quality: Working on quality: WORKING ON 5 International Complaints centralized Inhouse training dient focus ISSUE 34/17 OCTOBER 1994 and the agents of change will be trained in how to handle the results and how to take action on them. The first stage is always diagnosis,' Keizer continues, 'then you look at what you can improve and how, so you take action at department level. Staff will be informed of the results very soon - it may even have happened before this appears.' The current system of registering complaints is under examination and a new cliënt.' The concept behind the new structure which has emerg- ed from the 'Looking at cost' project means CBS has a real jumping off point for the quali ty drive. 'The task force came up with 31 projects that it believes will promote and stimulate quality service by giving people real objectives to focus on,' Plas man explains. 'Right now, the name of the game is to do the common uncommonly well, and we hope the 31 projects will achieve that by making sure we can compete on every level. They will put in place systems and help change the mentality of our people throughout the organiz- ation so that we are all continu- ally concerned with quality and involve quality in everything we do.' The 31 projects are each headed by a Rabobanker with real expertise in the specific area they are designed to improve. These people are known as agents of change because they are respon- sible for developing the projects. When it is completed, they pass it on to the quality managers - Henk Gentis and Wouter Kolff - who monitor progress on behalf of the management committee. Implementation is down to the agents of change who will also re port back to staff on progress. 'We've started a newsletter to keep our Holland-based people abreast of what is going on,' says Kolff. 'Information has to flow, we have to get rid of the director- ate mentality here in Utrecht where we see too many vertical lines and replace that thinking with more horizontal lines. We want to come across to clients as a bank that has partnership in its soul, but that also applies for our own staff, too. We're all each other's partners. So, everyone has to know what is going on and this is why we're developing tools to keep people informed at all times.' Even before the kick-off, the other projects had already been defined and some had been launched. 'But there is more now,' Kolff continues. 'We were able to present some of the re sults of the employee satisfaction survey at the meeting, but all the data weren't complete then. We now have the full results. These have been analyzed and broken down. They have certainly given us real food for thought. While the 31 projects are concrete mat- ters that can be tackled through work-groups, the critical obser- vations that have come out of the survey need serious consider- ation and action. We have learnt a lot from those results and are already working on getting a better rating next time.' According to Kolff, the manage ment committee will be re- sponding in the very near future. 'That is where we stand at the moment,' he says, 'and we will continue to report on the progress of the 31 projects and on what we hope will be the right way of tackling the observations made by staff in the survey. It is imperative we maintain the mo- mentum. That is what people expect, and rightly so. Hopeful- ly, we will come up with the right answers to improve staff satis faction and get the whole CBS operation more focused on the needs of our customers.' structure will be introduced in the near future. 'At present,' says Prevoo, 'we only register operations-related complaints. That will change because we are setting up a system which will cover the whole of the CBS - every department. All complaints will come into a central register so that we can see where things are going wrong, or where there is a bottleneck, so we can put it right.' 'This is essentially a very simple project',' says Keizer, 'but it is small details that make all the difference. It is designed to change our mindset and behaviour towards clients in our day-to- day contact with them.' The inhouse training course is very practical and will look at methods of improving the way clients are handled, for example, on the telephone.

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blad 'Raboband International' (EN) | 1994 | | pagina 5