This past summer, the Recognition Quality Team (RQT) welcomed its new members. They definitely hit the ground running by implementing several changes, including adding two new vendors to the RQT Recognition Treats selection: The Easy Shoppe and Bean & Bagel, replacing Café Allegro cards. They are also now hosting 7 Person to Person Gatherings throughout the year instead of 4 to accommodate the expansion of F2. This allows the team to recognize its peers with a free lunch and a chance to mingle with peers in smaller groups.

But this is not all that has kept the new team busy! Since June 2008, Financial Management, Treasury and Strategy Management awarded 505 Recognition Treats, 192 Bravos, 2 STAR awards, and 2 Team Spirit Awards! In addition to two Person to Person Gatherings, the RQT hosted the annual Summer Event in the Physics/Astronomy courtyard complete with a poster contest, sweets, games and prizes. With their duck shoot poster, Accounts Payable was the winner of the poster contest by a landslide!! The “Carnival” themed event was a great success with over 250 visitors.

STAR Awards:

On June 3, 2008, a STAR (Successfully Taking Another Route) Award was presented to the Inciters/Knowledge Worker Initiative Team. The recipients were Keli Johnson (previously of Accounts Payable), Christa Woodhull (Payroll), Erin Fay (Financial Accounting), Kirsten Defries (Grant & Contract Accounting), LiChang Wong (Student Fiscal Services), Katrina Day (Risk Management), RaeAnn Laubenstein (Strategy Management) and Dinah Walters (Decision Support Center).   

The goal of this team was to create and implement an FM-wide Knowledge Worker template to “provide better lines of communication between leaders and staff on the expectations of the knowledge skills required or desired for each job description.”  In addition to creating a knowledge worker template, the team updated job descriptions in conjunction with HR, created a Knowledge Worker webpage and a dialogue sheet for departments to use, and provided assistance in facilitating department retreats.  The initiative opened up communication to discuss EDP opportunities for staff development and process improvement opportunities.  This team’s collaboration was a creative process that resulted in long-term improvement, opened channels of communication and improved customer service. Way to go, team!!

On October 24, 2008, Jeff Petersen, Pam Luther, Rachel Reichert, and Dick Simmons (all of Student Fiscal Services) were also presented a STAR Award for improving the efficiency of the Direct Loan process. To do this, they “sought better understanding of Direct Loan processes from others, pushed for updated programming and better reports, and finally led an effort to fully document the Direct Loan Processes within the University.” By working together and involving other process partners as needed, the team’s efforts resulted in a long-term improvement that provided cost and time savings, improved customer service, reduced the manual process, provided more concise reports, and achieved faster booking of Direct Loans by the Department of Education. Great job, team!!

Team Spirit Awards:

Team Spirit Awards were presented to the Purchasing department and to the Digital Store Front Group at Creative Communications.

Recognition Rewards Quarterly Winners:

Lonnie Eisenbarth (Creative Communications) and Farida Ablang (Payroll) were recipients of the quarterly Recognition Rewards! Lonnie was the 07-08 final quarter winner and Farida was the 08-09 first quarter winner. Each received either a $25 gift card or credit to their Husky Card account. Thank you for saying Thank you!

To qualify for the quarterly drawing, recognize a peer today!