Telling Stories...Chapter Three

[Doug Shaw]

This one's called "£500K and Counting". This hasn't happened....yet. If you were the Finance Officer, or HR head honcho, and you read this would you implement the idea?

Alex joined the company in 2006. He uses a computer to help him do his job and like many thousands of other staff, he wears glasses and is potentially eligible for eye care vouchers. The company is a caring one and so makes this service readily available to him. How does it work?

Firstly, Alex has to check for eligibility on the Eye Test & Safety Glasses page of the company Intranet. If eligible he completes and submits an online form. Because no one trusts anyone round here, the eye care voucher is issued to Alex’s boss via internal mail/post. Alex’s line manager then has to check Alex’s eligibility against some health and safety criteria on the intranet (are you still awake?). If Alex is eligible (didn’t we already check that?), the boss writes Alex’s employee identification number and name on the voucher and posts it to Alex along with "Receipt of Eye care Voucher" slip. Alex receives the voucher within 10 working days and then completes the "Receipt of Eye care Voucher" which he posts back to his line manager. Alex’s line manager receives "Receipt of Eye care Voucher" and files. There are 3 physical, costly, postal procedures in this process. By now Alex has probably gone blind, or insane, or left the company, or (insert your choice of maddening consequence here).

If, as in Alex’s case the voucher does not arrive within 10 days (30 days + for him), he cannot call to chase it up, but instead has to ask his manager to “raise a case” in accordance with a lengthy, dull and inefficient HR process. Don’t worry, we won’t ask you to read it that would be cruel.

So how did it work in the company Alex used to work for? Previously, Alex would download the application form from the intranet and check eligibility against criteria on the form. Assuming he is eligible Alex would email the completed form to his boss who then authorises and forwards form (by email) to HR. The HR team then posts Alex’s eye care voucher to him.

Alex found out that where he now works 10,000 eye care vouchers are issued every year. The quicker, simpler system was adopted and the company saved £500,000 in time and postal costs alone. Employees were happier as the system was now easier to use. They felt like the company truly cared about them as it was tending to a real personal need and freeing up valuable time which was in turn being used to improve the customer experience.

Assumptions:
A direct cost saving of £2 per transaction achieved by reducing the number of postal activities from three to one (£20,000)
A time saving of one hour per voucher issued based on using the simpler, shorter process (10,000 hours at a cost of £50 per hour = £500,000)