Give back, get back

What was your journey into quality?

I began my career as an engineer, providing technical support to our customers, who produced medical devices. It was a heavily regulated area where the cost of poor quality could be significant, so I guess without really thinking about it, quality was always baked in.

After two years, my role changed and become more inward facing. My experience of how our different medical device customers were operating, what quality looked like from their perspective, their challenges and good practices, all of those learnings, were taken and applied in our workplace. My job title changed to Quality Engineer, so that was my official starting point into quality.

Aside from managing customer and regulatory requirements, my role also involved working with the Operations Director and managing operational processes. Plant utilisation was one of the key performance indicators. From review, it was identified that human error was a contributing factor to downtime. To tackle this, I was tasked with developing a vocational training programme to upskill our operators and ensure consistency of process operations.

This was another new task for me, however it was one that I found tremendously rewarding. The programme took 18 months to develop, have approved and complete the first cohort. The results were really positive, not just from a utilisation perspective, but more importantly from a people perspective, as there was a noticeable change in confidence, culture and behaviours, with a number of those first employees positively progressing within the company.

That positive impact ignited my passion for training and many years later, this is still one of my key areas of work.

When and why did you decide to join the CQI? 

I first joined the CQI in 2009. By this stage I had been working in quality-related roles for 10 years and had just set up my own company. The CQI was a membership platform that aligned with my work experience and future interests. I used the membership scheme to benchmark my then current level of experience, and was happily surprised to be awarded Chartered Quality Professional during my initial application process.

That independent recognition from CQI was really important early in my career to provide a level of assurance to perspective new clients.

"‘Get involved’ is the simplest piece of advice. Look at your local network and see what they're doing; there are now many special interest groups, so just get involved."

Kristian Hill CQP FCQI, Director, ACT 4 Solutions Limited

What prompted you to get so involved with the CQI as a volunteer and how does that help you as part of your CPD?

When I saw the CQI’s re-grade offer about six years ago, I thought “Oh yes! I’m interested in that.” By that stage I'd supported a wide range of businesses through various improvement projects, so I thought I had all the necessary experiences required for fellowship.

However, when I read through the application requirements, it kept mentioning volunteering. I was hitting lots of the criterion as part of my job, but as it was my job, I was being paid for it, rather than volunteering.

So, I contacted the CQI to ask what I could do to volunteer and they suggested restarting the CQI Branch in Northern Ireland, as this had been dormant for some time. My initial thoughts were: “Yes, I could do that for a year..." However, as I got more involved, I got more interested and that sense of 'giving back' – as with the vocational training programme – was very rewarding. 

I then got involved with the CQI Membership Council (now CQI Council) and had some great experiences working with the Council and the CQI Professional Networks (PNET) team to support both new networks and those, particularly during Covid, that were facing challenges to support CQI members in their area.

None of this would happen without the dedication of member volunteers and organisations who volunteer their premises, time and knowledge. I have been very fortunate to meet some fantastic member volunteers and volunteer organisations during my time with CQI. This network is also an invaluable benefit.

The obvious aspect regarding CPD is attending events; however as a volunteer, it is far richer than that. I have lead committees, developed terms of reference, defined objectives and action plans for a branch (while aligning those with the CQI Strategy), planned, marketed and hosted events, supported professionals on their journey to chartership, supported other networks on their journey to achieve their objectives, and even learned how to host online events (before it became a thing!) – and more. The exposure and learning as a volunteer has been super.

What prompted you to become a CQI Fellow?

About six years ago now, I saw the offer to regrade and thought: "There’s the trigger for me to go and do this".

I’ve already mentioned my volunteering journey, but interestingly, the more I volunteered, the more enjoyment I got from that and, ultimately, that enjoyment become the reward. So much so that the initial reason for volunteering, to get fellowship, became less important.

That is probably why I delayed the application for so long – I was getting so much from volunteering that I almost felt I didn’t need to get the Fellow recognition.

I have to thank two member volunteers in particular, Michael McCusker and William (Billy) Rankin, for re-prompting me to submit the application.

What support did the CQI provide during the regrading process?

I already had a good idea of what was needed to hit the desired competencies, but I had a number of chats with both Billy and Michael to get an idea of how to structure the application.

When I had my initial draft completed I contacted the CQI’s Member Journey Manager, James Mayers, to ask if he would sense check my application. This was very useful, as James provided some helpful feedback.

What would you say have been the benefits to your career?

It’s early days yet, as I only became a Fellow a few months ago, but I have spent a lot of time already reflecting on what the gains have been for me over the past six years. There have been many, both professionally and personally, because of the volunteering aspect.

In our region, we have provided recognition for organisations that are consistently achieving high levels of quality, and ran cross-network events. There have been lots of benefits and gains along the way and it has helped to cement some good connections and form some great friendships as well.

What advice would you give to anyone who's considering regrading to Fellow?

‘Get involved’ is the simplest piece of advice that I can give. Look at your local network and see what they're doing or maybe think about what they could be doing. There are now many special interest groups, so think about what are you curious about, what you have an interest in, and what do you have an opinion on?

Get involved. You will be giving up your time, but you will receive that back, and more, in terms of added value. Taking part, and hopefully getting some enjoyment from that involvement, will also help you take the steps you need to complete the criteria for fellowship.

If you are not sure on how you could get involved, please feel free to reach out and ask.