Best Practices Quality Management – Part I

I have spent several months discussing how to define, train and implement, standards, procedures and workflows. Early in this series of posts one commenter on this blog asked me what was the value in going through this process. So over the next few posts I am going to discuss what Quality Management should look like, how to do it and the value.

Today’s post will be about the reasons an insurance agency should have and use a Quality Management program. Audits that are service and compliance related are defined as “a systematic check or assessment, especially of the efficiency or effectiveness of an organization or a process…”. Some reasons insurance agencies should audit are:

• E & O prevention
• Workflow/Procedure compliance
• Workflow/Procedure effectiveness
• Workload monitoring
• Quality of customer service

Creating procedures and providing workflow training establishes a foundation upon which to build. The goal of quality management is not only to review compliance with agency guidelines, but to provide a benchmark where management can measure the impact (productivity gains or loss) workflows and automation have on operations.

Most people see quality management or auditing as a negative event. It is only negative for those not complying with established processes or if used as an intimidation tool by management. The staff needs to know from the beginning what is involved in the quality management process, its intention and the benefits. This will reduce the feeling the staff may have about that someone is monitoring their every move. The purpose of quality management is to eliminate obstacles facing the staff, to make sure workloads are fairly spread, and to improve the overall work environment.

Other expected results of the quality management process are noted below:

I worked for a surplus lines insurance carrier early in my career. As a manager of a department, I was frequently in the office for awhile on Saturday mornings. So was the manager of the underwriting department. Each Saturday morning he went from desk to desk and took the stack of work and turned it upside-down. He then looked at the bottom five folders. I was not very experienced as a manager so I had no idea why he was doing this. Finally, I asked him why. He said that people put off those items that are problems and that they are always at the bottom of the stack. He would remove the files that he found to need critical attention, take them to his desk, and meet with their underwriter on Monday morning. His final statement to me was “Inspect what you expect.”

A quality management review should focus on the following significant areas.

For quality management to be successful, the staff must know what is expected of them in the workflow and procedures for their specific position.

Watch for Part II. I will discuss what is involved in each step of the audit process. What questions do you have at this point or what works in your agency?