MTA Consulting - Examples

First Class Employee Badge

The first class employee badge was been introduced to encourage service standards amongst staff. Individuals are nominated for the award and must meet a number of criteria:

History of good attendance
Exceeding the minimum service standards
Maximum of ten day sickness in the last rolling year

Both the team supervisor and a majority of team members must support nominations. Final approval for the award is then given by the Pride Committee and is worn as a badge on the receiver’s uniform. This gives employees a standard to aim for and recognition for their achievements

Minimum service standards are defined for all operational staff and include:

Vehicle appearance and safety
Disability awareness
Operational performance
Work flexibility

These are linked to both the appraisal process and the first class employee award. This enables team leaders to monitor performance to standards.

Learning Representatives

In agreement with the Transport & General Workers Union the organisation has committed itself to supporting a culture of continual learning throughout the organisation. They have appointed their first learning representative who has the following responsibilities:

To communicate information about life long learning
To undertake the necessary training to gain accreditation as a learning representative
To keep an up to date view of life long learning initiatives
To support and encourage members to undertake activities
To represent the views of members to managers about life long learning initiatives and activities.

Key Performance Indicators

Organisational Key Performance Indicators are published at the beginning of each financial year and these are immediately delegated to middle managers. Members of the management team will then have both individual and joint KPI’s: examples of the latter are reducing sickness levels and developing new business. Team leaders then receive refined KPI’s which are relevant to their function. The planning group then produce a monthly report on achievements and these are displayed on the notice board, at team meetings and in the newsletter.

This has both helped develop relationships with Union representatives and raised the profile of learning within the organisation.

One objective of the organisation has been to improve levels of attendance. It has introduced a return to work interview for all staff absences and the employees are informed about the time of this on their return. Supervisors are notified of all absences by the planning department and a record is kept of the return to work interview. If the reasons for absence are unsatisfactory, employees are encouraged to attend a 165 meeting, which offers counselling in their area of difficulty. On completion of this an employee improvement plan is completed giving

Details of the interview
A follow up review date
Targets to meet

The improvement plan allows for comments on any improvements or problems during the monitoring period. Supervisors have received guidance on both return to work interviews and 165 meetings: managers have attended several meetings and given feedback to supervisors. A consultant has also been brought in to facilitate discussions with staff and help improve both procedures and individual approaches. Attendance level in all teams is monitored as a KPI and major improvements have resulted in this area.

Adventure Training

Adventure training is used to redresh peole after iferent assignments. Application procedures are streamlined through the introduction of electronic documents. Applications are risk banded and high-risk proposals are presented to a panel including a subject expert and an adventure-training specialist. Evaluation reports are encouraged on all programmes graded at Level III. Teams are encouraged to use expeditions to obtain qualifications in various types of proficiencies. The provision of expeditions, which focus more on welfare have been intoroduced, which place less emphasis on performance and more on reflection and rehabilitation.

Project Review

During a project a manager put a template on the local area network so that team members could make entries onto the document during the event. Following the project many staff were interviewed on a one to one basis to establish their views. All the actions from the report were then integrated into a management action plan, which included:

Issues identified
Lead person responsible
Comments
Deadline

These were then integrated into monthly management meetings and included in the mangement planning process

Code Of Practice For Managing Teams:

We encourage teams to assess themselves on different levels

1. There is a clearly defined purpose or mission for the team, which includes

Specific goals or objectives
Measurement criteria

2. Roles within the team are distributed between:

The needs of the business or profession
Tasks that need to be performed
Attention to individuals both inside and outside the team

3. Work is regularly reviewed in terms of the four categories:

Personal tasks
Shared tasks
Personal responsibility
Shared responsibility

4. Feedback is given which recognises individual’s contribution to the team and work is redistributed in a way that takes account of:

Their work load
Their interests
How they have performed in the four work categories

5. Communication is designed to underpin the team process:

The purpose of meetings determines who is invited along with the size, duration and structure of the meeting
Meetings do not serve mixed purposes.
The way in which meetings are arranged and conducted builds the self-confidence, the image and reputation of the team.
Other communication mechanisms are complementary to the fabric of meetings.
Team members keep each other informed

6. Process are established within the team which contribute to effective and satisfying work. These are:

Recorded
Adapted to different situations
Used for coaching team members
Owned by specific team members
Adapted in the light of experience

7. Learning is encouraged within the team which

Improves the competence of the team
Reflects individual preferences
Stimulates the team

The team need to assess themselves on a regular basis and sets targets for improvement.

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