Ever since Wendy was a child, she’s loved finding new, more efficient ways to do things.
“My mom would sometimes get mad at me when I was cleaning my room,” she says. “Because about halfway through the process, I’d realize that my room could be organized much better, so I’d pull everything out and spend hours rearranging items into new places.”
Wendy now works as a Regional Account Administrator, supporting sites in the Plant Services Group. She brings that same drive for continual improvement to her work every day.
“One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone tells me “well, that’s just how we’ve always done things”— she says. “I—ll always fight to implement the right fix.”
—Wendy was invaluable when it came to fixing two major issues,” says Eric Godard, VP of Operations in Plant Services.
The first issue that Wendy solved involved purchasing cards. “We operate all over the Midwest and Central U.S.,” she says. “We have a system that allows our teams to quickly go out and get something if they need to fix a machine or keep a plant running. But we also need to make sure that these cards aren’t being used out of scope.”
To solve this problem, she worked with the operations team to audit how we were using the tool and reviewed standing policies. “I advocated for site administrators to have access to a better reporting tool in their role. We are now implementing a new system of review that will eliminate opportunities for out of scope purchases.”
The second issue involved lagging accounts payable (AP) invoices at a client site. Wendy was a member of a team assembled to tackle the issue. “We started by analyzing the procedures in place for receiving invoices at a number of different sites, and then looked for ways to efficiently apply the best of those procedures to all vendors at all locations.”
The team roundtabled on numerous occasions—at several sites in person, over conference calls, and via email. “We discussed the benefits of a new system, and the potential pitfalls. It was a very involved process. But once the newly designed system was implemented, the AP issues disappeared quickly.”
Wendy’s favorite aspect of the new system is that it empowered the administrators working with the vendors to have a voice in the process. As a result, they’re now taking more ownership, as they have the tools they need to make the process work better for everyone involved.
Opportunities to collaborate on problems with people from across the organization Is Wendy’s favorite part of her job. “Working on the accounts payable issue was great. We got to take an old process, hold it up to the light, and discuss all the ways it could be improved. Each member of the team brought something different to the table. I loved it when someone would say, “have you thought about it from this angle It showed that everyone was dedicated to coming up with the most optimal solution.”
This culture of teamwork and collaboration is something that C&W Services brings to all of its client sites, as it results in innovative new ideas; increased productivity; and a tight-knit, efficient workforce.
Wendy is one of many stories we have from the field that demonstrate how our team’s culture is the backbone of our service delivery success. We pride ourselves on delivering a broad portfolio of services, developing and empowering our people, and defining a new status quo.
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