Hardee County Sheriff’s Office provides 9-1-1 services for several communities in the central Florida region with an approximate population of 28,000. The staff responds to an average of 115 daily phone calls, and dispatches approximately 30,900 calls per year for service.
THE CHALLENGE
To identify areas to improve and establish consistent employee evaluation and feedback, Hardee County Sheriff’s Office was performing their own quality assurance evaluations for their dispatchers. The evaluations were performed in-house by the supervisors overseeing the dispatch center. As with many in-house quality assurance programs, this was causing tension within the dispatch center and raised concerns over fairness and reviewer bias. They were concerned that certain people in the department were feeling singled out and scored unfairly. They were afraid of jeopardizing the morale of the staff and decided it was time to bring in an outside company to objectively evaluate their work.
“Before we went to Replay for our QAs, we had the supervisor of the opposite shifts doing QAs. This left a lot of our dispatchers feeling like there was a lot of favoritism and bias.” – Sara Townsel, 911 Coordinator, Hardee County
THE SOLUTION
When searching for a solution for an outsourced quality assurance service, Hardee County didn’t have to look far. Their Sheriff’s Office 911 calls were already being recorded by Replay Systems, who also offers independent QA evaluations. The decision was easy. Hardee County decided to enlist the help of Replay System’s quality assurance service, named illuminate911 Quality Assurance. illuminate911 QA is a quality assurance evaluation service that provides objective reviews of 911 calls by a team of certified evaluators. These evaluators review the calls based on the customers criteria and provide feedback for quality improvement. Outsourcing their quality assurance reviews to a third party like illuminate911 QA ensured that Hardee County received unbiased, objective, and non-judgmental reports. The illuminate911 QA team also worked with the county to create new evaluation forms and scoring guidelines.
PROJECT OUTCOME
For Hardee County, illuminate911 QA was able to provide an unbiased and honest review process that allowed them to focus on their mission—serving the public. illuminate911 QA reports were professional and comprehensive, providing detailed analysis of dispatcher performance. In addition to providing a consistent review, the quality assurance reports provided valuable insight for the dispatch center to improve. The employees at the dispatch center now have additional data to use for performance evaluation, training needs, and fine-tuning emergency response techniques and procedures. The team at Hardee County Sheriff’s Office was able to focus on the reports and comments rather than personal remarks. The staff is more engaged and excited because they are no longer singled out, but as a whole, are working together collaborating for better results. The team at Hardee County Sheriff’s Office recommends the illuminate911 QA service to other agencies looking for an unbiased, professional, and comprehensive quality assurance program.
“If they are on the fence about illuminate911 QA, stop hesitating, and take the leap! It has made the QA process so much easier, less bias and no stress! I would also tell them that they will not be disappointed with Replay’s customer service. ” Sara Townsel, 911 Coordinator, Hardee County
Download PDF version here: Hardee County and Illuminate911 QA Case Study
