Team Update
Read Me
General Information:
Good afternoon! We are deep into pre-season already and there are things that everyone needs to be updated on. I will use this tool going forward on a biweekly basis to try and keep everyone up to speed on the things happening here at H&R Block. This is where we will announce a variety of things and I would encourage each of you to reach out to your friends and colleagues as well to make sure that they too are in the loop!
If for some reason you are on this list and you do NOT want to be, simply send me a quick email and I will take you off the distribution list. I am having some difficulty establishing a "right" list from all districts right now, so forgive me if you get news you really do not want!
The Constant is Change
For those of you that I do not know, let me introduce myself and address the purpose of my email to you all. I am currently a District General Manager in the Kansas City metropolitan area and lead the District that we call Kansas City North. I have been with H&R Block for six years and have had a variety of tax offices here in the area in that time. Last tax season, we operated 23 locations spread throughout Kansas and Missouri. I generally say that we have the office locations North of I – 70. I have been very fortunate to lead this team over the course of the last few years and I think we have established an exceptional group of people and a great team that cares not only about the Company, but most importantly those clients they serve.
You are all aware that this tax season was a very difficult season for us and most across the country did not hit targets. We waited, marketed, anticipated, trained, hired, and hoped, yet the season just did not produce the desired results. With that, the Company made the very difficult decision to make some dramatic changes to organizational structure as we continue with our reinvention and right sizing for the future. Many of our colleagues, some good friends, and perhaps even family members lost their jobs in this restructuring. There truly was impact at almost every level within the organization. This is the reason for my email and how we all move forward.
Our immediate impact: Our Region picked up some additional Districts in Arkansas, and Tennessee. Jason Mann will continue to be our Regional Director. The Kansas City offices will also now include our friends to the east, specifically Columbia, Jefferson City, Eldon, Tipton and California, MO. The Kansas City North team will add 5 offices to the grouping those primarily in the Independence area and the CSC office. The “new” KC East will include the remaining original KC East offices and will now include the Columbia team that I mentioned above. I will continue as the DGM for the Kansas North group and the search is on for a leader for the KC East team. Until the time that a leader for this group has been determined, I will have the honor of leading us through the early part of the pre season and beyond if necessary.
I have chatted with many of you over the last few weeks and as I stated during those conversations, we need to simply work the plans that were put in place. Sure, we may make some tweaks along the way, but right now we need to do everything that we can possibly do to drive some additional revenue in and stay the course. I will reach out to some of you leads over the course of the next couple of weeks for some specifics, but nothing substantial should be changing. Again, I say, let’s stay focused on simply driving revenue and providing great client experiences! If we do that, things have a way of working out favorably.
Training Changes: Block Academy
There are many changes currently underway as we are moving through the pre-season. One of the things that should have already noticed, is the new Block Academy. When you get an opportunity, if you have not yet done so, get out there and take a look at it and make yourself familiar. I am hearing great things and am looking forward to some of the great efficiencies to be offered.
Many of you are already thinking through your upcoming continuing education and I appreciate your enthusiasm. Keep the energy high here as we will push to generate great activity around certifying up once again. Certainly much more to come on this once we get classes lined out and such. Continuing Education rules will apply as follows this year: 10 Federal Tax hours, 3 Tax Update hours, and 2 Ethics hours. Of this you must also make sure that you complete 6 Instructor Led hours! This will be a district requirement for the upcoming tax season as we are seeing some substantial amounts of issues. Over the course of the last couple of years, ILT course participation has diminished and we need to get back to some basic stuff.
If you have interest in being an instructor this year, it is time to get your application in if you have not done so already. ITC will be very limited this year, so the demand for this instructor is less, but as I stated above we are requiring ILT coursework for completion of continuing education and eligibility for rehire, so we will need to have any number of great instructors!
Winner, Winner!
It is official! We are ready to announce the winners of the tax office incentive contest this past tax season. For those of you that might not remember all of the details of this, they are as follows:
TS16 Retail Office Incentive
What is the TS16 Retail Office Incentive?
It is an incentive that rewards growth and encourages
a team culture.
How do we achieve the TS16 Retail Office Incentive?
Your office must achieve the stretch Tax Plus Revenue growth target by 4/30/2016.
What happens if we achieve our stretch target?
The office will receive $1,000* to have a celebratory event decided upon by the office.
*Or $500 for offices with targets below 500 returns
AND THE WINNERS ARE:
OFFICE: 24590
OFFICE: 24074
OFFICE: 24088
OFFICE: 16566
OFFICE: 24083
OFFICE: 65389
OFFICE: 24479
OFFICE: 65385
OFFICE: 24451
Congratulations to you ALL!
Please begin to plan the celebrations with your teams and let me know your plans prior to making any commitments. There is a process that we will need to make sure and follow so as to document appropriately. Keep in mind this is a celebration for all of those individuals that helped make the WIN! Try to find something that will encourage participation from all parties since it was truly a team effort.