Performance Gap
Desired performance: One consistent communication method to use between employees of Madison Union Operations. This method will be cohesive, understood by all employees, and effective in creating more reliable communication.
Actual performance: Currently, Madison Union Operations employees use 5+ different ways to communicate with each other. It is good to have variety, however, having this many methods has proven to be confusing and inconsistent for the employees, who do not use all the methods or even know how to use all of them.
Performance Intervention
We recommend eliminating all unused forms of communication (Facebook page, DropBox, SharePoint, GroupMe, etc.), because these have proven to be ineffective based on the data gathered through interviews, surveys, observation, fishbone analysis, and five whys analysis. We have observed that all of the forms of electronic communication that Madison Union Operations has tried to instill have failed; therefore it is crucial to create a new system that does not rely on technology, but still enables effective communication and documentation. The proposed intervention is explained below.
Shift Exchange
If an employee is not on the opening shift, he/she should arrive fifteen minutes early to encounter a shift exchange. This is a face-to-face method of communication to effectively exchange information about what happened in the previous shift and the tasks that still need to be completed for the next shift. This allows for verbal communication and a clear form of exchange, because if anyone had questions he/she would get answers right away without having confusion for an entire shift. This is a good habit to get into, especially if there was a new task implemented or an issue that calls for further instruction and training.
Notebook Documentation
Through much observation and data collecting, it appears that electronic form of communication is ineffective for Madison Union Operations. We recommend that the employees take it back to the basics by writing down tasks and information using a notebook and pen. At the end of each shift, each individual employee will write down exactly what happened during his or her shift and tasks that still need to be completed. This is a written form of documentation and evidence to make sure everything was heard and said during the face-to-face encounter. We have pre-printed a form that will be the most effective way of utilizing a notebook documentation form of communication (see page 52). By implementing relevant headings and titles, it will provide organization and create a simple process that all employees will know how to use.
Team Meetings
In order to help the communication between the day and night employees and the operations assistants and the managers, we are encouraging the whole staff to get together for a bi-weekly meeting. In these meetings, the day and night employees will report on what they have been doing in their shifts and talk about the communication between them. Then the managers should report their duties and talk about any issues they are having, if any. These team meeting are a way to increase effective and beneficial communication.
Management Involvement
In order for the implemented methods to be successful, there is one key factor that also needs intervening. We have observed that management has not been enforcing communication in an effective way. Data that that exemplifies this is the fact that 64.7% of Operations Assistants and 75% of Building Managers feel “extremely comfortable” in their work environment. Although this can be seen as a good statistic, it also proves that employees may be too relaxed, which could be a reason that they don’t use the implemented communication methods in the way they were told. A second matter that management needs to become aware of is that emailing employees with chaotic emails is not effective. If training of the new communication methods is adequate, the use of these disordered emails will not be necessary.
Training
In the first team meeting, management should focus on training of the new communication system.
Currently training takes place over one to two days at the beginning of each semester to refresh the former employees and to train the new ones that are coming in. At these trainings there is a lot of focus on how to do everything that could be learned in this position. However, there isn’t a lot of information about what to do when you do not know how to do something, such as who to ask and how to get the information you are looking for. In training management should put more focus on effective communication instead of “team bonding” activities so as to strengthen the effectiveness as the team as a whole.
It would be ideal for each of the employees to go through the new form of communication as it is being explained instead of management simply lecturing about it and not giving a hands on experience with it. This would take place during the biweekly meetings when there is a time to fully explain it and allow employees to practice using it.
In this training there should be feedback from the employees to understand where there might be pitfalls with the new form of communication.
In addition, during the weekly team meetings that will also be implemented, there will be designated time for discussing employee training, and problems that employees are having on the job, and explanations and additional training as necessary.
Dealing with Employee Resistance
Many employees have been working at the Madison Union Operations Desk for a while. Because of this, the employees are going to be resistant to change. There are already many forms of communication that the employees are supposed to utilize, so telling them that they need to use another will be difficult. The managers will need to fully explain why implementing this new communication method is beneficial and that it is necessary to use in order for the operations to run more smoothly. We recommend that management begin enforcing it and being less relaxed with the employees so that they know that this form of communication needs to be taken seriously. We believe that using this notebook will cause much less confusion between the day and night employees.
Desired performance: One consistent communication method to use between employees of Madison Union Operations. This method will be cohesive, understood by all employees, and effective in creating more reliable communication.
Actual performance: Currently, Madison Union Operations employees use 5+ different ways to communicate with each other. It is good to have variety, however, having this many methods has proven to be confusing and inconsistent for the employees, who do not use all the methods or even know how to use all of them.
Performance Intervention
We recommend eliminating all unused forms of communication (Facebook page, DropBox, SharePoint, GroupMe, etc.), because these have proven to be ineffective based on the data gathered through interviews, surveys, observation, fishbone analysis, and five whys analysis. We have observed that all of the forms of electronic communication that Madison Union Operations has tried to instill have failed; therefore it is crucial to create a new system that does not rely on technology, but still enables effective communication and documentation. The proposed intervention is explained below.
Shift Exchange
If an employee is not on the opening shift, he/she should arrive fifteen minutes early to encounter a shift exchange. This is a face-to-face method of communication to effectively exchange information about what happened in the previous shift and the tasks that still need to be completed for the next shift. This allows for verbal communication and a clear form of exchange, because if anyone had questions he/she would get answers right away without having confusion for an entire shift. This is a good habit to get into, especially if there was a new task implemented or an issue that calls for further instruction and training.
Notebook Documentation
Through much observation and data collecting, it appears that electronic form of communication is ineffective for Madison Union Operations. We recommend that the employees take it back to the basics by writing down tasks and information using a notebook and pen. At the end of each shift, each individual employee will write down exactly what happened during his or her shift and tasks that still need to be completed. This is a written form of documentation and evidence to make sure everything was heard and said during the face-to-face encounter. We have pre-printed a form that will be the most effective way of utilizing a notebook documentation form of communication (see page 52). By implementing relevant headings and titles, it will provide organization and create a simple process that all employees will know how to use.
Team Meetings
In order to help the communication between the day and night employees and the operations assistants and the managers, we are encouraging the whole staff to get together for a bi-weekly meeting. In these meetings, the day and night employees will report on what they have been doing in their shifts and talk about the communication between them. Then the managers should report their duties and talk about any issues they are having, if any. These team meeting are a way to increase effective and beneficial communication.
Management Involvement
In order for the implemented methods to be successful, there is one key factor that also needs intervening. We have observed that management has not been enforcing communication in an effective way. Data that that exemplifies this is the fact that 64.7% of Operations Assistants and 75% of Building Managers feel “extremely comfortable” in their work environment. Although this can be seen as a good statistic, it also proves that employees may be too relaxed, which could be a reason that they don’t use the implemented communication methods in the way they were told. A second matter that management needs to become aware of is that emailing employees with chaotic emails is not effective. If training of the new communication methods is adequate, the use of these disordered emails will not be necessary.
Training
In the first team meeting, management should focus on training of the new communication system.
Currently training takes place over one to two days at the beginning of each semester to refresh the former employees and to train the new ones that are coming in. At these trainings there is a lot of focus on how to do everything that could be learned in this position. However, there isn’t a lot of information about what to do when you do not know how to do something, such as who to ask and how to get the information you are looking for. In training management should put more focus on effective communication instead of “team bonding” activities so as to strengthen the effectiveness as the team as a whole.
It would be ideal for each of the employees to go through the new form of communication as it is being explained instead of management simply lecturing about it and not giving a hands on experience with it. This would take place during the biweekly meetings when there is a time to fully explain it and allow employees to practice using it.
In this training there should be feedback from the employees to understand where there might be pitfalls with the new form of communication.
In addition, during the weekly team meetings that will also be implemented, there will be designated time for discussing employee training, and problems that employees are having on the job, and explanations and additional training as necessary.
Dealing with Employee Resistance
Many employees have been working at the Madison Union Operations Desk for a while. Because of this, the employees are going to be resistant to change. There are already many forms of communication that the employees are supposed to utilize, so telling them that they need to use another will be difficult. The managers will need to fully explain why implementing this new communication method is beneficial and that it is necessary to use in order for the operations to run more smoothly. We recommend that management begin enforcing it and being less relaxed with the employees so that they know that this form of communication needs to be taken seriously. We believe that using this notebook will cause much less confusion between the day and night employees.