Listening to your staff reaps rewards

摘要

For Huw Lloyd-Lewis the cornerstones of an effective civil enforcement operation are good communications, reliable data and a culture where staff can share their ideas. Treat your staff with respect, keep them informed of business developments and encourage them to come up with new ideas. This is the key to ensuring a motivated workforce, according to Huw Lloyd-Lewis, managing director of Swift Credit Services. He says that employees who put forward viable ideas are rewarded with a ￡25 voucher. "Staff can either email an idea or raise it at one of our management meetings," says Lloyd-Lewis. "If we think it's a good idea we will implement it." He offers two examples where ideas from staff were put into practice. The first concerned the company's complaints procedure, which used to involve calling a bailiff into the office to respond to a complaint from a debtor. "Making a bailiff appear in person meant they were spending less time on calls and resulted in a delay in responding to the complaint," says Lloyd-Lewis. A complaints officer suggested that any grievances received could be sent to the bailiff's tablet handheld computer. The bailiff would then be required to respond promptly using a secure portal. "We implemented the idea earlier this year, and it has proved very effective," says Lloyd-Lewis. "It has enabled us to deal with complaints a lot more quickly - the average response time used to be three days, but now it's same day. It also means bailiffs can spend more time carrying out visits, and complainants get a quicker response."