Leslie Devey, APCO EMD Manager, APCO EMD & PST Instructor, Salt Lake Valley Emergency Communications Center, and Missy Widdison, Salt Lake Valley Emergency Communications Center
The two presenters put a very creative and engaging twist on what could have been a boring class. Along with the catchy name, they began the class with Mary Poppins “A Spoon Full of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down” playing with a parody of the lyrics on the screen. Leslie brought the reality of our job to the forefront by telling the story of a 9-year-old boy calling 9-1-1 for his mom who had passed out and eventually passed away. She highlighted the fabulous tactics the call taker used to ease the fear in the little boy.
After a short introduction and overview of their positions and department layout, Leslie and Missy shared three types of feedback that can be used with a successful QA program.
The feed forward method focuses on identifying the negative behavior and formulating a plan to change it in the future. It is described by a quote given by the speaker, “the past can not be changed, but the future can be affected”. People do the best work when they can focus on a future that can be changed and not a past that they can not change. This method suggests that we help employees fix the problem by giving them the tools and goal to do so.
The next method discussed was the strength based feedback. Using this method, quality assurance can deliver all of the wonderful aspects a call taker portrayed. The idea is to make the call taker feel like they did a spectacular job but still give them ways they could improve next time. It links negative feedback to a specific knowledge, behavior or skill.
The last method discussed was the ask-tell-ask model. Using this the quality assurer asks the call taker to tell them how they feel they performed on a specific call. This is followed by the assurer asking what the call taker thinks they could do better and how they could achieve those goals. Then together the quality assurer and the call taker can set goals to improve future calls.
This class was engaging and informative. Both speakers did a wonderful job presenting the information in a short amount of time. Any quality assurance auditor that attended this class definitely walked away with tools they can apply to their position.
By Kelly Chame
