CapRock Communications
POSITIVE PERFORMANCE® Management Case Study
"POSITIVE PERFORMANCE® Management makes individuals responsible for their performance and builds commitment to results without sacrificing strong relationships."
-T. George Hess
Senior Vice President
Company
- Publicly traded Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) operating in seven states throughout the Southwest United States.
- Offers a full range of telecommunication and Internet services to residential and commercial customers.
- Purchased in December 2000 by McLeod USA.
Process
CapRock Communications embarked upon a new strategic direction in 1999, transitioning from a reseller of telecommunication services to a facilities-based carrier. This change resulted in a need to significantly improve processes and performance, as well as manage significant growth
- POSITIVE PERFORMANCE® Management was implemented throughout the operations areas, including Customer Service, Order Management, Network Operations, and Product Development.
- The PPM rollout was done in conjunction with a Management By Objectives process to provide a structured approach for linking organizational and individual goals; promoting superior performance; and addressing performance that did not meet expectations.
- On-site consulting, training and individual coaching was conducted by Pennington Performance Group with a transition to a train-the-trainer delivery model when initial implementation was complete.
"PPM's structure makes me comfortable that supervisors can handle business issues and people issues. The supervisors have already spent a lot of time with employees before issues come to me. Employees know that our management team believes what we say because we give them the opportunity to improve and stay."
-Cheryl Swann
Manager of Customer Service
Results
- Turnover in the Customer Service area dropped from a 50% annual trend to a 15% annual trend in the eight months from April through December 2000 (a 35% reduction). Turnover held at less than 5% monthly even in the six months after the buyout and change of ownership.
- Less time is spent on people issues and more time is spent on customer service.
- It is easier for employees to transition from one supervisor to another because they all use the same system. Employees know what to expect from supervisors.
"PPM helps organize your thoughts. It reinforces that the more positive feedback you give, the better people will perform. And it limits the time it takes to deal with problems."
-Lynn Naiboo
Customer Service Supervisor
- Customer Service achieved a quality rating of 97% and an 80% grade of service-level rating within 90 days of implementation and has maintained that level of performance or better.
- There has not been a difficult termination since the implementation of PPM, because employees know where they stand. Most employees improve their performance immediately if it becomes serious enough to enter the first level of formal corrective action.
- The lines of communication are open and strong. Employees are not afraid to ask tough questions, even during the transition to new ownership, because of internal relationships.
"PPM creates a family focus. Employees know managers are concerned about them and want them to succeed. It gives us the tools to confront performance. We can tell them, 'You already have a position here. Moving to another job won't necessarily make things better. You need to improve where you are.'"
-Dennis Ross
Customer Service Supervisor
For additional information on POSITIVE PERFORMANCE Management, contact:
Pennington Performance Group
Randy Pennington, President
4004 Winter Park Lane
Addison, TX 75001
972-980-9857
randy@penningtongroup.com
Copyright 2008 by Pennington Performance Group. All rights reserved.
