Work smarter, not harder!

If you thought that the manager who preached this credo had your best interests at heart, think again. You would work as hard as before, but produce more business, if the "smarter” intent was carried out.

Why was your production budget upped every year, no matter how hard you worked? Can anyone recall a manager saying: "You had such a brilliant year; I am going to cut your budget by 20% next year?”

Thought not…

On a more positive note, I want to look at a practical example where I think this advice can make a difference.

Some years ago, a toll-free service was introduced whereby all complaints about the financial services industry would be relayed to a central source. From there, it would be distributed to the various industry Ombudsmen.

A glance at the bodies listed on the FSB website, reveals that the National Credit Regulator, the Long-Term Ombud, and the Banking Ombud currently avails itself of the services linked to 0860 662 837.

Bear in mind that most of the members of the public in need of help have no idea who to turn to. A central resource makes sense, and it is a pity that not more of the industry watchdogs saw fit to make use of this service. Imagine if you could get on with your core business, rather than have to wade through a maze of complaints from relatively uninformed consumers?

I recall that the FAIS Ombud at the time, Mr Charles Pillai, specifically declined the invitation to join, although I cannot remember why. There may well have been some legal restriction that I am unaware of.

A glance at the statistics contained in the annual report of the FAIS Ombud reveals the following statistics:

For other boertjies like me, who do not know the word justiciable: It means that those cases were meant for the Office of the Ombudsman. In other words, only 31% of the complaints received by the Ombud, was actually meant for it.

Now, try to calculate how many (wo)man hours were spent on extracting the wheat from the chafe. Then, picture what would happen if that time was applied productively in attending to relevant complaints? The public would get a far speedier service, and the industry would benefit from it in the sense that untoward behaviour would be addressed much sooner.

Rather than the Ombud requesting additional staff to assist with the workflow, it could actually decrease its manpower, or replace current admin staff handling the sorting process with specialists to handle complaints.

I am sure that financial services industry, who funds this office via levies, will welcome such a step. Despite my pessimism at the start of this article, I am beginning to see merit in this "working smarter” idea.

Seems you can teach an old dog new tricks, after all.