Managing Credit Department Time
Charles M. Boring, CCE, who is credit manager for Anchorage (Alaska) Cold Storage Co., is also a time management expert. He conducted time management seminars in the Anchorage area, and he diligently employs time management strategies in his department. What are the most important of these strategies? He cites three:
1. Setting goals and priorities. This should begin by setting and meeting daily goals. Boring recommends ending each day by creating a work list for the following day. This list should be divided into at least three categories:
- Must do. This is work that, if it is not completed, will have adverse consequences and/or will require even more work later.
- Want to do. This is an excellent place to schedule "project tasks" (discussed below).
- May get to. This is work that, while you eventually want to get to it, has no pressing deadline that would lead to serious consequences if it were not completed by a certain date.
In addition to daily work responsibilities, you probably handle some long-term projects. Boring recommends dividing these projects into small, manageable tasks, creating a time-line for completion, and scheduling the tasks, one by one, into the day's "want to do" list over a period of time. Beyond these criteria, Boring offers another idea for how to set priorities in the three categories. "Ask yourself how much value each tasks adds," he suggests. If a task seems important on the surface (e.g., it may have a high "emotional" component for you), but ultimately adds little or no real value to your department or company, then it is a candidate for the "may get to" list. Conversely, if a task adds a lot of value, place it in the "must do" list, even if you really don't want to face it. In other words, prioritize your work According to tangible value, not emotional considerations. "For example," he says, "few credit managers enjoy making collection calls, but they should be a priority." Boring offers another work planning tip: "Leave your work at the office," he suggests. That is, when it's time to go home, leave your work (the actual work itself, as well as the "emotional baggage" that may be attached to the work) at the office. This allows you to refresh yourself in the evening and go back to work the next morning with a positive attitude and a lot of energy. If you take work home with you, and/or if you think about or worry about it at home, it will drain you, rendering you unmotivated and ineffective the next day. "Finally, by having written lists, you can generate a feeling of accomplishment as you cross each item off upon completion," he adds. 2. Delegating. By assigning some of your work to your employees, you will force them (with your guidance and assistance) to become more efficient and, more important, to eliminate tasks that are ultimately unnecessary. That is, they will become more efficient on their own. Moreover, delegation will give you some time to come up with new and better systems and decisions that should ultimately streamline the operations of your department and eliminate unnecessary work. Before you can begin delegating some of your responsibilities to your staff, however, you have to
- Identify each employee's individual skills, interests, and capabilities. Then, delegate on the basis of these in order to take full advantage of what each employee has to offer.
- Provide your employees with regular educational opportunities. "That's fine if you're located in a large city with a lot of credit seminars and classes," you may say. "But what if you don't have direct access to these?"
Boring contends it is still easy to provide education to your employees. He, for example,
- Makes sure his employees have access to the appropriate professional (credit) and industry (food and beverage) periodicals, and
- Arranges for them to participate in NACM credit education programs. In fact, his employees are linked by phone to the NACM chapter in Phoenix, which offers night classes. (One evening, the Phoenix chapter considered canceling classes because it was 90 degrees, and the classroom had no air conditioning. Boring's employees listened in amusement to the discussion over the phone. It was 15 degrees below zero in Anchorage.)
3. Encourage independence. There is no way you can successfully delegate responsibilities to employees if you insist on looking over their shoulder every minute. You must foster independence in employees so that they will begin to gain confidence. Boring recommends doing this by providing
- Guidelines, not hard-and-fast rules. "We have general guidelines that everyone follows, but we don't have a standard operating procedures handbook," he explains. Besides giving employees some leeway, the absence of such a handbook saves time in other ways. "It would take a lot of time to create, and even more time to keep updated," observes Boring.
- Leeway. Boring allows his employees to approve permanent credit on small accounts (under $1,000 or so) on their own.
- Ownership. Whenever possible, Boring assigns employees to specific accounts. In this way, they know the details of each account and can thus handle it better than anyone else. "It also provides them with a sense of ownership and responsibility," he adds.
- Encouragement. Finally, if employees are initially reluctant to take on responsibility and make decisions, give them occasional pats on the back and other forms of encouragement. If they do make occasional mistakes, help them pick up the pieces and continue.
"There are very few wrong decisions in credit that can't be fixed," he contends. "For example, even if an employee authorizes a shipment to a delinquent customer that I wouldn't have authorized myself, there's still a good chance we'll collect, unless the customer goes into bankruptcy the next day, which is unlikely." Utilize Resources
One final time management technique, says Boring, is simply to make use of the plethora of internal and external credit management resources that simply didn't exist even 20 years ago. "While many credit managers think they need two weeks or more to turn around a credit application, I try to do it as a matter of routine in a couple of days. In some cases, I can do it in a couple of hours, relying on technology, networking, and credit reporting agencies." If accounts are small enough, he may not even bother checking references at all and may simply approve the account on the spot. "Again," he says, "it all gets down to setting priorities and adding value." Editor's Note: The above article originally appeared in the Credit & Collection Manager's Letter, a newsletter purchased by Credit Today in 2006. This article originally appeared prior to 2000.
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