Backlogged work in an agency can kill productivity and profitability. As it snowballs out of control, you might think that you’ll never get out from under. Al Diamond urges you not to ignore your backlog until it reaches crisis proportions.
During the past several years, as many agencies have trimmed staff, their backlog has grown — costing them time, money, and clients.
WHY NOT JUST LIVE WITH BACKLOGS?
Many agents choose to ignore their backlogs until they become crises. These are the 'firefighters' who are too busy battling blazes to teach fire safety. What they don’t realize is that handling fire safety issues can prevent many of the fires in the first place.
Similarly, agents have told me that they can’t afford the time to cure their backlog problems because their staffs are constantly putting out their own fires. They don’t realize that their severe and ongoing backlog issues are causing many of the crises that keep them from managing their workflows.
CATCH-22 (OR SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECIES)
You’re constantly responding to crises or agency fires, so you can’t reduce backlog. This backlog causes second, third, and fourth requests from clients and carriers, adding to the very workload that stops you from working on backlogs. This inevitably results in even greater backlogs. If the backlog includes unanswered phone calls and messages, the problem multiplies. When callers sense that their calls might not be returned, they tend to call more frequently.
THE TRIAGE PROGRAM
To help agents deal with their backlog woes, we recommend the Triage Program.
Triage originated with Korean War and Vietnam-era field hospital procedures that treated incoming patients according to the severity of their wounds. Relatively minor injuries waited, while life-threatening wounds were treated even though the minor wounds might’ve reached the hospital first.
Translating triage procedures to the agency environment requires setting priorities and managing backlog and workload.
SETTING PRIORITIES
Rate every item in your backlog as either:
- 'A' (must be done first — both urgent and important);
- 'B' (items needing attention — urgent or important); or
- 'C' (needs attention and processing, but not before 'A' and 'B' items — neither urgent nor important).
Put no more than 10% in the 'A' category. Regardless of the urgency of the backlog, only a minority of the work can be important enough to be considered first priority. We encounter many agents who claim that all of their work is 'A' priority. However, when we take the time to go through their work with them, they can identify that portion of their work that’s both urgent and important (the qualifiers of 'A' priority work).
WORKLOAD PRIORITIES
Large incoming workloads cause backlog to grow and turn into crises. Some incoming items (such as telephone calls that result in work) must be handled as they’re received. Other incoming work (i.e. mail) can be prioritized and completed in an order that avoids increasing backlog and crisis. Priorities for incoming work can be more specific than for backlogs. For instance, many agencies define new business (to be issued), audits, renewals less than 30 days away, new claims, and urgent items (such as ID cards for clients changing cars) as their typical 'A' priority workload. 'B' priorities include money endorsements (additional or return premiums). All other transactions are 'C' priorities. And yes, 'C' priorities get done, but not before 'A' and 'B.' Of course, you can assign any classification of work that you want to ‘A’, ‘B’, or ‘C’, but remember the 10% rule.
DEFINE A 'DAY’S WORK’
Setting priorities for backlog items requires counting them. Add the incoming work (phone, mail, fax, e-mail, walk-ins, etc) to the total backlog that you had at the end of the previous week. Subtract the total backlog at the end of the current week and the result is a weekly 'production' total. Divide this total by five to determine your average daily production.
TRIAGE BACKLOGS AND WORKLOADS
Once you’ve set priorities for your backlog and workload, you’re ready to triage and attack the backlog. The rules are:
- Handle all of today’s work today. If an item came in today, whether from phone or mail, complete it today. If your staff can’t process normal incoming work every day, you don’t have a backlog problem, you have a staffing problem (either not enough staff or staff who aren’t fast enough to accomplish a day’s work in a day). If you suffer an unusual influx of work in any single day, complete all 'A' and 'B' priority items before moving to Rule 2.
- Attack the oldest 'A' priorities in backlog and work forward to the most current 'A' priority.
- After eliminating all of the 'A' priority backlog, move onto the oldest 'B' priority work and complete all of these tasks before moving to ‘C’ priority backlog.
- Manage the staff to complete at least one day’s worth of aged backlog every day. Use the average daily production divided into the total backlog (or just the number of 'A' priority or 'B' priority items) to determine the number of days of backlog that you have to attack.
- By eliminating at least one day’s worth of total backlog (or at least 'A' and 'B' priority backlog) you can quickly determine how many days it will take to eliminate your entire backlog (or, at least, all of your critical backlog).
Some of our clients attack their entire backlog chronologically (processing first “A,” then “B,” then “C” priority work of the oldest dates before moving to the next oldest date). Others concentrate on the aging of “A” and “B” backlog. Still others eliminate backlog beginning with all “As,” followed by all “Bs,” and all “Cs.”
CONCLUSION
Regardless of how you do it, constructing and managing a disciplined backlog reduction program will save you time, money, and clients in the long run.