Workforce Solutions Assistance from Community Colleges of Iowa

1/30/2008 - Workforce Solutions
Assistance from Community Colleges of Iowa

Orange Tree Employment Screening, headquartered in Minneapolis, has become an industry leader in innovative employment screening by providing highly-customized service to companies who need more than a hollow background check. The company focuses its their innovations on their clients' most critical aspects of hiring; risk management and faster hiring processes.
In the fall of 2005, Orange Tree expanded operations to Clear Lake, Iowa. Here, the company invested millions of dollars in state-of-the-art technology and ultra-secure data and operations facilities to protect clients' data, help them hire productive employees, and promote a safe work environment.
The company’s decision to locate in Clear Lake was made easy due to funding made available to them by the State of Iowa and the Iowa Industrial New Jobs Training (260E) Program through North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) in Mason City. Also key in their decision to locate in Clear Lake was the availability of space in a state-of-the-art facility where they are able to utilize existing data storage capabilities and pass that security on to their clients.
Orange Tree and Workplace Lean:
After opening the Clear Lake Operations Center, Orange Tree quickly realized they had many inefficient processes in place. "We were over-processing applications and had too many manual tasks. We invested thousands of dollars into our proprietary computer system and we were not using it to its full capability," says Operations Center Manager Becky Frieden. Another reason Orange Tree knew it was time to begin a Workplace Lean initiative was due to their rapid growth rate. Frieden adds, "In our industry, time is money. Our clients need results accurately and expeditiously."
The Workplace Lean Journey:
Orange Tree's Workplace Lean journey started with the Workplace Lean Pillars course. After the initial course and an understanding of lean tools, they began flow-charting all processes; this was labeled their "Current State Map." They then flow-charted their ideal "Future State Map." From there they began to build the bridge between the two maps. They first evaluated processes they knew they could improve immediately and those they knew would impact their clients the most. From there they held their first "events." These included events as simple as moving the fax machine closer those who use it the most to automating processes that required manual handling, therefore reducing margin for error.
Workplace Lean Results:
Frieden reports, "The results have been incredible! One would naturally think about the impact on processes and turn-times, but the first thing that was obvious to us was how this training has engaged our employees. We have 100% participation and everyone's opinions are included. It has resulted in employee ownership of their processes; now they are constantly recognizing opportunities for us to become more "Lean." The camaraderie has been incredible. From a labor standpoint, we have completed 17 events that have resulted in 129 hours of labor savings per week. Our turnaround times have decreased and we have saved on our supplies usage. With this savings, we purchased dual computer monitors for our entire Operation Center staff.  This has continued to create savings by reducing the need to print applications and other documents that we work with. It also provides opportunities for our employees to multi-task."
Jody East, Lean Training and Implementation coordinator at NIACC, says, "[The] key reasons for Orange Tree's success are Becky Frieden's incredible leadership skills, and that Orange Tree associates are empowered to look at how they are doing work. They accept and embrace decision making, problem solving, and contributing to the overall success of lean implementation."
Future Workplace Lean Projects:
Orange Tree plans to have continuous Lean events that will be ongoing and forever changing the way they work. They will continue to automate computer processes and will include more projects that allow them to work directly with client applicants, saving their client time as well.
Partners in Improvement, Orange Tree and North Iowa Area Community
College:
The Orange Tree Executive Management Team states, "NIACC made it very easy to provide the initial Lean concept training to our entire staff. They travel to work onsite with our employees and they tailor the training to our needs. We highly recommend their services to other businesses."

• For more information on workplace lean contact Jody East at eastjody@niacc.edu, or visit the NIACC Web page at  http://www.niacc.edu/