RQT Roundup
Compiled by Chris W. Malins
The Recognition Quality Team (RQT) has been keeping quite busy since our last report in January. Through September 2006, Financial Management continued to recognize peers with 236 BRAVOs, 426 Recognition Treat Certificates, 6 Expresses, 5 TOPS Awards, 3 LINQ Awards, and 4 QSTEP Awards! In addition, the RQT also hosted two quarterly Person-to-Person Gatherings, and helped out with the Traveling Treats and Summer Events. Here are the details from January through September:
TOPS Awards
Shawna Litterski, Anita Bingaman, Anna Mirza and Lynn Duong were recognized with a TOPS for their work on the Payroll General Ledger Team. This TOPS award was presented on Friday, January 13, 2006.
The goal of the Payroll General Ledger Clean-up and Reconciliation process was to reconcile the existing Payroll office general ledgers, eliminate any possible errors, and set-up a standard reconciliation and approval process. When the project started, there were over 70 GLs, there are now 89 General Ledgers reconciled by the Payroll Office. The have also provided Financial Accounting with a current list of their GLs to help them update the master list. The Payroll General Ledger Clean-Up has been a long and arduous process. This team's attention to detail, passion for good accounting practices and solidarity through difficult debate should serve as an example for other teams.
On Thursday, March 23, 2006, Frannie Gladney from Student Fiscal Services received a TOPS award for her work with the Overaward Collection Process, a long-term process improvement resulting in improved customer service, opened channels of communication with process partners, and cost/time savings.
Frannie took a process that needed attention and gave it the attention it deserved. She gave it uniformity. She gave it guidelines. She applied good accounting techniques. Frannie also gave a year of her life to work as an intern in the Financial Aid office to learn the front end of the student loan process, which helped open channels of communication with that office. She builds relationships with the students and works with them through the overaward collection process - and is successful in getting them to pay their debts. There are more "paid in fulls" and fewer write-offs than ever before. And, very importantly, the UW stays in compliance with Federal and State overfunding procedures.
On May 23, the members of the of the Short Term Default Loan project: Heidi Anderson, Andrew Monusko and Frannie Gladney from Student Fiscal Services were recognized with a TOPS award for their work to help reduce the number of students defaulting their short-term loans.
This team analyzed the students who were defaulting, created an aversion program for seniors, designed and distributed brochures, created awareness and developed an adviser and FAQ website. This was not an easy project. The team embraced it and learned new skills in problem solving, exercising creativity, improving process partner relationships and data mining and analysis. They are demonstrating knowledge worker skills and contributing to the reputation SFS has for serving students in a caring and proactive way.
On October 2nd, 2006 Sarah Moore and Erin Courtney were awarded a TOPS award for their efforts to streamline the payroll load process. They took an overly complex spreadsheet that required lots on unnecessary inputting and simplified it to create a more efficient and understandable calculation. It also allowed for a more timely calculation, and a message that was easier to communicate to the departments. Finally, the revised worksheet now allows for early estimates so departments can use preliminary planning numbers for their own budgeting processes.
On October 11th, 2006, the IPT Team was recognized with a TOPS award for a rapid process improvement regarding logging and processing of invoices. The team was able to successfully implement a rapid process improvement to log all invoices within 48 hours of receiving and process all invoices within two weeks before the payment date. Since implementing the improvement, the team has been able to meet its goal 95% of the time. The members of the IPT Team are: Amella Bermudez, Jessica Crabb, Rion Phan, Rosemarie Valencia, Agnes Acholonu, Lolita Adario, Annette Johnson, Alvin Chau, Heather Nicholson, and Donna Andreason.
LINQ Awards:
On January 11, 2006 Teresa Crisostomo from the Travel Office received a LINQ award recognizing her for the qualities approachable, inspiring, trustworthy, and trusting of others.
Teresa is viewed as being approachable not only because her door is always open, but also because she shows a genuine interest in others and cares about people professionally and personally. She is flexible and sets a supportive climate where she encourages her staff to learn and grow. One comment made was “Teresa has taken our ideas, complaints and compliments to heart, setting aside her own feelings to better the situations for our team and relations with the outside customers.”
Teresa is inspiring because she “walks the talk” and “leads by example.” She instills confidence in her staff and encourages and supports their personal growth. She’s always looking to improve processes and is willing to pitch in where it is needed.
Teresa displays the quality of “trustworthy” by taking responsibility for her own actions and admitting when she’s made a mistake. She is considered “reliable, open, competent, honest and knowledgeable.”
She is “trusting of others” because she allows her staff to perform their job without micromanagement and includes them in policy decision making. She keeps her staff well-informed with the latest changes in policies and does not assign blame when mistakes happen, but looks at mistakes made as learning opportunities.
Jennifer Johnston was presented with a LINQ award for being “Approachable” on May 24th, 2006. Jennifer is a people focused extrovert, who is genuinely interested in people, and is sought out because of it. Every day Jennifer is approachable. Staff can approach Jennifer about any issue. Congratulations, Jennifer!
A LINQ award was presented to Rae Ann Laubenstein for the Approachable quality on Tuesday, June 20, at 2:30 pm in Gerberding Room 142. Rae Ann is very open to assisting those outside of FM with any and every question that they have, often going out of her way to take care of scheduling tasks. Rae Ann has a good sense of when meetings are very important and goes above and beyond the call of duty, not only being diligent in her scheduling efforts, but making the meetings extra special by paying particular attention to detail and how FM is represented. “Rae Ann sets herself as being approachable by the example that she sets.”
Q-STEP Awards
On March 1, 2006 Lily Gebrenegus received a Quality Staff Exceptional Performance (QSTEP) Award for demonstrating the quality of Collaborative. Lily's teammates describe her as "dynamic" and a "go-getter." She is an enthusiastic member of GCA and if she needs an answer to a problem, she finds it quickly and shares the information with her team members. She has extreme attention to detail and often "catches things that other people may miss." Lily is involved in many teams throughout Financial Management and maintains an upbeat and positive attitude while balancing all of the tasks that she takes on. "Lily is friendly, outgoing and happy. When people enjoy their job, they show it and Lily enjoys her job."
Kyra Worrell from SFS received a QSTEP Award on April 1, 2006, for demonstrating the qualities of Collaborative and Committed.
Kyra always looks for ways to improve group dynamics and get feedback and input from others. She collaborates daily with undergrad education and does an excellent job reaching out to campus process partners. Kyra also likes challenging projects and does a good job continually improving her skills so she can collaborate more effectively. Kyra exhibits committed qualities in that she is dedicated to her outreach process. She offers time, energy, ideas.
Juinette Schrijn in Payroll received a QSTEP Award on April 21st, 2006. She received the award demonstrating the quality of “Collaborative”. Juinette’s co-workers describe her as “good with people” and very “patient”. She is described as proactive and always going above and beyond her job duties and volunteering for any odd jobs when needed. Congratulations, Juinette!
Elvin Smith was recognized with a Q-STEP award on 9/27/06 for the quality of “Trustworthy”. Elvin was described by co-workers as “100% reliable” and an “invaluable member of the team”. He was also described as being technically competent and a person who maintains a calm demeanor when under stress. Great job, Elvin!
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