District Service Manager

Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 103,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.Primary Job Function:Responsible for implementing and maintaining the effectiveness of the quality system. Guides, coaches, and directs a staff engaged in providing direct service and support to Abbotts Diagnostics Division (ADD) customers or other clients. Promote ADD product and image by providing superior service and support to the customer.Core Job Responsibilities:Responsible for implementing and maintaining the effectiveness of the quality system.Applies an understanding of diagnostics systems and products; and how they operate in customer environments to ensure adequate support and service. Utilizes the documentation and information processes in ADD and understands the requirements of the quality system to ensure records and data are properly collected and maintained. Operates within the constraints of the financial budget; produces data to help support the development of the budget.Provide technical direction to staff. Assure availability of advanced technology to area of operations and that people are trained and familiar with the applications required for their jobs. Understands trends in the industry to make recommendations for improvement in our operations and define the requirements for improved operations. Maintains an awareness of customer issues and provides recommendations on emerging trends. Implement processes and procedures to support business objectives.Prepares reports and tracks product complaints and reliability; makes recommendations to improve service and support.; Serve as role model for subordinates; coach and mentor staff to enhance professional development.Complete performance reviews and assist with development planning for individuals within the group. Assure that unit goals & objectives are communicated. Build an effective team; motivate and inspire staff; assess team performance.Make staffing decisions appropriate for the project. Administer and provide input to reward and recognition programs. Frequent interaction with customers, field service/support personnel, frequent interaction with local Sales staff to determine appropriate selling and service tactics. Maintains a positive working environment. Ensures open communication and problem resolution occur in a positive manner. Negotiates with customers to resolve service issues and improve relationships. Ensure adequate two-way communication with service; support and sales districts to coordinate appropriate support levels. Negotiates transitory resources to meet short term needs and priorities. Analyzes Departmental Issues. Uses industry, technical and product knowledge to solve problems and resolve operational issues; uses standard tools, metrics, and systems to evaluate data; understands trends and the impact on business, provides adequate data to define issues, assesses performance data for impact on business and customer.For Example: Uses WWCMS data to research customer history; compares that data to his knowledge of the industry to resolve a customer need or complaint. Resolves Departmental Issues: Recommends plans and alternatives for departmental situations, supports organizational/ functional area decisions, justifies costs in area of responsibility; demonstrates knowledge of business drivers and assesses situations accordingly.For Example: Determines when an outside resource are required vs. working overtime. Makes changes to improve productivity. Evaluates Business Impact to Makes Decisions. Identifies alternatives by considering the impact of the solution on resources; performance and the business goals; considers customer needs when assessing risk; monitors quality of day-to-day business operations. For Example: Analyzes and decides how to deploy assigned personnel to solve customer request for extended hour coverage (how should the district handle on call for a product).Resolves Departmental Issues/ Situations (Specific; Ambiguous or Novel) Synthesizes and evaluates information to select alternatives and develop solutions for complex issues within area of direct responsibility. Assesses risk and considers customer needs; makes decisions consistent with business objectives. For Example: Changes configuration of district staffing to eliminate a conflict situation between and employee and a customer (Should a specialist be involved?). Manages Department Goals and Projects. Sets realistic goals and schedules and defines tasks necessary to meet business needs; plans for immediate needs (3-6 months); prioritizes tasks; organizes own activities and time to complete multifaceted tasks and assignments; coordinates work of direct reports; established controls to ensure customer and business needs are met; stays within budget. Manages daily execution of operations. For Example: Works with employee and provides immediate feedback when effort or priority conflicts with goals (for example; not meeting First Visit Resolution goal) Integrates Planning Across Department. Coordinates the planning for multiple projects; assesses and recommends alternative resource plans within organizational guidelines; identifies constraints/ critical path; resources and timelines. For Example: Monitors work of team in the delivery of the new PMI protocol. Makes sure corrections are implemented when delivery of protocols are not consistently met. Monitors and Coordinates Departmental Projects. Assesses capacity and skill mix; establishes plans within area or responsibility; monitors project status against milestones and adjusts plans when necessary; establishes measurable impact goals. For Example: Deploy a specialist to a problem account away from another project if an FSR is having difficulty resolving a problem; Anticipates Customer Needs. Establishes good relationships with internal and external customers; proactively pursues customer needs; identifies gaps and drives improvements in processes and products to meet customer expectations; follows through on customer requests; understands the customer and their business and acts accordingly when making decisionsProvides Effective Customer Support and Service: Manages organization to address needs of all accounts; monitors customer needs to ensure that problems are solved; manages organization to create positive impact on customer satisfaction; builds partnerships of mutual trust and commitment, acts on data and information to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, seeks innovative opportunities to provide greater customer satisfaction. Supports and Executes Quality Focus. Follows and contributes to corporate and division policies and procedures; establishes quality metrics and measures adherence to all regulations; monitors and takes corrective action as required, identifies and communicates customer quality concerns and highlights risks to management. For Example: Insures that the FSRs follow the proper protocol in completing service documentation.Sets Standards for Success. Defines standards; measures performance against standards and outcomes; designs actions to ensure quality strategy and systems are applied; assures appropriate training and performance improvement programs are in place. Interprets Financial Results. Uses financial reports to make departmental operational decisions; provides data to support budget requests; reports on the status of the departmental budget, contributes to the planning cycle through research and interpretation of data.For Example: Insures his work team operates within prescribed budget.Manages Departmental Resources. Applies approved recruiting practices to hire candidates for the organization; evaluates success of candidates and improves process to ensure that the best candidates are hired; strives to minimize turnover through appropriate recruiting and interviewing practices. For Example: Interviews a wide variety of candidates to improve odds of a successful hire and to improve recruiting skills. Attracts and grows people to maximize the collective skills of the organization. Inspires and motivates them to achieve the organization's strategic intent, vision, and goals. Creates and sustains the organization and structure needed to support our people and strategies. For example: Determine needs of the organization and assures a strong pool of talent to achieve organizational goals; staffs the organization from various disciplines; backgrounds; and cultures and capitalizes on diversity; creates an organization committed to integrity; creates a productive organization; establishes clear expectations and timely feedback; serves as a role model.; Receives/Gives Feedback. Asks for and gives constructive feedback on the strengths and development needs of self/others. For example: Completes a feedback assessments; requests a feedback session after an important milestone; participates in a team performance process review.Coaches/Mentors Others. Provides coaching/mentoring in technical; business; and organizational areas; tracks progress; gives feedback; fosters developmental planning for all employees. Supports career advancement; participate in career goal discussions and act as an advisor to direct reports.Identifies Current and Future Development Needs. Stays aware of business goals and technology advances to identify needed skills; knowledge and experience for self and others. Prepares a plan that sets appropriate development goals; balances the time needed for accomplishing current work and achieving development goals.Integrity; Achieves organizational goals through strategic objectives. Maintains; promotes and models social; ethical; and organizational norms; firmly adheres to the codes of conduct and ethical principals. For example: Immediately reports and takes action when corporate standards of behavior are possibly violated; Acts as a role model and coaches other on meeting these standards.; Actively Listens. Listens actively to acquire information and understand the other's viewpoint; asks questions to elicit further information; reads nonverbal and tone of voice cues and adjusts manner accordingly; verifies understanding of others’ inputs. Exchanges Information.Exchanges information internally and externally with appropriate frequency and within a time frame to maximize its utility; verifies information is understood by recipient; confirms agreement to action plan. Develops new channels and forums for communication to meet business needs. Recognizes need to communicate cross-functionally. Considers impact of decisions on broader organization communicates appropriatelySpeaks and Writes Effectively. Presents ideas clearly and concisely; adjusts communication to audience needs, defines appropriate communication method for disseminating information.Makes Presentations. Delivers informational; persuasive and motivational presentations to employees; peers; customers; regulatory agencies, and/or senior management, articulates and translates department and functional strategies and objectives; represents the organization to other areas of the company and to outside vendor.Establishes Relationships. Initiates and cultivates open, honest relationships with direct reports, peers, managers, and internal and external customers, develops an understanding of others’ needs and follows through on commitments.Encourages Open Exchange of Ideas and Knowledge Sharing. Creates a culture of open; honest communication where all are encouraged and feel free to express their views. For example: Fosters a work environment with continuous open communication and knowledge sharing; frequently solicits ideas and shares information with staff and others; Encourages the expression of opposing and different points of view; practices effective listening skills, proactively seeks feedback, gives honest feedback, positive and critical, both to staff and higher levels of management.Negotiates/Resolves Conflicts. Clearly defines issues; options and expectations, seeks mutually acceptable solutions in negotiations and disagreements; balances the customer's and the company's needs; gains agreement and solidifies agreed upon options.; Sets Vision and Strategy. Communicates a clear view of the desired future state. Create and deliver a vision of the future to maximize company performance. Establish and commit to strategies and a course of action to accomplish that long-range vision. Communicate a clear view of the desired future state.Key actions: Understands trends and their implications; maintains a strong customer focus, Identifies and capitalizes upon opportunities to create value from cross-divisional capabilities, effectively communicates vision and strategies; looks to the future to identify opportunities and seize them; translates business vision and strategies into plans and goals.Drives for Results. Establishes high goals for organizational success and personal accomplishment. Leads to meet or exceed those goals. Creates a nimble organization that executes well and makes speed in achieving high quality results a competitive advantage for Abbott. Key Actions: Collaboratively sets realistic challenging; measurable goals and timetables. Keeps self and other focused on key performance indicators, sets short term objectives that drive toward longer-term goals or strategies, supports staff with necessary resources, holds self and others accountable for delivering high quality results, evaluates self regularly and is tenacious.Know the Business. Understands Abbott's customers; markets; business operations and emerging issues. Bases decisions on facts; experience and logical assumptions; taking into consideration opportunity for gain; resources; constraints; risk/reward and organizational capacity. Key Actions: Continuously secures and evaluates relevant information; identifying key issues, trends, relationships and cause/effect as they impact the business, appropriately consults with experts, learns from and builds on business experience to produce success. Creates organization capable of learning from success as well as failure; demonstrates a strong personal capacity for learning new aspect of the business and encourages others to do the same.Makes Difficult Decisions. Makes timely decisions in the face of obstacles; difficulties; and challenges; acts decisively demonstrating confidence and the strength of one's convictions; commits the organizations to achieve the company's strategies taking calculated; well-thought out risks when necessary.Key Actions: Demonstrates willingness to make; and accept; unpopular decisions, or to take an opposing position; challenges status quo or traditional way of doing things; correctly recognizes crisis situations and takes corrective action at the earliest indication of trouble; recognizes errors and makes midcourse corrections; demonstrates willingness to admit mistakes; learn from them; and be held accountable for their impact.Initiative: Takes prompt action to accomplish objectives, takes action to achieve goals beyond what is required; acts proactively; originates action to improve existing conditions and process.For example: Takes thoughtful; yet timely action when confronted with a problem or situation; takes action beyond the job requirements to achieve objectives. Innovation: Generates innovative solutions; tries different and novel ways to deal with work problem and opportunities. Recognizes process gaps/flaws, develops and implements own ideas; questions usefulness of procedures; continually seeks to improve processes.For example: identifies opportunities for simplifying processes; listens to and applies ideas of others, looks for alternative ways to see or define a problem. Adaptability: Maintains effectiveness when experiencing major changes in work tasks or the work environment; adjusts effectively to changing work within work structures; requirements; or cultures.For example: Understands changing customer expectations, situations, and environment. Treats new change and new situations as opportunities for learning and growth. Speaks positively about change.Position Accountability / Scope:Operates within the constraints of the FDA and other regulatory agencies; ensures no violations occur. Interview and selects candidates to meet specific needs. Ensure that positions are filled in a timely manner with qualified candidates. Provides input to department budgeting and planning. Identifies projects and resource requirements to assist in projecting financial needs. Achieves the objectives of the financial plan.Minimum Education:Knowledge of regulations and standards affecting IVDs and Biologics. Bachelor's degree with 4-5 years’ customer support experience preferably in the diagnostics industry or in a lab environment.An Equal Opportunity EmployerAbbot welcomes and encourages diversity in our workforce.We provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities.To request accommodation, please call 224-667-4913 or email corpjat@abbott.com