How to balance speed with accuracy in new job - please help!!

[Snickerdoodles]

AIBU to ask you how I can balance working quickly with working accurately in my new job? Feeling pretty desperate!!

Started a new job a few weeks ago.

Before starting this job, I’d been unemployed for a while (and also never expected to be offered this job), so was really excited to be offered it and was determined to do my best.

Now, I feel like I’m floundering a bit though

I’m on probation at the moment (for 6 months). I have a catch-up meeting once a week with my line manager (will have one later this week).

I also have a formal meeting once a month. Before the formal monthly meeting, I’ll need to submit a self-assessment a couple of days before the monthly meeting to assess how I think I’ve performed and whether I think I’ve met my performance management objectives. I’ll then discuss how I think I’ve performed with my manager to see if they agree or not.

So there’s clearly a strong support network in place to help new joiners as well as staff who’ve been there for longer.

Here’s the problem though: I’m messing up tasks in my role every day(!!!) I really try to learn from advice and feedback from my manager, but I often end up making the same mistake twice or more.

To learn from my mistakes, I write all of the feedback and advice I get given in a notebook. I also ask questions to my manager and other colleagues in my team when I’m not sure about stuff. I obviously don’t want to annoy them by pestering them or bombarding them with questions, but I’ve been encouraged by them to ask if I’m not sure about things. I still get lots wrong though!!

I think the main issue is that one of the key elements of this role (if not the key element) is working very quickly to get things done.

The big problem is this: I try to get everything done as quickly as I can (I’m still working too slowly though, as my manager has given me a timeframe for how quickly I should finish certain tasks and I still often don’t achieve finishing tasks within that timeframe!!) but what’s more concerning is that, the quicker I try to finish tasks, the more mistakes I make. So I need to balance speed with accuracy, and I don’t know how. Any tips please?

I don’t know how to justify the mistakes I’ve made so far other than to say that I’ll learn from them.

I know and understand how to do the main processes involved in the job. It’s that, when I have to do these processes quickly and multi-task between them, I mess up big time and either don’t finish things on time (not acceptable in the job) or make stupid mistakes (also not acceptable in the job). I also need to multi-task all of the time in the role, which I’m not naturally good at at all. Any tips on how to be more effective?

Today was particularly bad as the team I work in was under-staffed, as we had a couple of colleagues off. So there was even more work than usual, and everything also took much longer to do, as the teams we work with took longer to respond (although this is out of our control, I’d like to know how I can deal with this sort of situation more effectively in the future).

I honestly feel like I don’t have enough hours in the day to get things done. But I need to get these things done!! How do I do it??

It might help us if you tell us your role? Or at least an idea of what it is in case anyone here has 'insider tips'.

Is there anyone you know who does the same job who you could perhaps have a chat with?

I would think speed is something that will come with time but then it depends whether your employer is expecting something beyond normal. Take typing for instance most good typists are 75 words per minute on average, but is your employer demanding 100 + that sort of thing?

Thanks Annie. It’s an entry-level role in the Civil Service that involves lot of liaising between different teams as well as working very quickly to get the job done.

Speed comes with experience, you have to do things slow and gain confidence to acheive this, as a manager I would encourage this. As the above poster said if we knew your role it might help

Thanks Why :)

I’m not sure how to explain what my role is without it being too outing.

I think the best explanation of it that I can give is this:
My role involves quickly and accurately checking work written by other teams across the Civil Service before moving it onto be checked by other teams. I also have to ensure that the work, once it’s checked by all of the necessary teams, is submitted on time and to the required standards. So the role basically involves having very strong attention to detail in order to work accurately and also to work very quickly.

Another issue is that I often have to chase the teams for late submissions of work, which means that I have less time than planned to check their work so I have to check it even quicker. The chasing obviously wastes time, which is pretty valuable. I’m really unsure about how to get around this.

I would say to you to concentrate on the accuracy. You can get faster, and that will be easier than trying to relearn if you get into the habit of making the same mistakes. Also, speed comes naturally the better you are at something and the longer you do it for. If they can see that one tranche of what you're doing is improving, that goes in your favour. Plus making mistakes has implications for other people and could well delay things more than a mild slow down in output.

Having said that, while I would say that accuracy is more important, you can make little tweaks with your speed at the same time. For eg I always find breaking things down and setting mini targets makes a task feel easier to undertake and when I feel less swamped I'm less pressured and work faster. Also, just take a moment before you start a job, visualise yourself at the end of it and see a smooth straight line getting you there. As you work, you're gliding smoothly along the line to your end goal with the focus always on how much closer you're getting to it.

Thank you so much, Harold - that’s really useful.

Do you have any advice on how I could focus on accuracy and make that a priority whilst also needing to constantly multi-task please (I need to constantly keep an eye out for new work coming in from different teams)? This is also my downfall! I feel myself getting distracted and losing my train of thought when I have to switch constantly between different tasks.

You can’t get around this and I would rather have someone accurate than quick. I had a nightmare day today due to people not taking the time to read paperwork. I would always encourage my team to take longer and hence why we make less mistakes than other sites. But some bosses go for mistaken performance targets. Don’t get me wrong if you were after 6 months still slow after training and advice I would have issues

Do you have a flowchart of what you need to do?

What do you do when this new work comes in? Do you have to action it straight away or log it? I mean, is it feasible to check for new work, say, every 15 minutes (maybe with a screen reminder)?

Flowchart is an excellent idea, whyare. If you don't have one, you could make one.

Could you maybe try a speed reading app to help you increase the volume of work you can get through? There are loads around- I use Spritz, but you can try a few to find one you like.

Also, there are 'proofreading' style apps such as Grammarly which could help you to eliminate certain types of error in written work, depending on whether you are checking writing style or substance (or both!).

Multitasking is a killer. There is a lot of evidence that having to multitasking drastically reduces productivity.

When you say "keep an eye out for work coming in" what does that mean precisely? Checking emails constantly? Do you have to immediately switch to the priority task, or could it wait, if so, how long for?

When i had a ridiculously multitasking job, i found the best thing was to take control and impose my own organisation system rather than being at the mercy of the constant interruptions that came in. I turned off the email popup thing in the corner of my screen and the alert noise. I would then check for new tasks at a time that suited me, e.g. after i finished each section of what i was currently working on. I used email categorisation in outlook to categorise things as urgent, look at later, I'm waiting for someone else's input until i can act, interesting background stuff. Then i could sort the emails by category to see when needed doing next.

The ideal system for your job will be individual to the job. Spend some time at the weekend thinking what system would help. The aims are:

• as much uninterrupted focus time as possible
• having a clear system to store everything else so it's not filling up valuable brain space or getting forgotten.

It can also be useful, if possible, to track jobs in. We have a service commitment of 48 hours to deliver our work, but clock does not start until work received, so delays in are not our responsibility (although we aim to be quicker).
Priority in my team is accuracy, not speed, as mistakes ultimately make things slower to get put the far end.

Can you tighten the first teams deadline to give you more time?

From a manager's PoV, it sounds as though you're being poorly managed, in that your workload doesn't reflect the amount of time you have to complete a task.

I also think the number of performance-related meetings you're expected to undertake is excessive, and seems to be taking up an enormous amount of your time, both in terms of attendance and prep.

I hate 'micromanaging', but from what I hear of the CS, it's pretty endemic, so I'm guessing this is a process thing that you don't have a lot of control over, but could you perhaps ask that PE meetings are spaced out a bit more, just to give you a bit more time and ownership of your role?

Agreed ^^
If they are such full on managers tell them the copy time is too tigh

I think I might know what your role is

"On time and good enough" is a helpful mantra: where the deadline is hard, it absolutely has to be done by that time. Don't spend time finessing words once you have got it to "good enough" standard - you will start to learn what "good enough" looks like as you become more experienced

Accuracy is key, though - if you aren't certain, don't guess. If you don't know something, ask. And always allow time to check your work over - I know it's frowned upon, but print it out to look at it in hard copy. You might find it so much easier to spot errors then, especially if you can put two pieces of paper next to each other to compare details

On deadlines, in short you need to lie... By which I mean, if you need something by 2pm at the latest, you tell the team that is producing it that you need it by 1pm. Then when they don't send it in, you have got time to chase it up. Be proactive if possible - drop them a line ten minutes before it's due to remind them that you haven't got it through yet and need it imminently. Remember that they are also juggling competing priorities, so make yourself one of their top priorities. You will learn which teams / people can be given an "extended" deadline (ie closer to the time that you actually need it) because they can be relied on to meet it, and who will always send you their return 20 minutes late

Do you fully understand the end-to-end process, including where you fit in and what the people you are commissioning have to do? If not, get your manager to explain it to you carefully. It really helps to unblock slow work if you know whether it's likely to be sitting on the desk of the person you have asked to send you a contribution or if it's sat on their manager's desk waiting for clearance.

Im a new civil servant too so understand you completley! Its so different from any other job (acronyms, style of working etc). I passed my probation with flying colours not so long ago even though i was the same as you - making silly mistakes and struggling to get used to tasks. Managers are really understanding and know that its hard to pick up this type of job easily. Theres so many different skills needed in my job that just come with experience. As long as you’re honest with your LM about struggling to pick up things then they’ll be understanding and may offer you more support or training! Dont panic!

The multi-tasking and speed leading to more and more mistakes sounds like an element of panic creeping in.
I agree with PP that you need to impose a bit of order to save your sanity.
Take a couple of minutes at the start of your day to work out what you need from whom by when.

Send out any information requests there and then so people can't claim you didn't give them enough time.

Set reminders on your system to check for submissions and send chasers.

Prioritise any tasks you have ideally by importance but sometimes by urgency is ok.

Work out how long it takes you to complete one discrete section / task. e.g. if one full task has four sections each taking you 10 mins.

Only check for new work when you have completed a section or task (or other natural break e.g. someone comes to speak to you or the phone rings).

If it all feels like its going crazy - STOP, take a few deep breaths or get away from your desk for a couple of minutes. Then re focus and reorder your tasks, take stock of what needs doing etc.