An outside facilitator can help you to run processes much quicker. They can also warn agency principals of possible errors and omissions exposures. In this document, Grace Bauer tells you how to work effectively with a facilitator.
Over the past month, I've begun overseeing weekly agency procedural review meetings as a facilitator. Agency principals had been telling me that their office managers were just too busy to prepare and oversee these meetings. They wanted to save management time and see if I could oversee everything.
GET IT DONE NOW
What a difference. What used to be a six-month or one-year project of developing procedures now takes three to four months. Organizing the process eliminates delays and keeps things on track. Involving an outside person helps things get done now. Agencies, like most people, tend to delay meetings and assignments when staff comes to them with problems: “Let's just cancel this week and plan for next week.” Believe me, canceling one week's meetings makes it all too easy to cancel lots of others — and that's exactly what happens. Consider outside help today on a project if you just know it might not get done.
KEEP PRINCIPALS INFORMED
If you need to take a good look at every procedure inside you agency, consider outside help today. Do not leave it to office management or another individual to conquer this task. After my experience, I doubt that the review would be performed efficiently.
During a recent agency staff meeting we were discussing faxes. Employees were using three ways to fax: A manual fax machine, an independent fax software system, and the agency management system. Employees didn't understand the importance of E&O and consistency. When faxing a document, no single person was consistently placing the note or activity in the system. Of course, faxing through the automation system would prompt the employee to place the activity in the system. On the other hand, running the fax through the independent faxing software or on the fax machine would not give the staff the ability to process the note or activity automatically; it would have to be a separate process that everyone would have to remember.
This incident made me realize the importance of having an outside specialist look at the agency. Management thought that the faxing process was working. That's true — but was it efficient and was the note always being entered into the system? The best way to fax is through the automation system, which prompts the employee to add the note, protecting the agency from E&O.
It never ends. There are about 90 procedural areas in accounting, Commercial Lines, Personal Lines, and Life/Health/Employee Benefits; each of which involves four or five E&O issues and recommendations. That's pretty impressive.
Also, be aware that some managers can be a little apprehensive when bringing serious problems to the agency principal. Find out what's really going on.
SMOOTH OUT MEETINGS
Should the office manager or an outside person oversee meetings? Ask yourself if the manager really has the time to take on this task. Do they have the ability to move things along and not get hung up? An efficient and comprehensive review of procedures can take up to five months. Reviewing procedures with the staff can be very stressful. Everyone has a different personality and different opinion. Believe me, it's no fun when there are two or three opinions and the conversation keeps going, and going, and going. When do you say, “Enough!”? Also, is the office manager able to identify a possible E&O issue or concern in how a task is being performed and to implement a change if needed? You need to answer these questions before having the office manager or a designated individual oversee meetings.
On the other hand, an outside person is an individual no one knows. Believe it or not, this is far better. Employees tend to believe and listen to someone outside. Although outside people don't know what's going on inside the agency, they really don't need to know. The employees are the experts who provide the information on how things are being done. The outside expert can then evaluate and compare these procedures against those of other agencies and recommend changes. Meetings tend to run far more smoothly.
If you've never thought of using an outside source to complete or oversee a project such as a review of procedures, consider it today. Stay organized. Keep on track.
CONCLUSION
Using outside help can help agency principals become much better managers and improve their awareness of possible E&O exposures. Also, management employees might be apprehensive about voicing serious concerns within the office to agency principals. Finally, outsiders can run meetings far more smoothly; because they're not known to anyone, employees tend to listen to and follow them.
Consider outside help today and you'll save time and increase efficiency.