items 39

What needs to be improved? (cont. ) Communication • • Better and earlier communication regarding early release the day before a holiday (11/26) Communication It would be nice to have occasional meetings or at least direct communication with our particular AOs (for those of us who've not gotten to know them too well). More importantly, I don't think this "AO pool" idea is going to improve anything, and it will preclude getting to know at least one AO and his/her function. What type of administrative support does ORS provide? Perhaps ORS communication and visibility to staff needs to be improved. Maybe a better selling of your vision. As an employee service org. a list of what services are available to us. Communication between the offices. Even though I know who my AO is now, it took awhile to know that info. Provide a list of AOs and their areas of responsibility. That way we know who to contact for what. Management needs to allow the AO's to keep the lines of communication open with the rest of the branch. 40

What needs to be improved? (cont. ) Communication (cont. ) • • Global notification of changes of employee locations Provide an updated list of staff To become more open with pertinent information when specific job related More sharing of information amongst AOs/AO Techs Explain what their functions are ? Monthly meetings just for informational purpose Information sharing/communications Would be helpful if there were scheduled meetings between Admin. staff and ORF staff who do misc. general admin. duties to ensure requirements are being handled correctly. 41

What needs to be improved? Competence • • • All Administrative staff seem not to have the same level of training The competence of AOs varies dramatically - many are not qualified to do their jobs. Train all AOs on policies and procedures or get rid of them. Took 4 times to get the number of dependents on state income tax withholdings corrected I feel the AO who handles my area needs training in alot of the services they provide. I get the impression that she is not confident in her position and has not been trained properly to handle the services or the questions that has been put before her. She is not friendly in her approach and I feel I am bothering her when ever I need to interact with her on admin issues. She is incompetent in that position. It has gotten to the point were my admin would be the last person I contact for help. Get people who know what they are doing Someone with intelligence to know what to do 42

What needs to be improved? Competence (cont. ) • • • At least hire employees who have knowledge. Be able to work with people. Treat people with some kind of respect. Be flexible in cases of emergencies. Have some kind of compassion when an employee is stricken was a very serious disease. I believe they can improve on the training of new employees Overall services Everything Knowledge of administrative issues 43

What needs to be improved? Customer Service Skills • • • Attitudes of AOs Provide better customer service Customer service skills need improved. Need to be more customer oriented. Needs to be more personable My AO typically acts annoyed when I call her, and she answers my questions in a condescending tone. ITAS problems involving transfer of leave under VLTP are not resolved in a timely manner. Identify the administrative support people for each area. Customer service training for the AO, incl. their assistants. Job function training across the board so info disseminated is consistent. Change of leadership and the Administrative support, including the telephone support. The telephone support of the department has been very bad. Some researchers have gone to OEM to get equipment repaired, due to the rudeness of the person answering the phone. Having patience with staff. 44

What needs to be improved? Follow-up • • • Better follow through and regular status updates of task provided would be helpful Contact information needs to be more accessible. Follow-up on issues is spotty. It would be very helpful if when reimbursed for travel we could be told the date and amount when reimbursements will go into personal accounts. Communication/follow up needs improvement. AO's should be more proactive in identifying/alerting staff on issues & then proposing possible solutions Sometimes, if the need is out of the ordinary, the AO simply begs out of the problem, without follow-up. 45

What needs to be improved? Consistency • • • One concern I have is consistency of advice/guidance given by all AOs across ORS. It seems that sometimes different answers are given to the same question. More consistency in the information provided by different AOs Provide consistent information regarding specific systems and employee issues Uniform standard of service. Collective training of AO's on a recurring basis For all AOs to provide consistent information 46

What needs to be improved? Support • • • AO's in IC's do a lot. Our AOs don't seem to do much for us At the ASU in bldg 10 we don't hear anything through the AO's office; she may not know that she serves us Increase support in ORF side - we still have no help getting access to services (ADB, credit card resolution) 47

What needs to be improved? Training • • • More guidance on what type of training is accessible I cannot get training for IT support personnel. My promotion screwed up by the AO staff. I REALLY DO NOT CARE FOR THE AO STAFF!!!! More training to explain things to the people actually doing the work. Like this morning for whatever reason I cannot access ITAS. No one knows why. 48

What needs to be improved? Procedures • • • There should be an orientation of admin procedures for new people including contractors so that we can understand the process. Where can employees read about policies and procedures? Clear explanation of policies and procedures, especially to new employees 49

What needs to be improved? Responsibilities • • • Information on policies and procedures. Expectations of service are muddy --in one regard the AO states they are the liaison between HR, Budget etc. however we can not rely on them to carry out that function. We are referred directly to HR so this becomes the practice. Not clear what the responsibilities of the AO are. The ORF AO seems to have many fewer responsibilities than AOs in other ICDs. 50

What needs to be improved? (cont. ) Others • Timekeeping and attendance to include within grade increases, shift differential pay and cola adjustments specifically handled by timekeeper • I have two issues. First, SF 50 s-I received a QSI early in FY 03 and have yet to see the SF 50. Also TSP - I was given erroneous information about the percentage allowed last year and have lost a year of contributing the maximum amount to my TSP. • Supply a functional administrative infrastructure to facilitate and support operational needs of service areas. ie: Property, ITAS, work request, personnel actions(52, s). Timely and accurate input and reporting of OFM cost and expense reports. OHRM reporting is inaccurate and misleading for GM/GS cost and expense data. • Providers of administrative services have not been clearly identified during ORS-ORF transition. Suggest issuance of a matrix or table listing administrative functions and contacts/providers for ORF and each Division thereof. • The "who's who" after the ORS re-org was severely lacking. Also, the Awards Form keeps getting replaced! Frustrating! My ITAS issues are still not resolved. AO has basically given up and has asked that I resolve it on my own w/ the ITAS people. 51

What needs to be improved? (cont. ) Others • Based on my associates interactions and mine, I believe that there needs to be more review of the performance of administrative staff and the development of a much more positive responses to administrative problem solving. • Sometimes the task is done or dismissed so quickly that the conclusion is not fully accurate. • Promotions/upgrade for administrative technicians to GS-9 • Additional help for AO. Our AO always seem to be overwhelmed with work. • Records maintenance and attention to detail. • Would like to see an Optional place on ITAS form for explanation of why leave was used. For personal use/reminder. Key request still takes too much time. • Computer support access • Budget tracking and analysis 52

What needs to be improved? (cont. ) Others • A new administration for this branch. • Micromanaging • When you ask for help it would be nice get it. • Remove red tape. Stop dishing out new regulation that are impossible to follow. Contractors want to enjoy all training granted for free to the government - direct employees as well. • I've taken to the study of the history of business, and concluded that if the mantle of "business" sits any heavier on your shoulder than you would like to see a "scientific" attitude run rampant at NIH, things have gone awry • More visible • SEND MORE PAPERWORDNONE 53

What needs to be improved? Positive comments • • • I found everything is great order and always got great support Nothing. Every thing is OK. So far, all my dealings with the admin. support have been positive. I am satisfied I wouldn't change anything, it works well Nothing I can think of at the moment Nothing at this time I think they're doing a great job. Nothing 54

Conclusions • While the majority of the respondents know who is their primary AO, 14% do not know • About one-third of respondents consult with an AO at least monthly • • Yet about two-thirds have little interaction with their AO The top three most frequently used AO services were: • ORS: ITAS, In-house work requests, travel • ORF: ITAS, In-house work requests, processing ID/BLDG requests and processing training requests • ORF respondents had lower satisfaction ratings on almost all variables compared to ORS • Satisfaction with AOs on competence and handling of problems was lower than the ORS overall rating 55

Conclusions (cont. ) • Comments • It is evident that many of the respondents appear to be angry and frustrated on the topic of AO services • Many people wrote negative responses to the question “What was done particularly well? ” • Comments provide ideas on how to improve service delivery • There were differences by organization in who made positive and negative comments • More ORS respondent made positive comments, and more ORF respondents made negative comments • Positive comments were made with the most frequent topics being timeliness, competence/knowledge, guidance, and helpful staff • Comments were made for areas for improvement with the most frequent topics being timeliness, communication, customer service skills, and follow-up 56