Time for quality culture reset in the workplace

In every workplace, there is always a certain level or culture that people are exposed to. These cultures can differ from professional to professional, even within the same team or workplace. The “”quality culture”” is all about focusing on good customer service and focusing on doing what the customer values the most. Professional services are also shifting to where a customer is able to customize their experience, with their every need being met without any hiccups. Adopting a quality culture in the workplace will be a good tool for keeping up with the ever-increasing workloads that people have been facing to satisfy their customers.

Quality in the workplace is vital to maintain profitability in this ever-changing business world.

A quality culture is one of many organizational strategies that help to better distinguish a company’s image, and it will also help their employees to be more productive. A quality culture in a company can be formulated with the use of policies, and it will lead to a more cohesive work environment where employees have more responsibility. For example, one way to create a quality culture is to implement policies that will give company members more task-responsibility and involvement in decisions. With this, they are not only able to contribute to the company but it will also create a deeper sense of ownership and accountability. Not only will this make the quality culture more cohesive but it will also help to let the employees know what it takes to be a great employee.

Steps to create a better way to infuse quality into the workplace

1.  Employees should be involved in the ongoing process of improving and optimizing the company’s services and processes.
2. Employees should understand the mission of the company and identify specific actions that will assist them in accomplishing the mission.
3. Managers should empower employees to take an active part in the decision making process.
4. Managers should be instrumental in supporting the accomplishment of workers’ goals in tandem with the company’s mission.
5. Managers should create a mindset among employees that the company is dependent on their individual successes.
6. Managers should delegate jobs with clear expectations for excellence and employees engagement.

Five ways to improve the quality of your employees work

1. Give your employees the opportunity to grow. Focus on providing opportunities for your employees to learn and expand their competencies.
2. Communicate clearly. Keep your employees in the loop with your goals and accomplishments. This will not only make them feel more appreciated, but it will also help them build a plan to help you.
3. Be open-minded. Implementing new ideas from your employees may cause a more speedy improvement of the company.
4. Be persistent. Reality is that there will be bumps in the road, but to not give up.
5. Be timely. Put a timeline on your priorities, so your employees know when you will be working on certain tasks.

Case study – How CVS is creating a culture of quality in their company?

CVS is a pharmacy company in America with more than 10,000 retail pharmacies nationwide. They have always been committed to delivering quality and affordable healthcare. CVS commits to quality as evidenced by its prescription fill rate which is more than 98%. They aim to build a culture of quality by striving to three primary objectives: provide quality healthcare, provide quality employment, and contribute to quality communities.

CVS has always challenged their employees to make every store a better place and is committed to providing quality healthcare. CVS delivers quality healthcare service in a cost effective manner and has opened hundreds of retail outlets across the country to reduce the time and money spent on healthcare. Their continued commitment to their customers is demonstrated in their efforts to help them with financial growth, employee engagement and customer success.

The beginning – How to create a culture of quality?

A sustainable workplace culture is a culture that can continue to function for years to come. This includes the employees and the company itself. A sustainable workplace culture can come from various aspects of the company. It is important that the company culture encourages open communication and allows employees to advocate for themselves if needed. The company culture should also value diversity, collaboration, and innovation, and allows employees to voice their own opinions and feel like they are being listened to and environment is safe.

What do you need to do to create a culture of quality in your company?

If you want to improve the quality of your products or services, you need to make sure all your team members are on board. It starts with hiring the right people, specifically, those with the right skills or personality and then continues with a culture that reinforces values of quality, integrity, and lead to customer success.

One way to create a culture of quality in the workplace is by establishing a quality-focused goal, with benchmarks and a timetable, to gauge the team’s progress.

A quality culture is a culture where employees e highly motivated to produce quality products and services. It’s all in their minds and hearts. That’s the goal of a Quality Culture. The goal is to establish a quality-focused goal, with benchmarks, and then let employees define how they will achieve these goals in order to produce quality products and services.

Organizations hold the key to success for anyone who wants to change the world by working towards a common goal. In order to achieve this, organizations must set and communicate a clearly defined set of expectations that all employees understand and can follow. Without clear expectations, employees cannot be held accountable for their work.

Quality starts from the top, and it is imperative that the CEO, Board of Directors, and other executives, act to set the level of quality that will be expected from every single employee. Quality of work-life is another aspect, and a company must work to create a work-life balance for its employees.

Just as important as creating a culture of safety at your company is creating a culture of quality. This starts with embracing quality as a core value and instilling the idea that quality is for everyone.

There are numerous approaches that an organization can take in order to make necessary changes for the better and establish a quality-focused goal. One approach is to use a criterion-driven approach which uses a predetermined set of standards and then compares the organization’s current performance to the standards to establish benchmarks for what is accepted as “acceptable” performance.

It’s important to set up quality-focused goals. They should be about more than overall performance; they should be specific, measureable and time specific.

Another way to create a culture of quality is by setting clear standards and proper processes. These processes should be well understood by every member of the team.

In order to establish a culture of continuous improvement it is first important to establish a good foundation for the overall organization. That means having a solid and strategic business plan in place. There are many different ways to review the plan and to find processes that need simplicity or improvement. One very important way to assess the efficacy of an organization’s process is through a process audit. When a process audit is done the process “as is” is broken down into its individual components and assessed to see where the process can improve or where it is lacking. This is a very systematic and efficient way to make improvements. Supporting processes need much attention as they feed to the main process (flow). Supporting processes fail more frequently and pose more risks; a lot of time failures are not easy to detect and discrepancies remain hidden.

Understanding the basic principles of voice of process in the manufacturing industry and how to design, develop, and implement it are some of the most important tasks for any manufacturer. Read more…

The most important thing a company can do when setting standards and having robust processes is to have a clear understanding of what is expected of its employees. It might seem obvious but sometimes companies don’t go into detail on what they expect of their employees and this means there is room for misunderstanding. If proper channels are not set, then employees may resort to other means to get tasks done such as using shortcuts or using methods without following set procedures.

Setting clear standards and proper processes is one of the best ways that you can create a culture of quality. Without well-thought and systematic rules and procedures an organization can easily become chaotic and halt at any given point.

Another way to create a culture of quality in the workplace is by educating the employees on quality. Education consists of topics such as quality, standardization, and the process of quality.

In many cases, the employees themselves don’t know how to produce quality work. The quality will never be realized if the company doesn’t invest in the employees. This can be done by providing resources, e.g., properly maintained equipment or educating employees on how to become better at their own jobs. Another way would be to perform training needs assessment and provide ongoing on the job training for employees. They need to be educated on how to produce quality work so that they can teach others how to do the same, which will create the culture of quality.

We all have a responsibility to do the best job we can at work, but sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we make mistakes that cause accidents and sometimes those mistakes can be quite costly. Someone new is at risk of workplace negligence when they do not take steps to prevent accidents from occurring.

The following are some ways that someone can create an action plan, for example, to avoid work place negligence through education:

• Prepare to work safely by reading about safety procedures before starting a job.
• Make sure to have the necessary tools and training to use protective equipment to work safely.
• Read and follow warning labels on all chemicals and equipment.
• Report any safety hazards at work to the appropriate person including safety accidents.
• Wear all necessary protection for manual handling of raw materials or operating a machine.
• Use current approved SOPs and work instructions; remove expired/outdated documents.

Summary:

A culture of quality is a company’s way of doing things. It is an organizational culture which emphasizes customer satisfaction and quality over other concerns. When companies build a culture of quality they focus on long-term, sustainable practices that other organizations have fallen away from. Organizations needs to instill a culture of quality in employees because everyone in the organization needs to be in sync with the processes that are built to achieve these long-term, sustainable practices. Investing in your employees by giving them the training, resources and other tools they need to perform their jobs is important. You can discuss ways to invest in your employees or ways to instill a culture of quality.

Bonus Topic – Eight ways to create quality products and services in your company*

Companies often overlook how important it is to provide quality products and services in order to stay competitive and keep customers happy. This is a list of various strategies that companies can use to provide quality goods and services.

1. Research your customers.
2. Know your competition.
3. Underpromise and overdeliver.
4. Make employees your top priority.
5. Be transparent and trustworthy.
6. Share knowledge.
7. Repeat what is value-added.
8. Never stop innovating.

*Bonus topics are selected based on our readers’ interest. You can read more in the future.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on PharmaRead are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency or organization. PharmaRead articles are provided for information only with a focus on global health, pharmacy practice, and healthcare systems in Low- and Middle-income Countries (LMICs). Readers should seek expert opinion for use, implementation or application of this knowledge based on their individual circumstances.