I've been approached by a Manager who is having issues with the quality of their staff's quality checking. A number of errors are still slipping through and they aren't massive errors(a missed comma for example) I was wondering if anyone could suggest any training or techniques that could be used to improve their attention to detail. My initial thoughts are that they should just tighten up their balanced scorecard objectives but I'd obviously rather see if I can help in anyway
3 Responses
To train or not to train?
Unfortunately that’s often the question.
I have a few more questions which would need answering to give a sensible response to this.
Are people responsible for checking their own work?
If so, what length of time is allocated against word count for this, or do you expect this to miraculously happen while people type?
If proofing is that important, and in my experience it rarely is, why not build a proofing step into your process – where team members proof others work? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that the worst person to proof your work, is you.
Have they been taught any proofing styles or mark up languages?
Or is it time to have a word with a manager who has unrealistic expectations?
Are they the correct people?
Hi
I agree with the earlier comments – introduce a quality check stage into the process. Also, I am sure you realise that there are different character types and maybe some of the staff being asked to do this work are not right for this kind of work. There are natural ‘completer finisher’ types who will dot the i’s and cross the t’s (I am not oen!). They should be the ones ‘at the end of the line’ who check their colleagues work for errors.
Suggestion for the future, when backfilling vacancies in this dept I would recommend the HRM introduces an ‘attention to detail’ type of in-tray exercise. We can all pay attention to detail when we know its a test so give the candidates a dozen scripts to quality check for (known) errors and give them a short time frame to do it. Such a test would flush me out.
You can also devise such an exercise for your existing staff as a training session – although how not to make it seem like a test will be hard.
Quality checking
Try Scott Bradbury, they do workshops called “Developing an Eye for Accuracy” and “Coaching for Accuracy”. I haven’t used them myself but I had a long chat with them at the World of Learning event a few years ago and it seemed very impressive. Worth a look at least.