Total QualityManagement (TQM)

The Commission's quality improvement process began in the fall of 1991 when Dawn Peterson began attending Iowa Quality Government Team meetings. In 1992 Steve Wall from the Department of Management came to our agency and did an overeview of TQM, and an agency steering committee was formed.

The steering committee began by selecting a pilot project, "to reduce the cycle time it takes to do an investigation." The project team, "The Instigators," flowcharted the investigatory process, indentified barriers to the process, collected data on the amount of time it takes to do an investigation, and determined that training was needed on charting and on writing more concisely. The committee accomplished the training,, effected several process changes, and ended its work in 1993.

A second project team, "Tbe Dustbusters," began work in 1994. Their charge is to tackle "reducing the backlog." They will be building on data gathered during by the previous project team.

Since spring of 1992 the steering committee has worked on the agency's vision statement and foundation principles, and has continued to look at innovative means to accomplish its mission and vision. 'Me steering comniittee did a survey of all staff and determined that we should be working on the areas of training, appreciation, trust, and diversity. A training committee has been started, an internal staff library founded, and plans are to do a training needs assessment for the staff.

This year for the first time the steering committee was involved in putting the agency goals together for the governor's monthly progress review. The FY 94/95 goals are divided into five main areas: management and administration, production, educational outreach, training, and testing. Currently, the steering committee is looking at long range planning for the next five to ten years.

Dawn Peterson has continued as the agency quality coordinator and facilitates the steering committee. She is also the current chair of the Iowa Quality Government Team and facilitator of two project teams at the Department of Employment Services. Two more staff members, Pam Rose and Greg Klein, have also been trained as facilitators.