Jenny Dearman swaps her Head of Operations role and goes back to the floor in our license application, private hire and parking teams.
With 33 years’ experience in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and end-to-end outsourcing solutions, she was ready for the challenge. Our people were also eager to put Jenny through her paces as she’s normally leading 120 operational staff.
Here she shares what she’s learnt during her back to the floor experience and what impressed her the most.
Q: Tell us a little about your back to the floor experience
A: I spent time with two of our teams which is all vehicle related. I started in licence renewals and applications for private hire. As you can imagine these types of applications come with a volume of paperwork including completed documentation, payment or proof of payment, proof of identification, qualifications, medical declarations, criminal record checks and knowledge tests. That is quite a lot of documents per application. We process all of it which I experienced first-hand.
I then moved into parking where we process parking fines on behalf of 29 clients. I started opening and preparing everything we’ve received on the day including payments, appeals, gone-aways and whitemail.
This was soon followed by validation of reference numbers, keying, data capture and categorisation. The levels of automation and OCR technology built into our systems really supports this.
My final task was observing payment validation which was making sure the payment had been captured correctly. We also covered the processing of payment rejections when information was invalid or missing.
Q: Did you learn anything new?
A: Yes definitely. It’s certainly made me realise the level of detail that we process for license applications and fines.
The number of documents for licenses alone is between 200 to 300 items of post per day and we action all of it on the same day. It’s quite a lot to get through when all the supporting information is bespoke and unique.
It goes without saying that the license application and the renewal process is extremely stringent and so are we.
Q: What impressed you the most?
A: The knowledge of our people and how they all pull together to make sure everything gets delivered. It was a great example of teamwork and their attention to detail is second to none.
The whole experience made me feel proud being part of it rather than just coming from a management perspective.
Q: Did you enjoy it?
A: I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m often with the teams across several of our services and clients. It was really insightful to get involved in the finer details and be dedicated to the specific aspects of service delivery.
Q: Will you be changing roles any time soon?
A: You’d have to ask the teams!
I’ve worked from the ground up to get to where I am today which doesn’t feel that long ago. I do still think it’s an important reminder to take part in these initiatives which highlights just what it takes to meet our SLAs and the role everyone plays.
I also enjoy leading a great workforce so I think I’ll stick with my Head of Operations role for now.
Q: How will your ‘back to the floor’ help you as the Head of Operations?
A: It gave me a deeper understanding of every stage in the process and a wider appreciation of just what some of our teams deliver every day. It provided me with a different angle and ideas to reflect on when we’re looking at driving performance and key deliverables for our clients.
A big thank you goes to our Client Operations Manager, Basil Nyoni, for hosting our latest back to the floor.
