HRC adopts Interactive Customer Evaluation

By David Ruderman, U.S. Army Human Resources Command Public AffairsDecember 4, 2014

Tracking feedback from the field
1 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Capt. Grekii Fielder, HRC Evaluation Branch policy officer and alternate ICE manager, checks ICE comments submitted from the field to monitor feedback to ongoing updates of the Evaluation Entry System, which launched in April. HRC is in the process o... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Tracking feedback from the field
2 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Capt. Grekii Fielder, HRC Evaluation Branch policy officer and alternate ICE manager, checks ICE comments submitted from the field to monitor feedback to ongoing updates of the Evaluation Entry System, which launched in April. HRC is in the process o... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Tracking feedback from the field
3 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Maj. Raquel Rangel, HRC Evaluation Branch operations officer, checks ICE comments submitted from the field to monitor feedback to ongoing updates of the Evaluation Entry System, which launched last spring. HRC is in the process of adopting ICE as a c... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Tracking feedback from the field
4 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Maj. Raquel Rangel, HRC Evaluation Branch operations officer, checks ICE comments submitted from the field to monitor feedback to ongoing updates of the Evaluation Entry System, which launched last spring. HRC is in the process of adopting ICE as a c... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT KNOX, Kentucky - ICE comments are for registering complaints about bad service at the burger bar, right?

Wrong.

U.S. Army Human Resources Command is strengthening delivery of personnel services to Soldiers worldwide by adopting the Interactive Customer Evaluation system across the organization.

"We have a call center, and we have remedy tickets for a lot of the database systems we use, but what we did not have in place was an official means to get that feedback," said Master Sgt. Michael Chann, NCOIC with HRC's Public Affairs Office, the organizational site manager for the program.

"Once Gen. Mustion told us he wanted ICE throughout HRC, he tasked PAO to pull it together," said Chann.

The two first major steps to making it happen were establishing a unique, standalone ICE site for HRC and determining at what levels inside the command comments would be directed and fielded.

"Each division is identified as a service provider," Chann explained. "The directorate level was determined to be too broad, so we took it to the division level, which we determined was a manageable level for meaningful responses."

Within the divisions, leaders and managers can determine how best to subdivide the information flowing to their comment pages to reach the most effective level of input and response.

PAO worked with directorate and division staff to identify site managers to take on oversight for their sections, created customer pages for each and conducted organization site training Oct. 9 with a DoD form the Pentagon, said Chann. Once pages were approved and released, another 40 site managers underwent training Oct. 29 and Nov. 14.

The tip of the spear for adding ICE to HRC operations has been the Evaluations, Selection and Promotions Division of The Adjutant General Directorate, said Chann.

"ESPD started an ICE page when we launched the new Officer Evaluation Report in 2013," said Chann. "When the evaluation section was developing a new entry system for it, they set up ICE to get feedback from the field."

Evaluation Branch launched the Evaluation Entry System April 1, but began running ICE as a feedback tool three months before the launch.

"How I envisioned ICE as a tool -- I had seen it used elsewhere in the Army, at Fort Campbell -- it was an existing Army tool where I didn't have to re-invent the wheel," said David Griffee, chief of evaluations. "I used it as one of several feedback systems for implementing the new OER and we will continue to use it for the new NCOER in 2015."

"We chose it to save the Army money, because every other means to get feedback was going to cost," said Maj. Raquel Rangel, operations officer with Evaluation Branch. "It is a Department of Defense program and I was familiar with it because I came here from 88th Regional Readiness Command at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, and we used it all the time."

Rangel said she taught herself to manage ICE in a very expeditious manner: she downloaded the online user manual and brought herself up to speed in a one-woman crash course.

"You'd be amazed what you can do in a short amount of time," she said.

ICE was particularly helpful in identifying the usual bugs and glitches that come with the launch of any new computer-based system, especially one as complex as EES, she said. The fact that the feedback came directly from users in the field guaranteed her team would receive a rich stream of information.

"The users are actually the ones who see how it works," Rangel said. "In EES we have a link that goes directly to the ICE responses and those responses corroborated all the errors. From there we could collate and send them to PERSINSD [Personnel Information Systems Directorate], the IT developers of the system, and that helped shorten the correction cycle for errors discovered by users in the field."

ICE feedback is now a permanent piece of ESPD's operational structure.

"I check in every couple of days to see what the feedback is, and Mr. Griffee receives every submission too," said Capt. Grekii Fielder, the branch's evaluation policy officer and alternate ICE manager. "EES is still undergoing updates and we still receive those comments. We get that feedback and provide it to the leadership in PERSINSD. For evaluations, it's really good for us because it makes us more efficient."

Crafting each section's ICE page to collect the most useful information is critical to getting the most value from the process. Section leaders and managers can tailor the categories of questions and answers on their sites and can grow or tweak them over time and in response to changing concerns and conditions, said Chann.

"Site managers can tailor their comment cards to get more specific feedback, either multiple choice or open comment," he said.

"You need to design your questions well to focus the feedback," said Griffee.

"I think it's up to each directorate, because each directorate has its own missions," said Rangel.

"HRC is the hub for all these personnel actions, and there are so many different parts," she said.

The user comment and response feature within ICE is another tool each functional unit can use to communicate with customers and shape the development of their service.

This year, through the end of November, Evaluation Branch fielded nearly 10,000 customer responses, said Griffee.

"It is an incredibly intensive process. We reply, especially to every dissatisfied customer, if they leave a contact, when people are having problems. And when they have suggestions, we add those to our list. We have a testing team that captures them to explore them, to make the system more user-friendly," he said.

"Customer service is key, meeting our customers' needs," said Rangel. "ICE is going to give us the feedback to do that."

"As we move ahead we're going to look at ways to analyze the metrics that our site managers give us. I believe the CG's intent is to continuously improve the service we give to Soldiers. As a tool, ICE has the potential to be helpful for directorates to identify areas for improvement," said Chann.

"Incorporating the ICE feedback mechanism into our SOP is a step in the right direction," said USAHRC Commander, Maj. Gen. Richard P. Mustion.

"It will help us monitor and refine our work processes where it counts: at functional levels across the organization where customers need our services. ICE is a versatile, transparent addition to our toolkits for continuously improving service to Soldiers and our efficiency as an organization."

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