WALKEZ TALKEZ
WalkEZ TalkEZ is a provider of speech-language, feeding and social group therapy servicing children of all ages in Frisco, Plano, Allen, Carrollton, Prosper, Little Elm, Richardson, and surrounding North Dallas cities.
BUSINESS GOALS Increase revenue via patient intake, implement new systems to improve stability and efficiency of business.
PROBLEM STATEMENT AND METRICS
Problem given to MYG was to review why attrition of administrative staff at Walkez Talkez was so high, With the staff leaving often (every 2 to 3 months), the expenses of hiring new people was a big expense, existing staff got overworked, taking care of patients got harder and the stress levels overall increased for everybody. New hiring involved advertising, interviewing, training the new person and getting them to be productive quickly. With this cycle repeating too often, the business was losing money and morale. Mind Your Gaps was asked to review, make recommendations and implement a solution to improve the attrition rate.
SIZE
4 Admins and 5 Therapists serving 200 patients
WalkEZ TalkEZ is a provider of speech-language, feeding and social group therapy servicing children of all ages in Frisco, Plano, Allen, Carrollton, Prosper, Little Elm, Richardson, and surrounding North Dallas cities.
BUSINESS GOALS Increase revenue via patient intake, implement new systems to improve stability and efficiency of business.
PROBLEM STATEMENT AND METRICS
Problem given to MYG was to review why attrition of administrative staff at Walkez Talkez was so high, With the staff leaving often (every 2 to 3 months), the expenses of hiring new people was a big expense, existing staff got overworked, taking care of patients got harder and the stress levels overall increased for everybody. New hiring involved advertising, interviewing, training the new person and getting them to be productive quickly. With this cycle repeating too often, the business was losing money and morale. Mind Your Gaps was asked to review, make recommendations and implement a solution to improve the attrition rate.
SIZE
4 Admins and 5 Therapists serving 200 patients
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METHODOLOGY: A DESIGN THINKING APPROACH
Phase 1: RESEARCH Research Question: Why are employees quitting frequently? To understand the reason, research is conducted. What were all the tasks executed by the admins, the processes, procedures, the workflow, the systems used in the clinic by the entire staff and therapists. Conducted one group meeting with current Admins (who are the SMEs) to understand how they explained their work and dynamics. Conducted four one on one 30 minute interviews with Admins after following necessary protocol, Conducted three one on one Therapist interviews after following necessary protocol. Had Observation days at the clinic to watch the cycle of what occurs once patient walks into the clinic to walking out after therapy session, and how the admins and therapists work during the course of their day. We were allowed to take pictures and record interviews. Created and presented a formal User Research findings report. RESEARCH QUESTION THAT EMERGES: How can we help new admins learn their job without being intimidated and overwhelmed? And how can we improve Employee Experience? 
Therapists at WalkEZ TalkEZ
Click to open Report in pdf
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My Observation Days
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BUILT AN EMPATHY MAP
After the user interviews, MIND YOUR GAPS built the following Empathy map. This represents informal chats, formal interviews and observation of New staff Admin at WalkEZ TalkEZ Pediatric Therapy for Speech and Feeding and it also captures some of the talks we had with Therapists with regards to new admins.
After the user interviews, MIND YOUR GAPS built the following Empathy map. This represents informal chats, formal interviews and observation of New staff Admin at WalkEZ TalkEZ Pediatric Therapy for Speech and Feeding and it also captures some of the talks we had with Therapists with regards to new admins.
Done in Smaply
CONSTRAINTS FACED
The constraints were primarily to get the time from the employees so that we could understand the problems they were facing. Since they were constantly multitasking and dealing with patients, it was a challenge to get their time and undivided attention.
Phase 2: Visualize - USED USER STORY MAPPING
CREATED USER GROUPS AND TASKS BREAKDOWN
Next, Mind Your Gaps started to build the following maps to show all USER GROUPS AND TASKS and understand the magnitude of responsibilities on the user groups, especially the New Admins who attrition rate is high.
Note: Tasks shown are not linear. They just show all tasks done by the user group.
Image Below: Zoom to read or click on it to open a PDF
How do they currently learn?
SUMMARY OF PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED was evident from the empathy map
DETAILED understanding of the responsibilities of the admins, the senior admins and the therapists along with a flow of their tasks and handovers painted the entire picture. It was a complex ecosystem which required improvements and documentation,
FIRST SOLUTION DRAFT : Based on this data driven user research, Mind Your Gaps came to the conclusion that the solution needed to be multifold. We needed to provide every new hire a structured way of learning things, getting help in a timely manner, a way to reference procedures that got them comfortable with each task they were expected to do, master the learnings, not hesitate to ask any sort of questions and have a folder and files structure that made it more intuitive and user friendly for all to find where documents are. Currently, even the senior admin find it an uphill task to find some files and some are in multiple locations and they don't know which is the right one to use.
SUMMARY OF PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED was evident from the empathy map
DETAILED understanding of the responsibilities of the admins, the senior admins and the therapists along with a flow of their tasks and handovers painted the entire picture. It was a complex ecosystem which required improvements and documentation,
FIRST SOLUTION DRAFT : Based on this data driven user research, Mind Your Gaps came to the conclusion that the solution needed to be multifold. We needed to provide every new hire a structured way of learning things, getting help in a timely manner, a way to reference procedures that got them comfortable with each task they were expected to do, master the learnings, not hesitate to ask any sort of questions and have a folder and files structure that made it more intuitive and user friendly for all to find where documents are. Currently, even the senior admin find it an uphill task to find some files and some are in multiple locations and they don't know which is the right one to use.
Phase 3 IDEATION:
A working meeting was held with the owner and staff to present these recommendations. It was enthusiastically received. In addition, there were ideas expressed:
- Junior admins, once experienced, needed to learn tasks currently being done only by the senior admin. They needed to be a back up as it is not wise to rely on one person alone to know that set of tasks.
- We proposed to change the entire directory structure. Mind Your Gaps is well versed in information design and we recommended that we must make files easier to find - relabel as needed and put them in the right place. This will be a massive effort but all agreed that it is a priority need.
- We brainstormed about topic sequencing and came up with what the new hire needs to start with and how they would progress. The below map is a representation of what was achieved in the ideation session.
A working meeting was held with the owner and staff to present these recommendations. It was enthusiastically received. In addition, there were ideas expressed:
- Junior admins, once experienced, needed to learn tasks currently being done only by the senior admin. They needed to be a back up as it is not wise to rely on one person alone to know that set of tasks.
- We proposed to change the entire directory structure. Mind Your Gaps is well versed in information design and we recommended that we must make files easier to find - relabel as needed and put them in the right place. This will be a massive effort but all agreed that it is a priority need.
- We brainstormed about topic sequencing and came up with what the new hire needs to start with and how they would progress. The below map is a representation of what was achieved in the ideation session.
Image Below: Zoom to read or click on it to open a PDF
FUTURE STATE: ORGANIZING HOW LEARNING NEEDS TO HAPPEN INTHE FIRST 3 MONTHS FOR A NEW HIRE
Image Below: Zoom to read or click on it to open a PDF
Image Below: Zoom to read or click on it to open a PDF
REGULAR USABILITY TESTS: At each version, tasks in the manuals were tested for Usability by the current admins (subject matter experts) and it underwent a few iterations before the final version.
RESULTS AND OUTPUT
Mind Your Gaps addressed the problem of attrition by a Redesign of Processes, Directory Structure, Creating a structured Onboarding Program and a Manual, a 172 page document, and creating easy to refer visual references on the clinic walls.
1. A formal report capturing results of the user research phase was presented. The artifacts such as Empathy map and User Story maps also served as visual user research findings.
2. Mind Your Gaps understood the problem in depth and created a structured Onboarding program for new hires. We ensured that we did not load any of the existing groups as the new hire was being trained. The new hire also achieved confidence as they learned the new tools of the trade at the clinic.
Mind Your Gaps created an ONBOARDING MANUAL consisting of 170 pages.
From a LX perspective, the following design aspects stand out:
Other Recommendations
Other significant changes made by MYG
Mind Your Gaps addressed the problem of attrition by a Redesign of Processes, Directory Structure, Creating a structured Onboarding Program and a Manual, a 172 page document, and creating easy to refer visual references on the clinic walls.
1. A formal report capturing results of the user research phase was presented. The artifacts such as Empathy map and User Story maps also served as visual user research findings.
2. Mind Your Gaps understood the problem in depth and created a structured Onboarding program for new hires. We ensured that we did not load any of the existing groups as the new hire was being trained. The new hire also achieved confidence as they learned the new tools of the trade at the clinic.
Mind Your Gaps created an ONBOARDING MANUAL consisting of 170 pages.
From a LX perspective, the following design aspects stand out:
- It is designed for busy adults who need to learn on the job
- It shows the typical flow of the day in the form of easy to read flow charts when the new hire joins - what happens on day 1, day 2, week 1, week 2 and so on. The User Flow shows how the goal of the day will go about getting achieved, User stories show us a further breakdown.
- In the online version of the manual. clicking on any of these boxes will take one to the detail of that box and how to perform that process or procedure. Makes it easy to search and also have a visual of the sequence in one's head.
- It show tasks to learn and master each week for 8 weeks (see Post It notes below). It is both ONLINE and as a HARY COPY FOLDER.
- Each role worked differently. Some more on the computer and others away from the computer. I made sure that the hard copy of the manual was in sections that they could detach and carry for reference when they needed help with tasks, which made the solution inclusive.
- The manual has every process, and procedure within it, documented step by step, alongside screenshots.
- Important process diagrams are laminated and posted on the wall to make a quick reference available.
- An overhaul of older forms and new design on some - removing fields that were not any more in use.
- Master previous week's learnings by executing them all during the week.
- There is a recap and summary of what needed to have been accomplished by the end of each week (of the 7 week onboarding program)
- A trainer assigned to trainee every week in rotation.
Other Recommendations
- The newbie leave a quick bulleted note at the end of the day that lists any issues they had. Emphasize to them that no issue is small or dumb to ask a question about.
Weekly status with Rebecca, the chief Therapist and owner of WalkEZ TalkEZ. - To Rebecca that a detailed job description needs to be written for any future new hires
Other significant changes made by MYG
- An overhaul and clean-up of the massive directory structure - making labelling and location more intuitive so it is easy for admins to find forms and anything else they are looking for.
- The Senior admin is familiar with the EMR System Kareo and has self-learned and trained. A foundation in Kareo processes was written by Mind Your Gaps so that the other Admins also can get basic training on it before moving on to the more advanced training offered by Kareo University.
IMPACT
Did it solve the attrition problem?
Yes, it did and also provided a superior New Hire and existing Employee Experience.
Two new admins have been there now who have used the Onboarding program and have reported very positive comments on the use of the manual. They have been extremely impressed by the care that Rebecca has taken in making sure they have the help they need on the job.
The new hires have been there for more than 12 months and are well entrenched into their roles. This has been a direct result of the work conducted by Mind Your Gaps.
Did it solve the attrition problem?
Yes, it did and also provided a superior New Hire and existing Employee Experience.
Two new admins have been there now who have used the Onboarding program and have reported very positive comments on the use of the manual. They have been extremely impressed by the care that Rebecca has taken in making sure they have the help they need on the job.
The new hires have been there for more than 12 months and are well entrenched into their roles. This has been a direct result of the work conducted by Mind Your Gaps.
User flow was built in MIRO
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Image above: Zoom to read or click on it
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