Daily huddle: A 10-minute management power tool

Daily huddle: A 10-minute management power tool

by | Jul 12, 2018 | Working at VBP

A daily huddle is one of the simplest yet most effective practices you can carry out with your team.

Ideally, a huddle is a stand up meeting where the team gathers up and talk about their agenda. In our case, since our clients are offshore, daily huddles are done online either through Skype or  Zoom.

This quarter, we have a theme in our office to increase the number of clients who are doing a daily huddle with their team.

Why? We know that those who do get much better results from the team members , have less dramas and build better relationships.

What are the advantages of daily huddles?

Using this 10-minute management tool does not only benefit us but also our clients. We always value the importance of building relationships with our clients and so we believe this is a quick step to achieving that.

Not only does it improve communication, (1) it also saves you time from a long thread of e-mails explaining how to do a single task; (2) it keeps everyone in sync and organised as to what is done and what needs to be done; (3) it allows you to align your goals and set expectations (4) gives a forum for FPA’s to ask a quick question or clarify a task.

Important Tip – If you need to go in to depth on an issue, don’t do it in this session. Schedule a specific time to cover this later in the day or at a time that suits you.

Why daily and not weekly?

A week is simple too long between interactions. You need to know what the challenges your team members have each day (most are related to waiting on information or clarification from advisers) and what they are prioritising. Doing the huddle daily allows you to reprioritise urgent tasks when they come up and keep the team on track.

Invest Blue is one of our clients that do daily huddles.

“The daily huddle brings cohesion in the team. It is a chance to updated everyone on what your day will look like and what priorities you will be addressing.  It allows you to address any issues/questions that may have been raised the previous day or coming day in one conversation” said Nicole Taylor, Invest Blue Project Manager.

One of our financial planning assistants, Dray, also pointed out how a daily huddle helps her work.

“Daily huddles help me a lot. I can do follow-ups and get answers real-time. I get the chance to explain why I’m stuck at a certain task which they generously help me with. More importantly, I am able to build a better connection with my client. Nothing beats a friendly conversation with someone that you work with. It makes me feel more comfortable and less intimidated by them” Dray said.

We have observed that for those clients who communicate with their team members more frequently, feedback scores are much higher. Apart from the FPAs feeling more engaged and connected, efficiency and accuracy rate is also higher when doing tasks.

Quick tips on doing a daily huddle

We call it a “huddle” because it is not ameeting. It is just a quick catch up to share the focus for the day, deal with any challenges and aligning objectives. It shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes of your time.

Here are some ways on how to keep your huddles short but effective:

tips for daily huddle

Take this as an opportunity to communicate with your FPA—explain any complex tasks, clarify concerns and also, commend small wins. This will bring clarity, cohesiveness, consistency and motivation to your team. Commit to it for a month as a trial and we promise you, with the result and time you will save, you will wonder why you haven’t done it any sooner. Start today!

WATCH: VBP Family Day 2018

WATCH: VBP Family Day 2018

by | Jun 25, 2018 | VBP Culture, Working at VBP

“Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.”

At VBP, we respect each other and embrace diversity. People genuinely care for one another. Our bond goes far beyond the typical “co-worker” relationship—we are more than just a team; we are a family.

Celebrating One World and Family Spirit

This year, we held our very first VBP Family Day. Everyone had the chance to bring their families and loved ones along. It was an amazing Sunday filled with fun activities. In the same day, we also celebrated Father’s Day. We prepared a special tribute to all dads present in the event. There were talent presentations from families–kids sang and dance with their parents. Such a precious sight!

The VBP Family Day is a celebration of one of our core values: One World and Family Spirit. As we always mention, in VBP, we treat each other like family so it is also important for us that our loved ones get a glimpse of who we are as a company.

We believe it is important that our loved ones also get the chance to connect with our business by knowing what we do and who we work with; as well as understand our culture in order to build trust and confidence that we belong in a company that does not only give us the opportunity to grow, but also values what’s important to their team.

See photos in our VBP Careers & Culture Facebook page. And the highlights from the VBP Family Day 2018 in the video below:

3 Quick tips to build and grow a strong team

3 Quick tips to build and grow a strong team

by | May 31, 2018 | VBP Culture, VBP Milestones, Working at VBP

We have reached a new milestone!

Last March 2018, VBP has reached a new milestone—we are now 200 in our team! As we continue to cater to more financial planning firms in Australia, we also continuously (and rapidly!) grow our team here in the Philippines. Seems like yesterday when we were working as a team of 20. And now it’s four and a half years later and we’ve grown 10 times in number!

Being a culture-led business, growing our team and living our purpose are some of our main goals. See our Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG) below:

We have a clear purpose, goal and plan, which is vital in keeping everyone aligned. (We use a one-page plan and learnt all about these principles from Gazelles coaching and from the book Scaling Up by Verne Harnish.)

Every company should have a clear vision for the business and of the four focus areas: People, Strategy, Execution and Cash. By far, the most important for our company is the decisions we make relating to ‘people’.

So how were we able to build, and now grow, a strong team? We focus on 3 things.

  1. Find the right people. The first step is, obviously, to hire people. As we are in a specialised business, we make sure that we find the right people for our team. Our recruitment team has developed detailed job descriptions for our open positions and makes sure they gather important data and assess the candidate’s competency. Of course, we also value culture fit. Aiming for cultural fit doesn’t mean that we are into the same kind of people and character, it isn’t a deal-breaker. However, we also consider this in order to maintain harmony beyond our growing number and diversity. We have adopted our recruitment methodology from Topgrading.
  2. Develop their competency. The next step is to use effective training strategies in order to develop your employees’ skills. Learning should never stop. With our growing number of clients, it is important that we expand our service offerings as well, and with that comes more training and development for our staff to make them indispensable to our clients. We encourage our people to be self-leaders and help one another by giving support or assistance to others regardless if they work with the same firms/teams or not. We want our team to flourish and not become stagnant in their profession. We have adopted ‘situational leadership’ as our framework for managing our team. Each of us learns about this through the book Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager.
  3. Give them a reason to stay. Once you’ve built your A-team, it’s time to focus on how to keep them. Building a strong culture is our way of showing our staff that we care—through employee programs, engagement activities and different reward systems. We make sure they feel comfortable in our office, not feeling restricted from anything, whilst maintaining a secure and professional workplace. Little treats keep us happy—beer Fridays, free breakfast, table tennis area, board games, karaoke—these are simple yet effective things to make your staff feel at home and have a nice working environment. You can learn more about our core values and culture here.

Hear it straight from our team on how they feel about working at VBP:

As we now focus on our next milestone to reach 300 staff by 2019, we remain focused on continuing to develop our people’s skills, to commit to improving advice delivery processes (via better use of technology) and maintain our unique business culture. This helps us with the longevity of our staff and the stream of people being referred to work with us.

Take a look at our journey
How we nurture good employee behavior – the result: 4 years of perfect attendance

How we nurture good employee behavior – the result: 4 years of perfect attendance

by | May 4, 2018 | VBP Culture, Working at VBP

Meet Mike, he is one of our employees who, for 4 years, has had perfect attendance—no lates (not even within the 10-minute grace period) and no absences and sick days. That’s just impressive, isn’t it?

Apart from addressing negative employee behavior, we focus more on recognising the best employee practices in VBP.

Rewarding employees for their performance is a given. Work performance is the easiest to assess because of the set criteria and key indicators directly linked to goals and expected outcomes. Recognising behaviors, on the other hand, is another thing and mostly overlooked by a lot companies but actually has a huge impact on productivity.

Employee recognition should not stop with meeting the required performance stats, but should also extend to acknowledging employee behaviors that consistently contribute to their overall productivity and efficiency.

It’s not just about performance, but behavior as well.

Recently, one of our staff, Mike Mirasol, received a recognition on punctuality and attendance (we call it PandA, inspired by Zappos). Mike received a 4-year PandA award.

The VBP PandA award is given to employees who achieve perfect attendance for one full calendar month— ‘perfect’ means no lates and no absences (excluding plotted leave). PandA rewards include redeemable free hours that we can use for whatever purpose, may it be to take a nap, take an extra hour over lunch, arrive an hour late or leave the office early.

Mike was recognised for getting 4 years of perfect attendance—no lates (not even within the 10-minute grace period) and no absences and sick leaves. That’s just impressive, isn’t it?

See, things like this are mostly overlooked, thinking that getting a perfect attendance for an entire month is easily achievable, not knowing that the employee has been consistently doing this since the day he started working with the company.

Recognising these little WOWs is important to us because this is one type of employee behavior that contributes to the excellent service that our company provides to our clients.

So how does recognising achievements like this benefit the company?

Well, simple–this results to happy employees. And we all know that happy employees are what we need to serve our clients better.

Appreciating your staff is perhaps one of the simplest yet most effective ways to motivate them. Recognition makes them feel important and relevant. Thus, pushes them to be their best in what they do, increasing productivity—do all tasks with accuracy, finish every task assigned and even go above and beyond of what is expected from them. Going the extra mile won’t be a pain since employees will be more pro-active and engaged with work.

So the next time a team member does great on a task, give him a pat on the back.

From CSR to FPA: What’s so important about a job title?

From CSR to FPA: What’s so important about a job title?

by | Mar 12, 2018 | Working at VBP

Learn why we have changed the job title of our admin support from ‘Client Service Representative’ to ‘Financial Planning Assistant’

For most, job titles are like emblems of power and authority. It is our second label, next to our name, that we wear with either pride or indignity.  It is a mistake when some employers say that a job title doesn’t matter. It does matter. Maybe not for a company’s internal environment, but externally, (i.e. potential career opportunities and societal recognition) this takes a huge impact in one’s position.

Recently, a VBP employee raised the concern of the job title we had given our team members through our Suggestion Box—an online form where all employees can anonymously submit concerns and suggestions for the purpose of improving the company and employee welfare. They wrote:

“Hi, I would like to suggest to change our name from Client Services Representative to ‘Financial Planning Associate or Assistant’…anything other than CSR.

You see when I share my job position with other people, they would automatically think I’m a call center agent as CSR is a common title in call centres. We are proud of the work we do and we feel that it is so much more than being a call centre agent.  By changing the name, you will actually boost employee morale. Many employees feel the same way about this, and since the business is growing, it’s high time for VBP to build our own strong brand—not associating us with anything like being a call centre company.

We want to attract people for the right position, and I believe changing our titles can make a huge difference. Hope DC and DD will read this or the management. Thank you so much.”

Here in the Philippines, being a CSR is often regarded to as a customer service representative, similarly, a call center agent. Being a call center agent is not really highly regarded and oftentimes even stereotyped as a no-brainer job.

Charmaine, VBP’s Head of People and Culture (HR), agreed to this change. According to her, having the appropriate job title gives us more leverage when presenting ourselves and communicating with others. Cha also added the following points:

  • It speaks of our knowledge, expertise and success;
  • Boosts employee motivation;
  • Differentiates VBP from other companies. We are not call center agents;
  • It may make it easier to apply for loans as banks are more inclined to approve loans since we are in the financial planning industry;
  • ‘Financial Planning Assistant’ title describes our roles or responsibilities way better than what a ‘client service representative’ title does.

Using the Financial Planning Assistant title reflects the actual nature of our business—a back office solution specialising in financial planning services. It takes extensive training, and the range of responsibilities is not a piece of cake. So acknowledging our staff’s skills and expertise by giving them the right job title is just fitting.

And as much as we value our company’s branding, we also value feedback from our employees. We listen to their sentiments and encourage them to continue living one of our core values:

Hardwork Never Goes Unnoticed

Hardwork Never Goes Unnoticed

by | Sep 8, 2017 | Working at VBP

I’ve spent 8 years of my life working in a call center industry. Talking and working with clients from around the globe and always finding solutions to resolve their technical issues. Awarded as a top support for providing exemplary service and being an expert in leaving positive impressions, still had me feel unsatisfied.

I thought I would be feeling that for the rest of my life.

While enjoying motherhood, the story of my life went on and I found VBP along the way. I was assigned as a dedicated CSR to clients who opened my eyes and made me realize that I still have more to give – that I am capable of doing more than what I have achieved.

Building trust is never easy, especially if you’re miles and miles away from your clients. It’s normal for them to be skeptical and not fully give you their confidence at first.

That’s what it was like when I first started working with Prime Partners.

They were guys who never had experience with outsourcing. So during my early days, I was keen to prove to them that I am worthy of their trust – giving my best in everything, while highlighting that I am willing to learn.

True enough with the saying “sow the seeds of hard work and reap the rewards of success”, I slowly earned their confidence and it’s been self-fulfilling, knowing that my hard work didn’t go unnoticed. It’s flattering to know straight from the directors, that I got them to believe in this kind of business and acknowledged that they made the right decision because of my performance.

Every CSR must remember that it is our responsibility to make our clients feel that they have someone whom they can rely on. It is expected that we give them that assurance – that aside from working hard, we also have that appetite to learn new things.

We do not have daily huddles, no video calls. Only rare quick conversations over the phone. However, we’ve built a special relationship – even though we mostly communicate through emails, there’s that feeling that I am valued as a person.

When tasks are given, I always make sure that I understand them and if not, I am honest enough to let them know. They always remind me not to be afraid to ask questions because no matter how busy they are, they always make time to explain further until I understand what I need to do.

While we are all busy doing our own jobs, I still go out of my way sometimes to learn more about their personal lives. I know when their birthdays are, to make sure I prepare something for them, at least in ways they would feel valued and cared for. I got the chance to know some of their family members, their hobbies, their favorite NRL teams, even the places they’ve been to! They are not required to share all of these with me, but they are willing to build a strong relationship, that they are keen to share a few pieces of their life stories with me.

They are men of few words. But, they never fail to commend me and show their appreciation for a job well done.

Being a CSR is a smooth sailing job if you just stay calm despite pressure. Always have that attention to detail and if you make mistakes, be humble enough to accept correction and carry on with your job.

I consider that being a CSR at VBP is a privilege.

VBP gave me a second home that helps us deliver high quality work to clients and have provided us the resources to be comfortable in doing our jobs.

Being awarded as the Employee of the Year is something I didn’t expect, yet it’s something I will remember for the rest of my life.

For me, the award is a message to all CSRs – to always believe in yourself. This is for those who are silent but are doing their job well and maybe thinking that their hard work are unnoticed.

I was in that situation too.

But when you believe that you have done enough to deliver good service to your clients, always remember that your success will speak for your silence and it will return rewards when you least expect it.

VBP Tonette-with-her-colleagues
VBP Hardwork-Never-Goes-Unnoticed-2
VBP The-Employee-of-the-Year-with-David-Deegan-Dave-Carney-and-Andrew-Rocks-of-Announcer-Financial-Planning