MASFAA 2013
October 6th – 9th, 2013
Indianapolis, Indiana
Achieving Excellence
Through Quality Assessments
Vicki Miller
Ohio State University
Associate Director of Compliance,
Training, Quality Assessments
GOALS FOR THE PRESENTATION
The Goals for this Presentation:
 Quality Assessment
• What is it and Why do we need it?
 The role of QA within the SFA Office at OSU
 Explore QA methods
 Share Ideas
WHAT IS IT?
The Quality Assessments Program (QAP) is a
comprehensive program that provides qualitative
and quantitative data driven evaluations to assist
in streamlining and improving the quality of
processing, policies and procedures and ensuring
consistency within SFA.
WHY DO WE NEED IT?
The Student Financial Aid Office (SFA) is committed
to achieving excellence by continually evaluating,
streamlining and improving processes, & maximizing
our staffing and resources.
QA VISION
• University Leadership moving us in that
direction
• Enrollment Services vision
• Competition for students
• It’s the right thing to do for our students
Students First
AREAS OF FOCUS
Areas of Integration:
 Service:
Ensure that all services provided meet or exceed the
satisfaction of our students and colleagues.
 Processing: Improve efficiency and productivity by evaluating and
streamlining our policies and procedures.
 Training:
Provide comprehensive training to staff. Gather feedback,
evaluate to ensure quality training and communication.
 Compliance: Assess policies and procedures to be compliant with all
federal, state and institutional regulations.
WHERE DOES MEASURING GET US?
• Set and communicate expectations
• Manage workload
• Assess service level
• Assess staffing levels: current and future needs
• Evaluate performance
• Assess progress toward strategic goals
WHAT DOES MEASURING HELP ACCOMPLISH?
• Thinking creatively
• Being accountable
• Doing more with less
• Doing it better
• Streamlining processes and simplifying operations
• Putting students first
• Becoming “lean”
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve
it.”
Lord Kelvin
Engineer, Mathematician, and physicist
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage
it.”
Peter Drucker
Management Consultant
CREATING STANDARDS
• Balancing between Quality and Quantity
• Establishing Equity
• Benchmarking is the process of determining
who is the very best, who sets the standard, and
what that standard is
• Internal and external benchmarking
HOW DOES QA FIT IN?
Compliance
Quality
Assessments
Training
COMPLIANCE
Compliance Team
Research/work with managers to create and
maintain current compliant policies and
procedures in a standardized format – includes
athletics.
TRAINING
Training Team
•Training for all SFA staff and SSC staff.
Including:
 Initial and on-going FA training
 Systems training
Ensuring consistent and compliant processing
and procedures throughout all areas of SFA.
QUALITY ASSESSMENTS
Quality Assessments
Created to “close the loop” to streamline
processes, monitor quality of work , and ensure
that compliant policies and procedures are being
applied consistently within SFA.
THE ROLE OF QA IN SFA
This is achieved by:
 Area Planning: Work with Area Managers to determine standards to be
evaluated.
 Implementation: Develop and implement the area specific QA process
for Awarding, Scholarships, Funds Mgmt, Training and Communications
and FWS.
 Conduct Ongoing QA Reviews: Conduct quality reviews of employees
and processes, gather statistical data. This is an ongoing process.
 Improve: Provide statistical analysis and identify recommended
improvements to Area Managers.
QA AREA PLANNING
 Meet with Area Managers to:
• Determine satisfactory processing standards
for the area:
 Example: Complete Verification with a 95%
accuracy rating
• Develop the methods and schedule for QA
review for individual employees.
SAMPLE PROGRAM
AREA IMPLEMENTATION
Implementation of the QA Process in Areas:
 Coordinate a QA Group Review to include Area Manager and Employee
to get overall summary of duties and systems use.
 Conduct QA Shadowing with employees one-on-one to review current
processes, communications, workload, efficiency.
 Document results, prepare recommendations for process and
performance improvements, including additional training needs
 Share results with Area Manager.
HOW DO WE MEASURE QUALITY?
QUANTITATIVE Methods:
 Statistical data
•
Accuracy rates
•
Processing benchmarks.
QUALITATIVE Methods:
 Job Shadowing
 Feedback
SAMPLE REVIEW
EVALUATION STATISTICS
Employee Processing Review - Daily
EVALUATION STATISTICS
EVALUATION STATISTICS
Summary of Accuracy Rates
AREA EMPLOYEE COMPARISON
TRAINING OBSERVATION FORM
FEEDBACK SURVEY
HANDS ON
ACTIVITY # 1
WHAT CHALLENGES ARE ENCOUNTERED?
•
•
•
•
Initial development of the program from scratch.
Support of Management and staff – continued buy in.
Documented current Policies and Procedures
Ways to assess difficult to “quantify” data
• Customer service – how to put a # on it?
• Communications – Subjective evaluation
• Varying work habits, efficiencies, etc
• Reporting/Query capabilities – system limitations, lack of use
• Focusing on positive efforts - way to gain employee acceptance
and support.
WHAT DEFINES SUCCESS OF THE PROGRAM?
The Quality Assessments Program is ongoing.
The process of QA will continually support the
improvement in the quality of our processes and
service, as well as maximization of resources and
continuing development of successful employees.
WHERE IS THE FINISH LINE?
“But leaning out processes and systems is a
continuous journey akin to weight
maintenance…it’s the day-to-day, routine
stuff upon which our culture grows and
transforms that compels us to improve for the
long haul—to do more with less, and to do it
better and better each day.”
- Geoff Chatas, Chief Financial Officer
The Ohio State University
FUTURE GOALS FOR THE PROGRAM
• Develop ongoing monitoring timetable
• Develop relative measuring of customer
service, communications and tasks.
• Expand QA to include Regional campus
processing.
Vicki Miller
Ohio State University
(614) 688 – 8228
Miller.6050@osu.edu