If you’ve ever asked yourself ‘There must be a better way to do this!’, chances are we can help you

Posted on: 24 May 2024 in Meet our Team

We chat to the Process Improvement Team about progress, upskilling, and thinking differently.

First, let’s introduce the team

Name: Jasmine (or Jaz) Turner

Role: Process Improvement Analyst

Birthplace: Southend-on-Sea

Favourite thing about working at the University of Liverpool: the sheer variety and volume of things happening all the time, at the same time.

Name: Jane Remmer

Role: Process Improvement Analyst

Birthplace: Liverpool

Favourite thing about working at the University of Liverpool: The people, it’s such a supportive and friendly community. Being involved in lots of projects gives me the opportunity to meet and work with a range of people across the University.

Name: Simon Prescott

Role: Process Improvement Analyst

Birthplace: Liverpool, on a road which is now part of the University campus!

Favourite thing about working at the University of Liverpool: The diversity, the environment is so expansive, I work with so many people with a range of skills and experiences, it’s really interesting.

What does your team do in one sentence?

Wrapped up nicely in our mission statement:

Communicate, collaborate, challenge, improve.

Why would a staff or student member engage your team? And how should they do it in the most effective way?

If you’ve ever asked yourself ‘there must be a better way to do this!’, there’s a good chance you need us. We can look at the way you work and provide advice on streamlining your processes. Sometimes you might need your processes to be defined; we can help with that. Process mapping and helping to foster a culture of continuous improvement are the fundamentals of what we do.

If you would like to contact us, you can email makeimprovement@liverpool.ac.uk. 

What would happen if your team weren't in place (in your opinion)?

The University would be stuck in time and extremely inefficient. Continuous improvement is how we progress and failing to implement this can lead to frustration, endless bureaucracy, and even chaos.

Who is the loudest team member?

Jane – her laugh is infectious!

We’re all outgoing though, it’s part of the job, running workshops and engaging with various stakeholders.

If your team had a theme song, what would it be?

The Climb - Miley Cyrus

It’s about climbing mountains, it’s not about how fast we climb but it’s about never giving up and persevering, no matter how steep the climb. Some improvement projects we work on have a lot of obstacles and challenges, so it feels relevant when you’re talking about staying motivated to achieve goals and climb that mountain!

What's is the most unexpected benefit you've personally experienced from hosting a workshop or training session related to process improvement?

We’ve recently been working on a project with a core University department, who required improvement for multiple processes. Our solution was to upskill these staff members during our workshops. By empowering our colleagues, they were able to begin improving some of these processes themselves. This has been great for us, as we now have several continuous improvement champions who can apply everything they’ve learnt to their work and encourage others to engage with us and do the same.

During training, it’s nice to see people having a change of mindset, almost a ‘light bulb’ moment where they can really see the benefits of what we are teaching them. If they are brave enough to start thinking a little differently, and adjust the way they work, they can experience positive change within their area or role.

What makes a continuous improvement process successful?

Stakeholder engagement is essential, it simply won’t work if people aren’t committed.

What are the biggest pitfalls in your experiences?

When people see process improvement as a low priority, they sometimes create far more work for themselves. It’s easy to prioritise other things during busy periods but with the help of our team, you could manage busy periods far better by implementing our guidance.

It’s key to be open and honest with us from the start about the resources you’re able to commit to continuous improvement. With this information, we can help you to implement something realistic which you can follow through and benefits you.

What do you see as the biggest challenge in fostering a culture of continuous improvement within our University, and how do you propose we address it?

We’d love continuous improvement to be championed by senior leadership, so it could be embedded in the culture of the University of Liverpool from the top down. We hope people understand how important it is to invest the time in this kind of training, to implement everything they learn into their work and to convey the importance of others doing this across the institution.

Want to learn more?

We’ll shortly be promoting our upcoming workshops, bookable through the IT self-service portal. We will also be running sessions during the Change Network conference, run by Strategic Change. For regular updates about our team and the wider IT Services department, make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter, you follow us on socials and keep an eye on My Notices.

If you have any questions for the team, please do not hesitate to contact us by emailing makeimprovement@liverpool.ac.uk - we’d love to help!