Company: UPMC Health Plan, Pittsburgh, PA
Company Description: UPMC Health Plan, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is owned by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), a world-renowned health care provider. An integrated health care delivery system, we are committed to providing our members better health, more financial security, and peace of mind. Our provider network includes 140 hospitals and 29,000+ physicians, serving 4M Members.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Contact Center Leader of the Year
 Nomination Title: Rhonda Manski
- Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2021 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 248 words used.
Rhonda is driven to achievement and continuous improvement. Rhonda implemented a dedicated coaching program ensuring concierges receive biweekly coaching sessions. She led the team to build a Power App, Beyond, housing performance, easing the process with time spent on coaching vs. preparation, tracks/reports completion of coaching sessions, and drives improvement through valuable feedback: improved from a 4 Star to 5 Star rating in Quality. Coaching sessions in 2022 increased by 69,41%, and then another 30.04% in 2023.
Rhonda is enthusiastic and works hard on growth and development; focusing on career building, 97% of her leadership team started as a concierge. Rhonda designed Pathways to Leadership, yearlong program with training, mentorship, panel discussions, and celebrations for new leaders to be successful. She does annual summer training series with 2022 featuring The Art of Caring Leadership and 2023 Leadership Retreats focusing on self-reflection, care, and growth. Rhonda’s scores on how team members feel about their supervisor is 94.3% on the Engagement Survey.
Rhonda’s leadership is so well respected, that the University of Pittsburgh HR and WorkPartners team (leave absence management company) in 2021 asked Rhonda to take over their call centers, additional 55K calls monthly. She improved the engagement, reduced turnover, and increased customer satisfaction. Average Speed to Answer has dropped 75% across clients.
Other Achievements:
- Implemented Speech Analytics for QA, trending, and call reduction
- Deployment of Video Chat
- Chat team for an enhanced experience
- Tech Guide team driving digital engagement
- Refresher/Cross training
- Diversity Mentoring Program
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2021 of the nominated woman, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 248 words used.
The attachment demonstrates Rhonda’s achievements and incredible Leadership. Throughout are quotes across our organization, sharing testaments on Rhonda. Rhonda has had great success managing a remote workforce, yet highly engaged. Slide 5 contains video giving an opportunity to hear directly from Rhonda.
Rhonda has found the key to providing an outstanding and caring employee experience to create a great customer experience. Slide 6 outlines metrics she has achieved which are stellar. UPMC Health Plan has built marketing tactics to sell/grow our business based on this. Slide 7 shares marketing including billboards and commercial.
Rhonda’s commitment to growth and development builds careers, Slide 19-28: developing concierges and leaders alike to be the best they can be. No surprise 97% of her leadership started as a concierge and 50% of her team was promoted in the past year.
Rhonda knows the importance technology plays to help the team perform and creating an exceptional member experience. She seeks to understand strengths of her team and those more technically inclined are leveraged with the specialized teams. Slides 30-34.
Slides 35/36 exhibit her success of becoming a Third-Party Administrator based on the excellent customer service created. Slides 37/38 display the ability to do all of this while maintaining a high level of efficiency. Slides 40/41 are testimony to Rhonda’s leadership and how she has built a Customer Service team that is nationally recognized in the industry.
I hope that you can see why Rhonda should be awarded Contact Center Leader of the Year!
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.
Rhonda has the unique talent of leading with both her heart and her mind. She cares sincerely about her team and does what is right for them, yet still balances business needs. Because she is invested in her team and works to build their careers, the team is always ready to step up and help in any way they can. Rhonda is brilliant and innovative at finding and implementing technical solutions, efficient processes, and programs ensuring excellence, enhancing the experience of both our team and our members. She is passionate about her team, our members, and the success of our organization. Rhonda’s leadership has enabled our company to rise to the top and to have great success.
Rhonda earned Highest Member Satisfaction according to JD Powers in Pennsylvania.
- Briefly describe the nominated individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 200 words used.
Rhonda Manski, Associate Vice President, leads our Member Services Health Care Concierge Contact Center with 450 concierges answering calls, chats, email, web messages, and video chat with our 4M+ members servicing various health insurance programs, dental/vision coverage, Flexible Spending Accounts, HR support, and technical assistance. Rhonda’s team annually answers 3M calls, places 1.1M high touch outbound calls, 58K chats and 20K emails. She consistently has an outstanding performance with the 2023 YTD statistics being 85.32% Service Level (% in 30 seconds), 20 Second ASA (Average Speed to Answer), and 1.3% abandonment rate. Rhonda’s passion creates an outstanding Employee and Member Experience. The Member Survey scores for 2023 YTD are 98% Overall Satisfaction, 96.1% First Call Resolution, and 98.2% Customer Effort. Employee Engagement for Rhonda’s team is stellar with 97% participation and an 86% (compared to 79% at the entire company) Engagement score. Rhonda has a keen focus on employee and leadership development. She has earned the JD Powers Call Center Certification 9 times.
Rhonda ensures her team receives the kindness and care that she emulates, tracking and reinforcing all monthly one on ones, biweekly coaching sessions, quarterly career path meetings, and developmental training for everyone.
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 249 words used.
Rhonda’s programs, leadership, and focus translate to savings, 7% under budget for 3 years, saving $6,197,666. The leadership oversight, training, and speech analytics, reducing call volume on Commercial lines by 33.17% since 2020, enabling Rhonda to take on new products and members, increasing volume 32.44% Government Product lines, without increasing resources.
Rhonda took savings and fought for her team to have increased payrates, the starting salary by 15%. Rhonda’s engagement scores at 86% are significantly higher than Industry (SQM Benchmark) at 37%. Record turnover at 14.79%, down from 22.89%, equating to 36 team members annually, and at $23K for replacement, saving $828K. Industry turnover by SQM benchmark is 38% in 2022 and may drop to 30% in 2023, Rhonda’s turnover is half this benchmark. Fewer new hires reduced stress on the training team, allowing 14,773 hours of developmental training, a 66.57% increase with new hire training at 43,986 hours, a reduction of 14.34%. Developmental training enabled her team to meet Service Levels across all lines of business, 85.32% answered within 30 seconds for the year. Rhonda’s Customer Experience leads success with Customer Satisfaction at 98%, while industry according to SQM is 75% to 84%. Medicare member retention rates are 97.83%, compared to the industry at 84.4% according to the American Journal of Managed Care. Rhonda earned 5 Stars on our Medicare &Commercial Individual plans, while only 11% of the industry earned this distinction according to CMS.
| Attachments/Videos/Links: |
|---|
|
