Healthcare BPO Increases Back-Office Capacity, Improves Employee Experience, and Reduces Costs
Verint Operations Visualizer and Verint Operations Manager help a large business process outsourcer supporting the Medicaid processing for several US states better measure and improve performance
The results
- 24%
Capacity improvement opportunity identified
- 5%
Increase in employee utilization
- 21%
Reduction in FTE achieved
The opportunity
A leading business process outsourcer (BPO) that provides vital administration and operations support for health and human services organizations was looking for ways to address the evolving healthcare landscape more effectively. Its end goal was to help drive better outcomes for its business and the customers it serves.
A challenge the BPO was facing was the lack of real-time data and reporting in its back-office processing groups. These groups are made up of specialized knowledge workers who execute complex processes. These processes often extend to multiple teams, since certain expertise is needed to complete specific process steps.
The account team managing Medicaid for 15 states was keen to bring back-office reporting and planning tools up to par with the robust reporting already employed in the organization’s contact centers. Specifically, the team wanted to:
- Take the guesswork out of back-office forecasting and capacity planning.
- Provide employees with data-driven, real-time performance feedback.
- Improve employee morale by ensuring fairness and equity in performance assessments.
- Empower managers with clear dashboards on performance against goals.
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“Without an objective, consistent way of measuring performance, there can be destructive employee behaviors and low morale. With Verint Operations Manager, we can have constructive conversations with staff. The data shows where they are, how they are performing across teams, and what the team standard for performance is.”
The solution
The Medicaid account team was already using Verint Desktop and Process Analytics to identify process improvement and automation opportunities. The solution captures employee activity and application usage directly from the desktop, serving as a trusted source of performance data. To transform the raw data into real-time operational reporting and actionable insights, the team added Verint Operations Visualizer and Verint Operations Manager.
Verint Operations Visualizer enables employee application usage data to be transformed into performance metrics displayed in role-based performance scorecards. Both managers and employees have visibility into how time is spent and how they are performing against goals. More confident that they are being objectively evaluated based on data versus manager perceptions, employees can self-correct behaviors to help them meet their performance goals. Further, the data enables managers to have more constructive conversations with staff around performance, as the metrics are based on a trusted data source.
To create more accurate capacity plans, the Medicaid account team needed both employee activity and availability data, as well as real-time data on work types, volumes, and handle times. Verint Operations Manager enabled the team to capture work-related data directly from the group’s processing systems. The solution also enabled the team to demonstrate a better understanding of client resource needs, as well as quantify the impact of different staffing scenarios on clients’ capacity plans and budgets.
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“Previously, we built capacity models based on inventory, volumes, and past experiences. Now we can quantify the number of staff needed to service a project or account.”
Phased approach empowered by Verint Value Realization Services
The BPO took a phased approach to implementing Verint Operations Visualizer and Verint Operations Manager. In addition, it leveraged Verint’s Value Realization Services, where expert Verint back-office consultants helped the firm incorporate best practices and align its use of the technology to standard principles of operations management. Fourteen teams supporting one state’s Medicaid program were onboarded over an eight-month period. To date, the company has benefited in several ways.
Improved employee performance
Team members benefit from the consistent structure and instantly knowing where they stand against goals thanks to Verint’s real-time metrics. According to the account delivery manager, “Without an objective, consistent way of measuring performance, there can be destructive employee behaviors and low morale. With Verint Operations Manager, we can have constructive conversations with staff. The data shows where they are, how they are performing across teams, and what the team standard for performance is.”
The BPO’s employee relations team also appreciates the insights gained from the Verint solutions. The annual review process runs smoother and establishing clear goals for the next year is easier. Moreover, an unexpected benefit of the Verint best-of-breed back-office solutions was the ability to uncover training needs. Once time standards were established, managers were able to identify team members with excessive processing times. When exploring further, the managers discovered the root cause was typically a training issue. Addressing the training and providing targeted coaching improved employee productivity and job satisfaction.
Accurate capacity plans
The ability to capture work items more holistically and understand how employees were spending their time enabled the BPO to more accurately forecast demand and determine resource needs. In turn, it uncovered a 24 percent opportunity to tighten up capacity in the organization. Armed with this data, the Medicaid account team was able to shift resources to other teams to address peaks and valleys in work volumes. In addition, the team conservatively targeted a 10 percent capacity savings through natural attrition. This goal was doubled, with the achievement of a 21 percent FTE reduction. Even with this reduction and work volumes remaining constant, service goals were still met.
Empowered managers
Verint Operations Visualizer gives team managers a trusted source of data to have data-driven discussions with employees. The addition of Verint Operations Manager enabled managers to build more accurate capacity plans, increasing employee utilization and productivity.
The Verint implementation team supported the Medicaid account team managers throughout deployment. This included sharing best practices and holding daily huddles with the Medicaid account team to address any team performance shortfalls, discuss daily volumes, recognize high performers, and be cheerleaders to encourage teams to perform their best.
The Medicaid account team is now expanding the use of Verint Operations Visualizer and Verint Operations Manager to additional states. The team is also exploring expanding functionality in Verint Operations Manager to include work prioritization and allocation to further increase operational efficiencies and better meet client service goals.
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