Lean working in the secretariat: Symbol supports GGD Gelderland-Zuid

Working together better as a team, listening to and working better with the customer, and working better with support services. The executive secretariat of GGD Gelderland-Zuid had several reasons to start a Lean trajectory with Symbol. Meanwhile, all the desired results have been achieved. “And the best part is that now we have a much easier conversation with each other.”

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Executive secretary Jolette Slagter explains, “When I came to work here 1.5 years ago, there were already plans to start a Lean project, but those plans were constantly being postponed. That is why my manager asked me: ‘Jolette, you are new, would you like to take a fresh look at which things can be done differently and especially more efficiently? I saw quite a few areas for improvement and also initiated improvements, but above all I felt that we really needed to go for a project with an external party. That’s where Symbol came in.”

Processes under the microscope, but also in conversation with the customer

Slagter’s main desire was to take a hard look at all the processes. “I felt many things could be done better and faster, but I couldn’t always put my finger on how. In addition to process optimization, I especially wanted, together with my colleagues, to talk to the client of the executive secretariat: the director of our GGD. We work with a manager and a director, but we hardly ever spoke to our director. I was curious: what did she really want? How did she think things were going? Did we need to do things differently? And could we perhaps do more for her?”

Collaboration within the team

Both of Slagter’s wishes were included in the process with Symbol. Step one: engage with the client, along with the department manager and Symbol’s consultant, Daphne La Haye. “Fortunately, our director was immediately open to this as well,” Slagter says. “As it turned out, she did not have a clear idea of what we executive secretaries actually did and could do for her. And there were things she wanted to do differently, for example in the field of agenda management and e-mail. During this conversation we made very concrete agreements about this. What I really liked, by the way, was that Daphne made sure the meeting went well and that all our questions were addressed. As a result, my two colleagues and I really felt the freedom to give our opinions as well as conduct the interview ourselves.”

Regular contact with the customer

The conversation produced a more satisfied client, with whom the team is now in regular contact. “Both we and our director really enjoyed the conversation. We have therefore agreed to have more frequent direct contact. Once every two or three weeks we now schedule a coffee meeting and the director will be working in our room more often. This gives her a better understanding of what is going on and we can switch gears faster and ask each other questions,” says Slagter.

Collaboration in one’s own team

Step two: a comprehensive inventory of all the processes that could be improved. “Some of those processes involved collaboration on our own team,” Slagter says. “In the executive secretariat we have a duo job, but the cooperation left much to be desired. Sometimes we didn’t know what we were doing and there was no complete clarity about how we were working. Together with Symbol we have structured our work, eliminating duplication and clearly indicating who is doing what. We now have more time and space for other work and can do much more for our director.

Collaboration with support services

Other processes instead involved collaboration with other parties – support services, such as facility management, for example. Slagter: “There was a culture of grumbling: ‘they are doing this wrong’, ‘they are not doing that right’. And in the secretariat we wondered whether certain tasks that were ours actually belonged there. But during the process with Symbol it turned out that these minor annoyances were unnecessary: we simply had to make clear agreements with each other. Before, nobody took the initiative to talk to each other and discuss how we could do things better together. We have now taken that initiative.”

“If only we had done this sooner.”

Better and more efficient teamwork, better collaboration with support services and better listening to and working with clients: the results of the process with Symbol are impressive. Slagter: “I think the best result is that we are now much easier to talk to each other. And after these discussions it often turns out to be fairly simple to do things better and differently. Before the program some colleagues were still a bit hesitant, but now everyone thinks: if only we had done this sooner. It has really helped us a lot.