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Background
The pandemic has dramatically sped up transformations and demands within the healthcare industry worldwide. Simultaneously, patient expectations and demographics are evolving and influencing the desire to seek more detailed information about their health.
In local shores, Singaporeans today want their healthcare experiences to be more affordable, efficient and to lead to better health outcomes. To meet their needs, the integration of digital technologies across the healthcare ecosystem and into people´s health routines, as well as the provision of excellent service to patients have become more critical.
At a Glance
As an Academic Health System, National University Health System (NUHS) seeks to advance health by synergising care, education, and research, in partnership with patients and the community to deliver better care and health.
To achieve the above, it was paramount to first develop its employees to be competent in providing tech-enabled services to customers and patients. On this front, NUHS embarked on a workplace learning project with the IAL’s Centre for Workplace and Learning Innovation. As part of the project and a member of the Learning Enterprise Alliance (LEA), NUHS explored ways to enhance its internal workplace training systems for its customer service associates at the Group Contact Centre.
Why the emphasis on providing service excellence?
Transforming the workforce through workplace learning
Given that NUHS’ Group Contact Centre is no longer just an “answer and transfer” site, in which patients would call and be redirected to another hospital service line, the centre now performs a multifaceted communications function.
Moreover, as a function at the forefront of operations at NUHS, it was vital to develop a capable workforce by skilling and retaining talent to be skilled communicators capable of providing quality service to customers and patients. The workplace learning project with NACE@IAL seeks to achieve the following aims:
- To strengthen the training and competencies of customer service associates at the Group Contact Centre, supported by a sustainable workplace learning plan and career roadmap
- To enhance internal workplace training systems and processes
- To elevate manpower capabilities and boost productivity of supervisors, managers and in-house trainers by equipping them with essential skillsets
NUHS leveraged on the LEA project consultancy to review and redesign the job roles and functions of our customer service associates for business continuity, and to create opportunities for long-term employability for our staff. Through the development of a progressive and structured career roadmap, it supports the job mobility and developmental aspirations of our staff in their career journey with NUHS.
Mr. Tan Ban Thong, Deputy Director, Learning CoE
The LEA project provides a better structure and workplace learning plan for the Group Contact Centre service staff. The templates and blueprint serve as a guide for foundation training for new hires and existing employees, thus providing a more structured development process. We had learned a lot during this journey, and we plan to adopt the workplace learning blueprint for standardisation of training processes in NUHS.
Ms. Valerie Low, Senior Manager, Learning CoE
We faced challenges in the building of a unified training framework, but things quickly took a turn for the better when we got involved with the LEA project. The insights gained and the templates that were co-developed with IAL’s workplace learning consultant, serve as a foundation for us to move forward with our idea to develop a NUHS Contact Centre OneTraining Programme.
Mr. Shaun Loh, Assistant Manager
Identifying existing performance gaps
To strengthen the training and competencies of its customer service associates, the project team at NUHS first had to identify the learning needs and gaps of its customer service associates. This involved the following activities:
- Conduct in-depth interviews and discussions with key stakeholders
- Identify performance gaps through company’s existing administrative documents, service audits and reports
- Conduct mystery observation on-site
- Review of current service SOPs and training content
Integration of workplace learning interventions
After the identification of gaps, the project team at NUHS, together with IAL’s workplace learning consultant, worked together to co-develop a workplace learning plan, which would be rolled out to train and assess the associates. Assessment questions were developed using tech tools such as Kahoot. The following learning resources were co-created:
- Structured workplace learning blueprints, consisting of 2 modules, for training and coaching
- A template for structured workplace learning, training, reflection and assessment
- Assessment and observation checklists
- A new schedule template for workplace learning and assessment
- Service manuals, consisting of SOPs for service performance
- A new career roadmap for customer service associates
- New job description (JD), job tasks and competencies for associates based on the Skills Framework (SFw)
The implementation of workplace learning interventions did not come easy, as the project team faced several challenges along the way.
There was a slight delay in the commencement of the project due to the relocation of the GCC office. As the transformation journey for GCC involved centralising all of its micro-site contact centres’ manpower under one roof, there were staffing issues and operational challenges.
Despite the challenges, the team set aside time to meet up with IAL’s consultant at least once a week to co-create the WPL blueprints. Updates and communication were also made regularly via Zoom, WhatsApp and emails.
To ensure that all its customer service associates were able to undergo training without disruption to their work, training were conducted on days when there was sufficient manpower to cover the operations at GCC. The management also played a supportive role to enable these training sessions.
Factors leading to a successful workplace learning project
The journey to developing a skilled workforce would not have been made possible without four crucial factors:
- Support from the GCC department, the Human Resource (HR) department as well as management
- Engagement with stakeholders through effective communication, such as providing regular project updates via chats and email, as well as face-face open discussions and meeting to address potential issues
- Proper documentation on agreed project goals, defined plan with timelines, as well as deliverables with assigned responsibilities and accountabilities
- Support from IAL’s certified workplace learning consultant to strengthen the framework and competencies of the customer service associates
Ready to embark on a workplace transformation project with us?