Agenda - Council - 03/12/1996 - Laserfiche WebLink

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People who rely on Administrative Services staff agree that they do an excellent job of responding to callers and visitors. They also receive high marks for retrieving information and answering questions for elected officials. What Could Be Improved in Administrative Services? Meetir~g Deadlines; Every person in Administrative Services identified late agenda cases as the number one frustrati°r~. Despite the fact that agenda deadlines are known in advance and have not changed for a number of years, some people consistently submit late or incomplete cases. In the scramble to assemble, copy, tab and deliver the agendas, clerical staff members consistently have to stay beyond their normal quitting times to complete a task that should be routine. Several elected officials mentioned that they don't appreciate receiving agenda packets on Friday evenings. Guidance on Dealing with Difficult People: Although serving as first line responders to the public can be challenging and frustrating, clerical staff members accept that as a normal part of their jobs. Several people did say that additional training in dealing with irrate customers or difficult people would be helpful. Others said it would be helpful to receive more guidance about how much abuse employees must accept from callers. For example, they wonder if it is ever acceptable to state politely, but fn'mly, that they will have to hang up unless the caller stops cursing and/or yelling. ~g_lKe,.P_~ The pool concept works well most of the time, but it can be a source of frustration in two ways. First, some staff members bypass the clerical request basket and drop work directly onto people's desks. This puts an unfair burden on someone who may not have time to address that request at the moment. Second, sometimes people forget to check the basket and requests pile up. Other times, it appears people pick out easy requests such as copying and ignore the more difficult jobs. Most people said they think it is appropriate for the Recording Secretary to clean out the basket periodically by distributing the requests to other clerical employees. The Recording Secretary said she is comfortable with this practice and would like to continue it, Interruptions are inevitable in a pool system but they do represent another frustration. If the receptionist is busy, the next person in line answers the phone or waits on people at the counter. If both the receptionist and the second person in line are busy, the third person responds to visitors or callers, and so forth, throughout the group. As a result of always being "on-call" to answer phones or wait on cUstomers, it is difficult for anyone to focus for long on one task without being interrupted. Each interruption represents some time lost when concentration is broken and then must be reestablished. Interruptions are most disruptive when someone is transcribing from audio tapes or doing meeting minutes. The pool concept does not work welt for the City Engineer. The highly technical and time sensitive nature of many of his assignments requires support staff involvement beyond typing. He is also one of the people who has trouble meeting the agenda deadline I I I i ! I I I I I I I i I I I I I I