Organisation: Department of Human Services – PAC
Job Title: Team Manager – People Advisory Centre (PAC)
Word Limit: 400 Words per Question
Location: Brisbane
- Demonstrated experience in managing the operations of a virtual team operating in a rostered environment, including setting work priorities and managing resources and workflow.
In my current role as Acting Team Leader (APS6) with the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), I lead the operations within a rostered 24/7 service delivery environment, managing team leaders and teams to meet operational requirements, including setting work priorities and managing resources and workflow. I am also responsible for setting and managing Individual Performance Agreements (IPA), coaching, monitoring performance and providing ongoing feedback.
Daily, I manage a workload that is presented in scanned and digitised formats. Each morning I prioritise in accordance with departmental Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and ascertain which member of the team is available to complete the work before assigning accordingly. I allocate work through this process for all sites nationally. The workload in order of priority is uploaded onto the intranet page and all team members receive work orders via an automated workflow allocation system. At the end of each shift, the team leaders hand over, providing the next shift with an in-depth update on work to be completed.
Previously, in this role, I was responsible for managing over 70 employees across two sites, Brisbane and Ipswich, demonstrating my ability to manage the operations of a virtual team through the use of available technology and constant communication with team leaders and team members to drive productivity. Within this role I set work priorities, managed resources and the team’s workflow to ensure they were on track to complete all business as usual (BAU) tasks.
Targets were set for the team to ensure they reached workload capacity and I monitored their progress through the use of statistics, tracking, comparison, recording and coaching. Managing this team remotely presented challenges that required regular communication with the team to provide clear direction. Weekly, I visited the site and regularly communicated with the employees via email, telephone and Skype to ensure key messages were passed on in an effective manner.
Once a week via teleconference I would deliver team messages, ensuring the team knew the reason for any change announced and what it meant. I actively sought feedback from the team, agreeing on action plans and confirming all details by email with a set deadline. Through the regular review of all business processes, I was able to continuously guide the team to achieve set targets and ensure they were working to capacity with clear direction of what was required, resulting in increased performance and better management.
- Demonstrated experience in developing staff capability through coaching and training and managing performance, attendance and health and wellbeing.
On accepting the Acting Team Leader (APS6) role with PBS, I inherited a non-cohesive team that was not aligned with the overall goals of the Department. This complex 24/7 environment requires collaboration and each leader was managing their team and not looking at the bigger picture. My goal was to strike a balance between being assertive, direct and inspirational, to create a culture of unity.
Initially, I held a number of brainstorming sessions with the team leaders to gain input from them as to how we could improve communication; I actively listened and encouraged open communication. I conducted regular coaching sessions with the team leaders and provided them with some open and honest feedback and, to gain a better understanding of them, I utilised the Myers Briggs personality-testing tool, encouraging my leaders to be more self-aware of their strengths and weaknesses.
In addition to the team not working collaboratively, there were ongoing performance issues with the majority of the leaders which included long breaks and unplanned absences. Through individual coaching sessions I provided direct feedback and, although this was quite confronting for some, was able to gain their agreement on areas for development. Through good quality questioning techniques, I set actions to make appropriate changes and identified areas for development.
Each morning, I take all unplanned absence phone calls, which provides me with a good insight into the high level of unplanned absences within the Department. On occasion, I notice team members with recurring unplanned absences and I discuss this with their direct team leader to investigate further as to the reasons why. An example of this was recently evidenced when I identified a team member who was continually calling in sick; together with the team leader we organised a meeting with him and discussed the impact his leave was having on the business and determined what the issues were.
There were a number of issues including study commitments, health issues and ongoing back pain he believed to be caused by his workstation. We arranged for his workstation to be reviewed and provided him with a sit down, stand up desk and witnessed some initial improvements; however, unplanned absences continued. We offered him an opportunity to take a part time role within the Department as a short-term option. This resulted in an immediate improvement in his attendance, meeting the operational requirements of the department and a healthier and happier employee.
- Demonstrated ability to manage output and quality against established performance standards through quality analysis and reporting.
In my current role as Acting Team Leader (TL6) at PBS, I support the leadership group (APS5s) in managing employee performance by ensuring staff are performing against the KPIs set by the Department and achieving a high standard of quality work output. I have on many occasions guided Team Leaders through performance management processes both informal and formal.
Recently in this role, I acquired the Medicare after hours team. At the time, this team was not achieving departmental goals and the team leader assigned to the team was inexperienced. I played a large role in coaching and providing them with the guidance and skill to direct the team and enforce KPIs. We called a meeting with the entire team to discuss the KPIs and the key factors that were attributing to the issues, including mobile phone usage during business hours, lack of teamwork and excessive and longer than assigned breaks.
At the time, there were high call queues and long waiting times for customers and a backlog of work of over 17,000 jobs that could be rectified quickly, a maximum of 5 minutes for each piece of work. Through ongoing performance management and providing the team with a focus and clearly defined goals, the team was able to clear the backlog of work within one and a half weeks, resulting in improved overall performance and improved employee morale through a sense of achievement.
In the role of Acting team leader, I am constantly analysing data sent nationally about work processed and call times to gauge site performance and breaking it down by team. In respect to the after hours team, I analyse data regularly to ensure the correct number of team members are rostered on to take the number of received calls. In addition, I examine the total view on calls taken and do comparison reports where appropriate.
A large part of this role involves tracking the work received, noting when it is completed and tracking progress against Departmental objectives, this is tracked by an Excel spreadsheet and regular reports are produced for the Medicare Management team by gathering and compiling information and writing various reports about how we are tracking against performance and any overtime hours required. This requires a strong attention to detail and the accuracy of the information influences our ongoing relationship with Medicare.
- Ability to establish and manage relationships with stakeholders to build service delivery capability, increase the profile of PAC’s services and attend meetings and forums to obtain and share information.
Throughout my career I have demonstrated myself to be an active team member with a proven track record of cultivating relationships and removing obstacles to build trust and enhance productivity; achieving improved workplace communication and team relationships. As a dedicated Leader with a strong people focus, I have always made a conscious effort to build good relationships with the people around me.
Within my current role, I manage seven direct reports with management responsibility for seventy employees. I have evidenced a strong ability to establish and foster productive working relationships internally. Externally, I seek to understand the client’s organisational context, to tailor appropriate solutions. I have worked with staff and executive management and participated in meetings and forums at local and national levels, to ensure a co-ordinated approach to the delivery, ensuring stakeholder expectations are met. Building a strong working relationship with key stakeholders has led to the timely and quality achievements of change agenda items in the PBS space. Being cognisant of everyone has allowed me to better manage the demands of my role and helped to promote a comfortable and respectful environment, in which others feel free to openly communicate and share ideas.
On a weekly basis I hold an operations meeting to discuss a range of operational issues and to hold discussions around people management issues, for example shift penalty payments, leave entitlements, HR delegation, determining who is the appropriate person to speak to. If we have exhausted all online information and are unable to resolve the issue or query, I authorise the relevant line manager to call PAC and request advice or guidance and if they are unable to provide an answer they will escalate it further.
This was evidenced recently when we had a team member query their shift penalty through their Enterprise Agreement (EA) which outlined payment at 150% of normal rate and elsewhere outlined a 10% loading on top; however, I did not believe that to be the case. After in-depth investigation by the Team Leader and myself we determined the EA did not provide enough clarity around his entitlement and I authorised the Team Leader to contact PAC to seek further clarification. PAC consulted with DHS payroll and ruled that the employee was only entitled to 150% without the additional 10% loading on top, resulting in a request for the overpaid funds to be returned to the department by the employee.
- A good understanding of PAC’s services and priorities.
On the introduction of the People and Advisory Centre (PAC) into the Department of Human Services I completed in-depth research into the services and priorities of PAC. The People Support Branch uses a tiered approach aiming to provide quality, consistent, expert people advice and services across the department that meet business needs. The tiered approach ranges from self help (tier 1) to specialised teams (tier 4) made up of subject matter experts dealing with complex situations, high risk or national in nature. The People Advisory Centre (PAC) is the second tier of this triaged approach. I have gained a good first hand understanding of the People Support Branch as I have often used the services provided to handle people matters when a solution online has not been identified. I understand PAC offers general advisory services for routine requests via email or phone and processing services, for example, Section 25 movements, cessation of employment, and salary payment for irregular intermittent employee to name a few.
In my current role, I have utilised PAC’s services and recommended the services to other Team Leaders when People Online does not provide detailed clarification to resolve the issue. I am familiar with PAC’s three day KPI for responding to emails and 98% accuracy for processing services. I appreciate the pressures to meet these targets as I work in an environment with numerous KPIs, including a 30 second average speed of answer to phone queries for PBS Authorities and a 3 day turn around for written scripts. In this KPI driven environment, I work closely with my teams to maximise process efficiencies and ensure team members are working to full capacity. In order to achieve this, I am quick to act on underperformers and seek consistency in the service offered by my teams. I understand that PAC passes on more complex matters to appropriate areas such as the People Team or payroll section. As my experience to date has been in managing a 24/7 shift environment, I have demonstrated an in-depth working knowledge of scenarios that apply to shift workers and have managed many different types of people matters ranging from applying people management policies to more formal management processes in relation to conduct and performance issues all of which will assist me in transferring my skills into the role of Team Manager with PAC.
