Samplemed highlights the challenges to obtain ISO Certifications

Always keeping an eye on processes that we can improve or add to make our delivery more efficient and effective every day is what makes a company ready to face future challenges.

Samplemed went through a long process of improving quality and internal audit processes, which resulted in two ISO certificates, and as a way of also inspiring other small companies like ours to achieve this dream, it held a chat about the path achievements for ISO certifications and tips for aspiring ISOs.

The interview was with the Operations Manager, Rodrigo Leão, responsible for Quality and also in charge of conducting the ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 implementation projects at the company. Leão shared a little about his trajectory within Samplemed as well as his tips on the process.

 

What is your history with Operation and Quality?

– Well, I’m going to tell you a little about my story since I joined Samplemed. It was in 2017, I came from another company where I was already responsible for the ISO, for the Quality area of that other company. Samplemed, conquering new customers and wanting to attract new products and everything else, also sought to have this Quality look and that’s when I arrived here at the company. And that’s how you start working to get an ISO and prepare yourself, starting to have a Quality department, starting to have a different view of what the customer is saying. This already prepares you for the future and that’s what we started doing. First, I created a monitoring cell to monitor how the attendants speak, if they are following the scripts that the company asked for. Then, the creation of a satisfaction survey, which did not yet exist at the time. So, we were changing some things we had and improving others. From 2017 until now, we have been able to bring a lot of tools to help in the company’s day-to-day life and also in the evolution of the professionals involved.

 

With this experience of yours and with the journey with Samplemed, we went through several phases here and you witnessed many of them. I would like to ask you something a little more personal: what does Samplemed mean to you today?

 

– Samplemed for me means family. With family we fight, we laugh, we celebrate and here it’s the same. There’s the celebration part and there’s the fighting part, more calmly, the more heated discussions but all to arrive at the result. So for me it’s like a family. In the family we have these sets too.

 

As the leader of the Operations department, explain the macro a little bit to people: what the structure of the department is like today or any work dynamics.

 

– Today we have some strands within the Operation. We have an exam part, a crew part and an interview screen part. So, speaking a little about the exams: it is the client who is going to take out life insurance who requests this from the company and the company sends us that client’s data. Everything in a restricted way, complying with LGPD and everything. Then we get this data, talk to the client, and in the exams part, we send a professional to the client’s house. At his house, we do the blood collection, a health interview, we take measurements, we check the weight… Anyway, we do a whole lot of logistics in the back to have the professional at the time the client needs. Afterwards, we bring the collection to the laboratory, which is another big part of our service after customer service. So, the laboratory identifies how the health results are there and after all that, information is compiled and sent to the Insurance Company, which in this case is the one who assesses whether the applicant or the client will have insurance. Underwriting is by the insurer, in this case of exams.

In the case of the tele interview, we also receive information from the client and we make contact with that client to find out the best time he can attend to us for an interview. We identify the best time, whether he will be in a quiet place to be able to answer the questions without any kind of intervention, and we schedule this with our internal nursing team. This internal nursing team is only by tele interview. Unlike what I explained in exams, no one goes to the client’s house. He receives a call, so the logistics are a little easier, you don’t need to have a professional go to his house and he doesn’t need to fast. Here, it is an anamnesis that we carry out via telephone and after asking these questions, there are a few steps: first, we go through the tele interview audit area, which has a specific nurse who identifies what the client said with what the nurse mentioned in his interview. If there is any point of divergence or doubt, this auditor returns this case to our skin team to redo it, talk to the client and resolve this point of doubt. Then it goes back to auditing and then to the underwriting area, which makes a more technical assessment of the possibility of that customer having or not life insurance and gives an acceptance, a refusal or possibly a conclusion. This operational part starts there in the scheduling and goes to the audit area, to then actually go to the Underwriting.

One thing we didn’t comment on: this collection of exams, all this logistics, it’s all over the country, right?

 

That’s it, anywhere we serve. There was even a time when we had a city that could only be reached by boat. It took an hour to get there by boat and we found a way to serve this customer. Of course, the logistics to get all this takes a little longer than when we have some other locations, but we managed to serve this customer. He couldn’t leave there, he was a big businessman in the region, he couldn’t leave, but we managed to serve him. I think that if it is the most distant case that we assist like this, it was already on the border of Brazil, but we assist.

In general dynamics, what are the biggest challenges you have at work today? For example, on a day-to-day basis, the issue of the Home Office or hybrid work, the issue of workers and managing multiple teams: what do you put there as a challenge?

 

– Well, the main challenge today is really the Home Office, because any conversation becomes a meeting. When we are at the company in person, the person stops by and we sit down quickly and solve it. Today, we have to make a Teams call that turns into a mini meeting. This is a challenge, but over time, since March 2020 we have been in the Home Office, it becomes a new habit and we are adjusting. In the operations team, we have people who work from home and we have people in person, so we have to manage the process in a more hybrid way. I try to go to the office twice a week to check with the staff. I talk to them and we check how the situation is. There are our tele and exam coordinators that I hold meetings with them so that they can help on a daily basis, but I think the main point is that when we are in person you can talk to two/three people quickly and when we we are via the Home Office sometimes as they are different matters I have to call one place to another and then at the end of the day you spent making several calls.

 

So, reinforcing for those who don’t know, Samplemed since the beginning of the pandemic entered the Home Office. We have workers, most of the office in fact, now have a definitive remote contract. It’s a big operation, with exams on call and everything, and Samplemed has always cared a lot about people’s well-being and health in the first place. So, in times of a pandemic, the home office was adopted by the company. But come on, we have a very interesting scenario: we have a large home office team and we have an ISO project at the same time. Sometimes it seems contradictory, because when we think of ISO we think of Large Companies that have that very traditional structure and Samplemed has a flexible and more agile structure and even so it managed to obtain both certifications. I would like you to tell us a little bit about the certifications that the company has won, of which you also brought a good part there in leading the project. Let’s start talking about it: where did this initiative come from?

 

– Well, this came from the initiative when I joined the company. In conversation with our very great Jairo, he said that this was his dream for the company, to have the ISO, and that my coming was to start this dream. We know that sometimes it takes a little longer to reach that dream, there are changes in the process, there was a pandemic in the middle of all this, but in the end we did it. So, how do you start an ISO? Regardless of the company’s structure, sometimes a bigger company, a smaller one, a little more flexible, no problem. There are some criteria to be met. There are some that are mandatory and others that are desirable. The important thing is that you comply mainly with the mandatory ones and show that we are doing something. For example, a mandatory ISO criterion is to have a structured HR, with processes and procedures for hiring, training, dismissal, payroll… Usually companies already have this. When people think of ISO they think “Wow, but I’m going to have to do a lot” and no, a lot has already been done and it’s really showing that there is evidence there for an auditor, for a certifier that that happens and to follow up and keep everything up to date.

 

Samplemed grew, called me for the quality part, then structured HR with the transition from coordination, direction, structured IT, the Products area, the Marketing area. And it was structured… when the moment came when all the areas were more structured, with indicators – it is important to have indicators with metrics and objectives – at that moment we were able to call a certifier, an external auditor who can verify that we are complying with the basic requirements there from ISO, and then in fact comes the final test: which is the certifier going through and doing an audit with everyone and verifying that it is in agreement. Having all this, we got a certificate that arrived just two weeks ago. The certificate arrived for us today, February 9. We have two weeks that we have the new certificate in hand.

 

Which two ISO certificates does the company have?

 

– We have the 9001, which is the 2015 version…it’s important to say something about this: when we say 9001-2015 people think that the 2015 is late and everything. There is a global group that annually looks at the version of the norm. So the last time it was updated was 2015, but every year they check to see if it still makes sense today. That’s why it’s in 2015. Before 2015 it was 2008 and probably that year there will be a new update. When there is a new update, the company has to adapt to this process. The 9001-2015 is about process, quality, demonstrating that the company complies with customer requirements and that it meets with quality. We also have 2701-2013, which is specific to technology. There, it already charged in the past what LGPD charges today, which is that you treat customer data safely, have a technological structure that does not let customers or employees down, who can do everything with the greatest possible security , demonstrating to the market and also internally that there is no data leakage when we deal with our customers’ customer data.

Something that I forgot to mention but is very important and that is part of our exam team is about the crew. The entire crew area complies with ISO 9001 and 2701. Crew members, for those who don’t know the background, are people who want to work on a ship, for example on an MSC a Royal, who come through recruiters, come to us our office, today we serve in the office in São Paulo and we also serve outside São Paulo.

He comes, he does all that similar to the part of exams but he comes to us And then we also do a health interview with him which is a long interview, a very specific interview, with health exams, blood tests and we do everything this analysis and we demonstrate to him whether or not he can actually board according to what the company asks. A great differential that we have at Samplemed is this extra concern with the crew when an exam is a little out of line with the company. We give him an explanation of what he should do so that the exam is normal. For example, his BMI is a little high: we asked him briefly what his eating habits are, if he does any activity, we suggest looking for a gym, looking for a nutritionist so he can try to lower that BMI and stay within what the company asks and then be able to board without any kind of problem. We know that not all of them do this, but we are concerned about it here, because in fact it is an investment that the crew member makes, he pays it to us right away and he needs this work, this is
important. And this whole part is within the ISO processes. We have processes for each company, we have a satisfaction survey with the crew member, how he felt in our service… so, we have this whole set of data and it also puts us on a different level in relation to other companies that provide the same service.

Very good! And this already brings a bit of the perspective of continuous underwriting, which is something we already have with a crew member for some time, but which we are systematically preparing to launch some new things to the market soon! The teaser is here in the middle of our interview!

 

For us to close here, I would like to ask you to leave a message for the people who helped us achieve this ISO dream… what message would you like to leave for the managers or for your team?

 

– The main message is first a thank you, right? Thank you for everything, because when we started with the ISO process, when we started demanding to have some things, it seems boring, but when in the day-to-day process we ended up identifying that this was actually necessary. And how people, employees, managers received it, made all the difference. There was no manager or any employee who has those old phrases of “I do it like this, I’ve always done it like this and it will continue like this”, everyone was open to changes and that shows a lot of Samplemed: always very open to change and that’s why today we got where we are and we got here mainly because of this open team. It’s a team that works happily, no matter how busy it is, every day everyone has a smile on their face, see your smile here too. As much as there is a rush on a daily basis, we are always with a smile on our face, open to new ideas. This was super important, how malleable they are and how much I can actually say that they are family, because we don’t say that anyone is part of the family, but at Samplemed, the team, the managers, are really part of the family.

 

What a beautiful thing! I would also like to ask for a message from you to other companies that have this dream of conquering the ISO: What would you have to say to them?

 

– Do not worry! ISO is not a rule that you have to abide by. You demonstrate to ISO how you arrive at what it asks, but it doesn’t show you how to do it, it directs you. So, today companies say “Ah, ISO asks like this!”. No, if you say you’re going to do a procedure on a piece of bread, what you described, you’ll be charged. That’s the main point, folks! Don’t worry, don’t get stuck in the standards that ISO asks for, because it tells you to do it but it doesn’t say how you should do it. For example, it says that we have to do a satisfaction survey. But if we do it through an online form, WhatsApp or face-to-face, it is not dictated. It just says that we have to have it. So, sometimes people get a little stuck saying “Ah, the ISO says to do it like this!” and no, the ISO directs you and how you are going to do it is a methodology that the company will adopt. So don’t be worried about it. It really is hard work, it’s a little ant’s work, it can’t be done in six months. We have to do it in a year, a year and a half, because everyone has to adapt to
the process and this has to be natural, because when it is natural, the audit is perfect. That’s how it happened to us, in the company’s first certification we didn’t have any notes, only conservation, and an observation is “Ah, only you do it in an x way, do it in a Y way”, that’s all. So, it’s a company that is very malleable, it’s a company that, as I just said, is always open to new changes, it’s always changing and we managed to do that smoothly. Even changing, doing it our way, having a product that is not a product that everyone has, we managed to have the ISO, so you will too!

 

About Samplemed

For over 32 years, it has been providing integrated solutions that make the analysis and underwriting of risks associated with health smarter in Brazil and worldwide.

This purpose is only possible by offering processes and tools that contribute to making the personal insurance market increasingly transparent and inclusive. The products are always offered in order to lead the market flow to evolution.

For more information, please contact:

Paulo Andrade

paulo.andrade@samplemed.com.br

+55 (11) 98415-0336