A thought for January 2010 - Are you creating the right impression?

Here's an activity to try out whilst the snow seems set to keep us all at home.

There’s nothing more satisfying when you come to think about how you’re progressing with your TQS development journey than to be able to set out in front of you your systems and processes for managing your work with employers.

I say “set out in front of you” because it’s a good idea if you organise your development journey so that you’re able to do this.

You will be better able to be clear about what you do and how you do it, if you use a visual approach.

What does your employer engagement system look like?

Some people use process maps – and there is software around to help you to do this. Some people use flow charts. Some people use a range of colourful and fancy methods. It’s not important which approach you use. What is important is that you think about what needs to be done to manage your relationships with employers. Then set out the processes you use to do the job.

When we help people with this task in our workshops, we start with the employer’s journey.

We look at the various stages of an employer’s involvement with a provider.

These include:

1. the time before the employer works with the provider organisation
2. the contracting stage
3. the time when the employer is working with the provider organisation
4. the time when the first piece of work/contract finishes.

We then look at what the provider organisation needs to do to support the employer at each stage of that journey.

This is the time to draw up a list of the processes you use.

For example, in the time before you begin working with an employer, you will need a process for managing enquiries, a process for deciding how and when to refer an enquirer on, a process for checking that the employer doesn’t get lost in the voicemail limbo, a process for undertaking organisational needs analyses, and process for getting proposals completed . . . and so on.

We provide a list and help people to decide what they need. Of course, we also have some sample processes, which people find helpful.

All of this means the value of mapping management processes is established quickly in the workshop. People draw their flow charts or their process maps. These then become the documents used throughout their organisation.

As a result of adopting this approach they make rapid progress with the tasks linked to consistency and standardisation.

• They have something to work with when they are training their staff.
• They have processes that they can document in more detail if they wish.
• They have an approach which is easy to communicate.

Pause for a moment then, and think just for a moment about how you start your relationship with an individual employer.

• Can you set out your process simply?
• Can you fit the overview onto a single page?

Think about the various stages and the impressions you will create with employers at each stage.

If you have difficulties take a step back and look again at the posts on:

What exactly are you trying to do to support employers?

Employer engagement basics - the summary