The Office of the Ombudsperson is “committed to advocating for Fairness” says Records and Admin Coordinator Christina Haska. It works to make sure public sector organizations operate in a fair manner, that rules are being followed, and that any serious wrongdoing in the Provincial Government is investigated.
Challenge
The Office of the Ombudsperson operates as part of corporate shared services – meaning communication between them and three other large commissioner’s offices (Merit Commissioner, Information and Privacy Commissioner, and Police Complaint Commissioner) is frequent and paramount to the success of all offices.
Organizing effective communication between three large offices can be incredibly difficult. Complicating things further is the fact that for some, learning to use new technology can be a lot more difficult than for others.
Microsoft Office, specifically Microsoft Teams, was being implemented within the offices to make collaborative connectivity simpler, which was a goal of theirs. The challenge for them, however, was to ensure that employees of all offices felt comfortable integrating Microsoft Teams into their day-to-day lives. Records and Admin Coordinator, Christina Haska, noted that although some had used Teams before, ensuring that all employees were on the same page with the technology proved to be the challenge.
As a whole, including all four offices, we all had different processes and procedures
Christina Haska, Records and Admin Coordinator, Office of the Ombudsperson
Solution
The solution seemed simple enough – make sure every one of the employees in each of the offices could demonstrate a baseline understanding of Microsoft Teams. After assessing their needs, Regroove Coaching Lead, Kelly LaForest, determined that a coaching strategy focused on Microsoft Teams 101 was necessary.
In addition to the baseline Microsoft Teams 101 coaching, it was determined by LaForest that Power Users coaching would be provided to employees who felt they needed higher-level training.
Outcome & Benefits
The training proved to be incredibly successful according to Haska. A survey was sent out to employees to determine comfortability with the Teams integration – a survey which Haska says yielded “very positive results”.
“We can now all work at the same level of understanding, using the correct vocabulary” said Haska. These are factors which are important to the day-to-day communications of a large-scale office setting. “The scope of the four offices is so big, we all do different things, being able to collaborate has been great” continued Haska. Collaborative communication is something that, at Regroove, is considered a pillar of day-to-day work. It ensures that no employee is left behind on communication, which, for each of these offices, is extremely important.
Haska also stated that since the coaching sessions, there have been no major technical issues for any meetings held via Teams – another detail which is crucial for large-scale collaboration. Technical issues can derail even the most productive of meetings. Providing the employees of the office with the ability to troubleshoot any potential issues is a function of Coaching which can be easily overlooked but proves incredibly useful.
Conclusion
As a result of the training offered by Regroove, The Office of the Ombudsperson, as well as each of the connected offices are communicating with each other as effectively as ever.
People are becoming more confident; [collaborative communication] has been incorporated into our daily lives.
Christina Haska, Records and Admin Coordinator, Office of the Ombudsperson
This solution was built using:
- Microsoft Teams
- Regroove’s Coaching