Fundamentals and Best Practices for outcomes and success

 Establish best practices appropriate for your organization  QA program development  Identify methods  Define quality for your organization  Develop a score card  Develop a guide  Calibration-practice and method  Implementation Plan Goals for Workshop

What is Quality Assurance? Call Quality Assurance is a practice by which you, the agency, can ensure that your inquirers are receiving the best possible service. Generally performed by a standalone team (ideally, not reporting into the call center line management).

How can you provide quality assurance for call handling in your organization?

Define an ideal call for your organization  What are the top 3-5 most important elements of a call?  What are your contractual obligations?  AIRS standards  What is important to your inquirers?  What is important to your staff?  Is this in alignment with the mission of your organization? _____________________________________ ***Define your ideal call regardless of current protocols or training, but rather for the ideal call handling. You can develop protocols and deliver training based on your needs.***

Quality Assurance Scorecard Development Each item scored should be separate and distinct. Separate form into skill based categories. Meet the needs/requirements for contract compliance, AIRS standards, and organization goals. Determine scoring methodology Yes/No/N/A Meets requirements/Partially meets requirements/Fails to meet requirements Likert scale

You have a QA form…now what? Quality Assurance Monitoring Guide Developing and utilizing a guide to accompany your QA form will provide consistency, accuracy, and build trust for your QA program. Development of the Guide  Each element needs a definition  Document details on how to obtain the different scoring options  Provide clear examples (multiple examples if appropriate)  Provide sample language if appropriate for that element  Each element has it’s own page for ease of use

Calibration What is call calibration? Call calibration is the process by which you limit variation in the way performance criteria are interpreted. Why spend the time to calibration? Calibration is the best way to ensure consistent, fair scoring and prevent allegations of inequity and favoritism. When calibration is achieved, it will not matter who did the evaluation because the outcome would be the same. Once this is achieved the emphasis can be on coaching for improved performance rather than whether or not the call was scored correctly.

Steps for Successful Calibration  Determine participants  Designate a facilitator (make sure their role is defined)  Select a call  Provide parameters  Provide date for completion of scoring  Calibration meeting  Review/re-cap call  Discuss areas of discrepancy  Discuss areas of big picture training opportunities ***It is not important that everyone agree on a final score. The point is to come to an understanding of the accepted criteria for a successful high quality call, and apply that understanding to evaluating calls in the future.***

Implementation Plan  Gain buy-in  Score form development and testing  Guide development, editing, and testing  Policy  Reports  Calibration plan  Determine who is evaluating calls  Training needed prior to full implementation  I & R Specialists  QA Specialists ***Develop your plan-these steps do not have to happen in this particular order, determine what is best for your organization***

SMART Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timed CHALLENGE Create a draft of your SMART goal today that you begin to take steps towards achieving.

Amy Latzer