Service excellence in action

The collaborative effort of several ACU business areas has significantly reduced the turnaround time for issuing new staff cards, improving the staff experience for new starters.

Previously there was an average turnaround of four and a half weeks before new staff could receive an access card. Card requests also weren’t initiated until after the new staff member had started at ACU.  The new process introduced on 1 July has meant that 90 per cent of access cards are ready for collection within a new starter’s first week of employment.

The new process has been streamlined so that new staff members apply for their access card when they accept their offer of employment with ACU. This has freed up supervisors from having to initiate card requests and has reduced the number of approvals and service areas required in the process.

“It’s clear that this service improvement has had a positive impact for many staff across the University,” National Manager, Service Improvement Team, Bill McKendry said.

“For example, under the previous process, Service Central had received almost 1,000 service requests relating to staff access cards in the first quarter of 2019,” he said.

“There was a lot of unnecessary complexity involved in the old process, and it was not communicated well, which lead to frustration for some staff.  The new process significantly reduces the amount of effort required to create a new card and commences before the new staff member arrives at ACU – not after.”

Under the simplified process, a new staff member sends a brief email and photo to initiate an access card request as part of their offer notification by HR.  Nothing more is required of them until it’s time to collect the card.

How collaboration supported service excellence

Earlier this year, the Service Improvement Team (SIT) convened a working group with representatives from Properties & Facilities, HR, IT, AskACU, Service Central to apply the LEAN methodology to understand the problem, map the existing process, design a new process and draft an implementation plan.

Associate Director, Facilities Management, Jye West, said the improvements achieved are a testament to collaborative LEAN thinking.

“Now we see that 65 per cent of access cards are ready for collection on or before the staff member’s first day of employment - and most within the first week on the job,” Jye said.

Want to improve a process or service you’re involved in?

To learn more about LEAN methodology or the work of the Service Improvement Team visit the Service Central knowledge base.