Dirty Data
HoW Can we Engage the Staff of UKCp to use the Database and answer more queries?
Personal professional initiative project while I was working as Membership and Events Coordinator at the UK Council for Psychotherapy
Duration: April 2015 and on-going
Skills: database management, service analysis, training and IT engagement, process analysis
Opportunity
The staff in the membership department at UK Council for Psychotherapy struggled to keep member records up to date with a non intuitive database which required a lot of manual data inputting and resulted in a lot irregular data due to human error. This was compounded by the fact that some other members of staff were either afraid of using the database, or not trained to input data correctly, resulting in further mistakes being made.
There was also problems with accessing information on all the courses offering psychotherapy education so responding to career questions was usually very difficult for all staff.
Was it possible to alleviate the workload of the membership department by encouraging other members of staff to engage more with queries over the phone and input more data on the database accurately?
Solution
1. Devise a database training programme - teach staff basic procedures and how their own reporting could be improved through better system knowledge.
2. Organise a psychotherapy training day to put staff better in touch with the profession they represent and make them feel more engaged.
3. Devise a simple and easy to use spreadsheet which all staff can search with and use to respond to queries regarding psychotherapy education with. Include colour coding and filters for easy navigation.
4. Eventually outlining knowledge gained from speaking to both front and back end users and other stakholders in workshops for the recruitment of a new CRM and website in the Digital Delivery Project.
THE Problem
The UK Council for Psychotherapy database relied on a CRM system that only some members of staff in the membership department used regularly. During the membership renewal period - the busiest time of year - this particularly became a problem as the tasks for the membership team increased and the rest of the staff were required to help out for a short period in order to deal with some of the queries.
The CRM system was outdated and not very user friendly and as a result errors were frequently made on the system, which in turn doubled the work for the membership department as they had to 'clean' the inputted data at a later stage.
The principle queries
Detail changes - need to be done on the system or online by the psychotherapist themselves. Engaging the psychotherapists to use the website was hard as many were used to calling and talking and preferred this method of communication. This meant the staff sometimes had to deal with these queries.
Career questions regarding psychotherapy and its trainings, what is available to who and what are the different types of psychotherapy you can have/train in?
An example of how a call into UKCP could lead to 'dirty data' being entered on the system and its consequences for staff and UKCP members. If the address is not inputted correctly, the work is doubled for the membership team who have to 'clean' the data at a later stage. In the meantime, postal correspondence is sent to the wrong address which reflects unprofessionally for the organisation and results in complaints from members.
Solution
Part 1 - Database Training
Screenshot showing the interface of the database at UKCP. It was not very intuitive and allowed users to enter data manually in different places resulting in irregular data reporting
Teach basic data input like changing an address and other details accurately - help them understand how it sits in the system.
Teach staff how to produce reports from the system. Handling their own reporting engages them more with the data they input and the data that comes out. It also alleviates the workload for the membership team.
Help staff to not be afraid of using the system! Data can be fun!
PART 2- Psychotherapy Training Day
Devise a survey to find out from staff what their level of knowledge was of psychotherapy and what they felt they were most interested in learning about.
Schedule an interactive learning day with psychotherapists and staff which includes role play in order to facilitate understanding on both sides.
Evaluate how successful the training was with the staff whether they felt more confident with responding to career queries over the phone.
“The day was really enlightening - I really liked the way it was broken up into different types of therapy.”
“‘The break - out sessions were really enlightening - we got to speak in more detail about the different types of therapy and really get into more depth. I already knew some basic information about it but was not confident enough to be able to communicate it and provide advice to people calling in.”
PART 3 - Easy to Use Spreadsheet
UKCP Trainings search spreadsheet - using this spreadsheet, members of staff can easily access information regarding psychotherapy schools accredited by UKCP, what sections they sit under and what type of training they offer. This information was not avaialble on the UKCP database and meant staff were not able to deal with these queries regarding training. This was devised by me with a view to it being eventually uploaded on the UKCP website (which was still very basic at the time and could not support the appropriate functionality).
Next steps
Ideation for evaluating the Digital Delivery Project stakeholders.
Launch of the Digital Delivery Project. This meant that I was involved in the initial workshops for recruitment of a CRM and website.
Utilised my experience of speaking to both front and back end users in order to clarify what their needs were and how best to marry this with creating an efficient, sustainable system.
I left my employment at UKCP before the new CRM was delivered but when I returned as a freelancer for 3 months a year later, I was please to see that the staff and member engagement with the system had increased thanks to a new database system and the Psychotherapy Training day was continued as a regular training event for staff.