This week #TopDogWeekly asked the nominees for the 2015 CKC Board of Directors for their insight. Here is what they delegates who responded had to say....QUESTION OF THE WEEK... A large segment of CKC membership believe that CKC headquarters is staffed by people, who lack the required knowledge, and experience, and are not sensitive to the needs of the membership. What actions will you undertake to address this? Line Champagne Zone 1 Newfoundland & Labrador & Nova Scotia This problem needs to be considered in the context of the responsibilities of the Board versus the responsibilities of the Executive Director (ED). The Board’s responsibility is to express clearly to the ED, through it’s performance agreement, its expectations with regards to service to the clients/members. That being said, the Board has a responsibility to ensure that policies and programs are conducive to the manner of service that members expect. Let me explain: the current framework with which the staff work is one of policing rules and regulations rather than providing a service; our current processes aim at protecting or executing rules, not in achieving outcomes. This is the main reason, in my view, for the attitude of the staff; they are there to apply rules, not to provide a service. How do we change that? We need to rethink our programs by starting with a blank page and designing processes aimed at providing a service, while respecting the legislation. Why a blank page because we cannot re-design how we do business by starting with the current model. We are mired in forms and paperwork because when an issue arises, we slap a new form on it rather than looking at the reason why the process failed. With new processes designed for service delivery, the ED can then take action if staff does not perform in the properly structured environment. By re-thinking how we do business we can achieve simpler processes and more effective results. Frank MacArthur Zone 1 Newfoundland & Labrador & Nova Scotia It is my opinion that this question is too broad a sweeping statement. Neither is its validity proven or disproven. Therefore, it unfairly accuses the CKC Headquarters staff, of willful wrong doing. As an active Justice Department correctional probation officer I am constantly accused, by the membership of society, of not doing my job to reduce crime. I am continually very successful in dissuading this incorrect accusation. Unfortunately, you must open positive direct effective communication or dialogue before you can even hope to assess what the problems areas are, or how to properly address each situation. Blatant misinformation or hearsay and broad sweeping statements will not elicit meaningful dialogue. Personally I have had meaningful interaction with all CKC staff. However, I do realize that a delayed response to a CKC member’s concern will often result in a negative misguided reaction by the member. Hopefully, a quick and positive response to each query (i.e. we have received your letter of concern and will action a response as soon as possible) will open direct communication to more positive results. As I see it staff reduction at HQ and an excessive workload may be part of the present problem. I am of the opinion that teamwork is essential to being successful. Staff development performance and regular process evaluations would help to accelerate a more streamlined administrative process. Better communication between board members, staff and the CKC membership would help to positively enhance the overall communicative process. To me, direct, positive, effective, meaningful communication between all parties must be encouraged and utilized in all encounters before any meaningful resolutions can be accomplished. All interaction between board members, HQ’s staff and CKC membership must be calm, direct, open, honest and transparent for it to be taken seriously. Lendra Barker Zone 1 Newfoundland & Labrador & Nova Scotia A successful organization must be in tune with the wishes of its members. Members want access to correct information and they want it in a timely fashion. We seem to have a breakdown in the transfer of information from staff to the members. To correct the problem we first need to determine the cause. Making an assumption as to the source of the problem would be premature on my part, without actually having met any of the staff or without knowledge of the staff, training program. However, there are a few basic considerations that I feel should be addressed. Chief among these would be hiring practices, training, the staff’s access to resources, office environment and member access to resources. Are the correct people being hired? Once hired are they being motivated and is the work place one that encourages productivity? Are the staff members trained properly? Poor training and lack of follow-up are often the cause of poor customer service. Do the office staff members have access to all the resources they need? Someone can be well trained, but if they cannot access the information they need then they cannot pass it on. Do they have up to date computer systems to work with? Is there a system in place to monitor staff performance and look for improvement opportunities? Are the employees trained on “customer” (member) retention? Is there an environment in the office that recognizes the importance of the membership? Are the staff members aware that membership fees, and the fees from membership activities, are a large chunk of the financial picture? Members should be considered almost as “shareholders” and treated with the same respect. This attitude comes from the top down and should be in place. Weaknesses in the access to information by members on their own need to be addressed. A lot of the information members seek should be easy to find on the website and in the rulebooks. It is important that these two areas be up to date and easy to follow. Receiving or finding information quickly results in happy members. Brian Reid Zone 2 Prince Edward Island & New Brunswick The CKC staff interface with Members has not provided or evolved into the “Member’s Service” experience that is expected of a membership owned enterprise, such as exhibited at Credit Unions and Co-Operatives. The multiple handoffs and the formality/impersonal nature of communication evokes a sense of a lack of knowledge and of being interfaced with at arm’s length, which generates a Member’s lack of trust and questioning of the sincerity of CKC staff. I described previously the need for utilizing the concept of “Single Point of Contact” (SPOC) to resolve communication with Members as personally and as simplistically as possible. This mode does require cross training and multi-tasking, but interestingly staff rise to the challenge and with empowerment achieve a higher level of job satisfaction and morale through the new communication with satisfied Members. I had the responsibility for creating changes with 1,700 “Customer” service professionals in the telecommunications industry, to provide 24 hour a day, 7 days a week installation and repair for customers universally across a mostly rural province, including business offices, installation and repair, operator services and network maintenance. The service levels, and customer satisfaction levels were changed to be measured against the customer’s requested service date and time. Autonomy to satisfy the customer’s requests was delegated to the individual interfacing with the customer. Customer satisfaction levels rose to the low to mid 90’s percentile, unheard of in the telecommunications industry. Rework and repeat contacts, from customers on the same issue, dropped dramatically. Increased effectiveness magnified efficiencies. Staff morale and initiative soared. “Member’s Service” needs addressing. Linda St-Hilaire Zone 3 Quebec I have heard comments like this, and for several Quebec residents language is also an issue. I strongly believe that most employees come to work with the intention of providing a good service. I ve seen cases where providing adequate training and guidance has helped a lot. Having more services available online and simplifying some process could very well be a key element. I would like to see the CKC coming closer to the field and have booths at some shows where staff could answer questions and help people resolve some issues. Meeting face to face often help to improve future communication. Members also need to make sure to provide complete and proper documentation in order to obtain services. Although there has been improvement, translation from English to French in a timely manner and in a good quality is a serious issue. Some breed standards are not the same in both languages! Same when some event rules change, we often have to rely on the English version for accuracy. Some judges dont even write their exams in French because of the translation issues. At this stage I dont know how to solve this issue, but this as to be addressed soon. Jai souvent entendu ces commentaires en plus des problèmes de langues. Je suis convaicue que la plupart des employés ont a coeur doffrir un on service. Jai souvent vu de telles situation saméliorer avec de la formation et des directives claires. Offrir plus de service en ligne et des procédures plus simples aideraient aussi à améliorer la satisfaction. Les membres doivent aussi apprendre à fournir les bons documents et bien remplis. Jaimerait voir le CCC plus près du terrain par exemple en tenant des kiosques ou les employés pourraient aider les membres à completer les documents et régler certains cas. Rencontrer les gens face à face contribue à améliorer la communication. Bien quil y ait eu de lamélioration, la traduction de langlais au français de façon adéquate et rapide est un sérieux problème. Certains standards de races sont différents en anglais et en français! Quand il y a des changements aux règlements dévènement il arrive quon doive se référer à langlais pour rester à jour et bien comprendre. Certains candidats juges choisissent de faire leurs examens en anglais à cause des erreurs de traduction. Je nai pas encore de solution, mais cest un problème sérieux qui doit être priorisé. Lyzane Hamel Zone 3 Quebec I think the CKC should create a task force comprising of members representing all aspects of our sport, whether judges, professional handlers, owner-handlers, breeders, etc. to evaluate each and every employee as far as their knowledge of the business. This evaluation would reveal employee’s strengths and weaknesses and could, perhaps, indicate to management that some of them need to work in a different position, therefore increasing efficiency. Furthermore, each employee should attend a seminar explaining what the CKC’s mission is, the importance of assisting the membership and/or keeping the record books in a timely fashion. The employees have to stop treating calls from inquiring members as disruptive or disturbing and begin to think like they should, that is, that they were hired to provide services and assistance to the membership. As far as new employees are concerned, at least for customer service, registrations and statistics position, the CKC should consider hiring people within the fancy instead of outsiders. These persons would already understand the need for accurate and timely information. The faster responses and processing time of application would then increase the confidence of the membership into the staff and create a better image of the CKC with the members. Je crois que chacun le CCC devrait mettre en place un comité temporaire, formé de juges, manieurs professionnels, manieurs propriétaires, éleveurs, etc., afin d’évaluer les employés actuels quant à leurs connaissances de l’entreprise. Ces évaluations démontreraient les forces et les faiblesses de chacun et pourraient indiquer des changements à effectuer au niveau des postes dans lesquels travaillent ces mêmes employés. La direction devrait également établir des sessions d’information portant sur la mission de l’entreprise, l’importance de répondre aux questions des membres et de tenir les livres de statistiques adéquatement et rapidement. Les employés devraient être conscientisés sur le fait qu’ils sont au service des membres et cesser de traiter les appels comme des interruptions inutiles et désagréables. Pour ce qui est des nouveaux postes à combler, les candidats devraient être choisis parmi les membres, du moins en ce qui concerne le service à la clientèle, les services d’enregistrement et de statistiques. Ces personnes comprendraient déjà l’importance de fournir une information correcte et rapide. Des réponses de ce type augmenteraient le taux de satisfaction et la confiance des membres envers la compétence des employés et le CCC en général. Richard Paquette Zone 4 Ontario North Not an election savvy statement, but an honest observation is that we actually do have a knowledgeable and experienced staff at the CKC. I know many members are frustrated at times with a myriad of issues when dealing with CKC and some are very legitimate and caused by mistakes I can only assume are attributable to inexperienced staff. IMHO many of the complaints are misplaced reactions to policies required under the APA or those approved by the Board. Staff is duty bond to administer these perceived as red tape issues and many members should be voicing their complaints to the Board who establish the rules and policies. In answer to the actual question What actions will you take to address this? another harsh reality is that apart from the Board establishing some hiring policies for our Executive Director to follow which might include giving a priority to future hires with a background in our sport, hence being doggie people Directors are somewhat powerless to interfere with a responsibility that is truly our Executive Directors mandate. One thing I feel we can do, is involve the expertise of our members to work with CKC committees and in some cases staff to find solutions that will resolve our challenges. Many will recall a motion I placed at the 2011 CKC Board meeting to hire Sue Coghlan of Canuck Dogs fame, which was passed by the Board but was never implemented. I would like to see more member involvement in two key areas. The first is IT particularly the web site, and the electronic submitting of show results which would give us timely (as soon as next day) results. The next area is communications where we need to become the voice of Purebred dogs and advocate for all dogs. Robert Rowbotham Zone 5 Ontario East I would begin by saying the CKC has a number of long term employees in both registration and shows and trials that are very knowledgeable in regards to their job. In other areas we have fallen into the trap of hiring on “affordability not ability”. There are some areas, such as data entry, that dog knowledge is not necessarily a must. In other areas such as communication, web site design and maintenance, accounting and reception where dog knowledge would be an important asset, we are not strong. Hiring staff is not the purview of the board, but rather the responsibility of the Executive Director. The board has expressed the desire on many occasions to add staff with dog knowledge in some of these important areas. However, we work within the constraints of budgets. Over the past two terms I’ve sat on the board, the staff has been drastically reduced. It’s a fine balancing act to keep the right number of staff and still be able to meet deadlines. Long term, disabilities, maternity leaves, and holidays can impact staff assignments. Every effort has been made in the past few years to cross train staff to work in several departments to optimize our staff numbers. However, sometimes this results, in an individual finding themselves in an area they might not be as strong or familiar in as their original position. It’s an on going project and will continue to be for years to come. Linda Young-Roberts Zone 5 Ontario East This is a serious problem and we just have to look at the situation with ROE, the majority of members do not understand it and the staff is not informed to help with members with questions. I think the CKC headquarters is overstaffed and under qualified. The management needs to be sure the front line staff can address the concerns of the membership. Managers that are not educating staff in their departments should be replaced. The staff MUST be up to date, on all policy changes and important issues effecting members. The staff needs to realize that we as “dog people” think of our dogs with great passion and as family members. I want to add that there are some wonderful people that do work at head office but quite a few that lack the empathy to deal with members. We need staff to be more sensitive and educated to answer member questions. One thought is the CKC could have a method of following up on member inquiries and evaluate customer service and performance, to improve relations between staff and members. I want to work hard for members in my area and all members to make managers accountable in their respective departments. Roy Aitchison Zone 6- Ontario West This is one of those questions, that is difficult to give a definitive answer to. On one hand you want to be sure that our organization is staffed with people who are knowledgeable about our dogs but on the other hand you can not micro manage the staff. As a Board we are responsible to the membership to ensure we have the very best Executive Director who is responsible for the day to day running of our office. I would see it as my duty and responsibility to our members to keep our Executive Director apprised of any concerns or issues that may arise from contact between staff and members. I think all of our staff should be required to attend activities sanctioned by our club. It seems to me that there should be specific training that all our staff should participate in from the Executive Director through to the front desk receptionist. It would be my intent that the Executive Director report to the Board at each meeting of the Board exactly what steps have been taken to ensure our membership is being served by the best qualified staff available. Marc Ralsky Zone 7 - Ontario Central When talking to the members in Zone 7 many have indicated a frustration with the staff at the CKC – it seems to be either a specific person whom they have challenges with or a blanket statement. I tend to believe it is an overall frustration with the CKC, its policies or lack of modernization and the staff are being put into the same bucket. The Board has no purview beyond the CEO or Executive Director nor should it as a governance board. As a courtesy if asked for input as the elected representative for Zone 7, here are some items I would suggest to the CEO to think about and offer to help facilitate for the benefit of the staff. Create or make available activities or programs to further engage the staff with the general dog fancy such as ‘lunch & learns’ where various local members from the fancy come into the office over the lunch hour and chat about their breed, what it is like to judge a dog show, explain dog shows and the various roles, people and functions, invite the staff to a local obedience club to watch dog and handlers in action, go watch a hunter or field trial. Try to engage the staff in the activities of the club and its rich history and place amongst Canadian society and its role to preserve the purebred dog. Also suggest that attendance at a CKC booth at a premiere show is part of their ‘other duties assigned’ in their job description so they can see the club in action – volunteer at a obedience event, welcome people at the shows? There are plenty of ways to engage staff in the activities of the club. Also, I would offer my experience in hiring or HR practices being utilized as best practices in the not-for-profit field and provide insight into the industry hiring practices on how the sector is raising the quality of the hired staff. I want to believe that our staff want to be responsive to the members, we can start to enhance this with more inclusiveness and more learning about it each other and showing our staff what their members do each weekend etc. Peter Laventhall-Wolfish Zone 7 – Ontario Central The culture of an organization disseminates from its leadership to the individuals who interface with the organization’s customers, stakeholders, and who effectively serve as its ambassadors. These individuals require the knowledge and skills to navigate the organization’s processes and procedures in order to execute their jobs and efficiently serve the needs of the organization’s customers. I believe the staff of the CKC are qualified to fulfill their roles, and dedicated to the organization. Much of the frustrations that I have heard of, and experienced, stem from inefficient processes. I am pleased to see that our Club is already taking steps to improve. The referendum item Section B, Amendment 1, regarding electronic signatures is one example that will facilitate process efficiencies. I believe our Club needs to treat its members as though they were customers. The executives’ responsibility is to ensure that customer satisfaction metrics are measured, and that personnel are rewarded accordingly for achieving agreed service levels. This is a fundamental methodology in a service-oriented organization. As your director representing you in Central Ontario Zone 7, I can help influence the adoption of service delivery metric as a method to improve the level of service our members receive from our Club. Shawn Nichols Zone 12 British Columbia Interior & Yukon I think the membership need to be aware that the board is not responsible for staffing concerns at the CKC. The board is responsible, for securing the CE0. Currently that position is occupied by, Mr. Lance Novak. In the event of a discrepancy or issues between members and the office staff, one should report directly to that person’s supervisor and in the event that does not resolve the difference. Notify Mr. Novak through an email. We must assume that Mr. Novak has been selected for this position carefully and with due diligence and he will rectify any on going issues that directly effect the operations of the CKC and/or its staff as any good CEO would do, as if it were his own business. Thank you to all of the nominees that responded to TopDogWeeklys 2014 CKC Election Question of the Week! All submissions were posted as received, and all that were received were posted.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 01:43:59 +0000
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