DEPARTMENT CONSULTING

DO YOU FEEL THERE IS ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT IN YOUR WORK?

In addition to training, the Performance Coaches lead process improvement projects across city departments. Just as they teach in training, the Performance Coaches work with teams to map their processes, identify problem areas, and find solutions that allow these teams to provide more value to their constituents or stakeholders. These improvements are low or no cost and almost never involve procuring new technology or hiring new employees.

The goal of these engagements is not only to make departments more efficient, but also to empower employees to continuously improve their work when the engagement is over.

WORK WITH US

If you've got a project in mind or would just like one (or both!) of us to come to your department and help make a process more efficient, fill out the form below! We sit on the Analytics Team in DoIT, so make sure to check the "Process Improvement" box when prompted and we'll see it. If we have the capacity, we will reach out and schedule some time to scope the project and, hopefully, start the engagement!

SUCCESSFUL ENGAGEMENTS

IMPROVING IN-PERSON BIRTH CERTIFICATES SERVICE

We worked with the Registry to reduce the amount of time it takes to give constituents their birth certificates when they come into City Hall. At our last count, we reduced the total time constituents waited from, on average, 12 minutes to 5 minutes and the total processing time for employees from, on average, 10 minutes to 4.5 minutes. The Registry gives out about 16,000 birth certificates every year, so a few minutes adds up!

We made many changes to the Registry's process, but the biggest two were changing the order slip and reorganizing the office space near the window. Both of these interventions significantly decreased the amount of time spent on a transaction, but cost nothing to implement.

BEFORE

The order slip asked for extraneous information, such as the names of both parents and the hospital where the child was born. This led to constituents spending more time trying to find this information when it wasn't even necessary to find the record.

AFTER

The order slip was reformatted to only ask for necessary information and now instructs the constituent to find an ID while the clerk is searching for the information. These small improvements drove waiting and service times down dramatically.

We moved almost everything that a clerk needs to process a birth certificate to the window, and trialed having someone at the window throughout the day. This dramatically reduced processing time because the clerk didn't have to walk through the office, they could meet constituents as soon as they got to the window, and constituents knew to approach them with any questions. This not only made the window work easier, but also helped the other clerks because they could concentrate on fulfilling online orders rather than having to check the window and being interrupted periodically.

ORGANIZING SERVICE DESK STORAGE SPACE

We worked with DoIT's (Department of Innovation and Technology) Service Desk to improve how the team managed the storage of their equipment, mostly computers, monitors, docking stations, and other peripherals. Because of our work, the Service Desk spends less time searching for equipment, spends less money on equipment, and less equipment goes to waste.

Again, these improvements cost nothing except for a roll of tape, but they allowed employees to spend less time searching and more time actually helping Boston's employees do their work.

BEFORE

Boxes and pallets were placed haphazardly, it was difficult to navigate through the room, and some boxes had writing on them from years ago. In a storage system like this things get lost and it's difficult to do basic tasks, like get around or restock the area.

AFTER

Boxes and pallets are clearly sorted, there are pallet parking spots, and there's enough room for carts and pallets to navigate through the space. It's easy to know when equipment should be restocked, and it's almost impossible to misplace equipment.

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