How can we Make Processes at Work Simpler and More Efficient?

As we start to look forward to the New Year now maybe a good time to review the established processes at work to see if tasks can be modified or eliminated altogether.  Process improvement focuses on streamlining established procedures, reducing costs and improving efficiency.  There are typically four ways to improve the processes at your business.

Update Your Tools and Equipment

Examine the equipment used to conduct your business along with your vendors to ensure that your business is maximizing the capital investments made and relationships fostered over the years. This includes, but is not limited to, computers, telephone systems, trucks, vans and cars, manufacturing machinery, maintenance contracts, printers and software. Older equipment malfunctions occur more often and operate less efficiently which can reduce efficiency, production and work flow. Modernizing the equipment will help mitigate down-time of equipment.  Ensuring that your vendors understand how your business has evolved over the years will also allow you to be more competitive and better aligned in your marketplace. Investing in prudent capital expenditures and enhancing your partnership with your vendors will pay off if you are able to get your product to the customer more quickly at a reduced cost.

Outsource Where Possible

Outsourcing has become synonymous with job loss for the internal staff; however, outsourcing means to transfer part of what is being done in-house to experts which in turn will free-up existing resources for other tasks being performed by your employees.  An example of out-sourcing Human Resource services includes such tasks as payroll management, short-term temporary staffing, employee survey design and analysis, company newsletters and professional development workshops.  Each of these tasks maybe performed more efficiently and be a less-expensive solution that if they were performed by an external solution.

Task Management

Tasks that are done efficiently once are often repeated because they work. This type of process inefficiency can gradually grow over time without being noticed. An illustration of this is a situation where each month reports are generated by Human Resources summarizing key staff information which is then delivered electronically to supervisors and managers in the company.  This time consuming process may not be necessary on a monthly basis but rather a quarterly or semi-annual frequency.  A better process would be to reach out to the supervisors and managers to find out what is appropriate and adjust accordingly.

Reduce Unnecessary Expenses

Cutting superfluous expenses are a proven way of maintaining efficiency. Unfortunately, when faced with a budget challenge, some small-business owners become overzealous in their cost reductions and risk sacrificing quality or good customer service. Reducing costs makes good business sense only if quality can be preserved, delivery time frames can be maintained, and customers remain satisfied.

To determine if conducting a process improvement initiative is appropriate for your business, ask yourself if a specific task needs to be modified, eliminated or could be performed more efficiently by investing in a better equipment or utilizing independent contractors or skilled vendors.

What Can We Do to Make Our Managers Better at Hiring?

Improving hiring skills is becoming the priority for public and private organizations as the economy recovers and more baby boomers enter retirement. I believe “hiring skills” is the organizational competency most likely to create growth and long-term success going forward. The need to identify the right talent for the right position is, and will continue to be, the most critical objective for human resources departments and hiring managers. So your concern and focus couldn’t be better. Unfortunately, most organizations’ HR departments offer a traditional approach to hiring and are not adequately matching advanced tools and strategies to the needs of the hiring manager. The key is to train hiring managers to be empowered to use the latest proven tools, processes and strategies. That way, HR becomes more of a strategic partner rather than a bureaucrat (from the perspective of the internal client) while the goal—consistently hiring superior performers—is more easily met.

 

Job benchmarking is the first step to securing the talent necessary to the organization’s success. The first question is: What talents are required for superior performance in the specific job?  Only the job has the answer, so use a system that lets the job “talk,” and then listen carefully. (I use a patented job-benchmarking process with all of my clients, developed by TTI Performance Systems, that enables an organization to benchmark the job. The client can then assess the talent of the candidate to find the best match to the job’s talent requirements.)  The essential elements of conducting a job benchmark using internal stakeholders and subject-matter experts is to first identify the key accountabilities for the position and then use a “valid and reliable” job survey to capture individual opinions based on those key accountabilities. By combining the results of up to 10 job benchmark surveys (three is adequate) into a single composite survey, the HR department and hiring manager have a “talent profile” or target for matching purposes. The job benchmark should offer job-related interview questions that promote dialogue around the applicant’s talents. The value of the job benchmark goes well beyond the hiring process, which makes for a high return on investment.

With a job benchmark in place, marketing the position and evaluating applicants for fit becomes much easier. The question now is: How does a hiring manager quickly and accurately separate the top talent from the applicant pool?

After filtering applicant résumés based on minimum requirements, and perhaps conducting a short phone interview to verify certain information (such as relocation and salary expectations), use a talent assessment for this next step. Not all assessments are equal. Assessments can measure very different parts of a person’s talent. Many of these assessments become very suspect when trying to verify the assessment’s validity and reliability, especially for hiring. Hiring managers should be able to easily learn how to understand and use the assessment to properly narrow the candidate pool, and use the assessment results to formulate questions to use during the interviewing process.
Interviewing candidates is time-consuming and has the greatest potential for creating biases. That is why I encourage and train hiring managers to use scientifically proven (valid and reliable) assessments that measure the “talent” of the person to help determine “who” will be interviewed.

Hiring managers want to be in control of whom they hire. Keep that in mind as you provide them with tools and strategies. This outline ensures the hiring manager is in control and uses an HR department in a more strategic way. Training the hiring manager comprehensively to be an expert in interviewing, hiring and using talent assessments can be done in 12 hours. That includes covering job benchmarking, using assessments for applicant evaluation, behavior-based interviewing skills and the legal dos and don’ts of interviewing. Breaking the training into three- or four-hour segments is a good idea.
With a carefully designed training program for managers, job benchmarking and talent assessment tools, and a process that enables the manager to stay in control throughout the process, you’ll have very satisfied managers and will realize that hiring superior performers is not as difficult to achieve as you first thought.

From a recent post at Workforce, Carl Nielson, The Nielson Group, Dallas

What are the Benefits of Promoting from Within your Company?

Today with business facing strong headwinds from both domestic and foreign competition retaining quality staff that have a proven track record is more important today than it has ever been. With unemployment near 10% and a flood of applicants trying to secure employment, Human Resources should re-examine their internal application process.

 

HR departments should internally post all open position for a minimum of 10 business days, establish a process for employees to apply for an open position and companies should encourage all qualified internal candidates to apply. If there is a skill deficiency consider looking at providing the internal candidate with additional training or support as you have a proven quality employee. Always get back to all of the candidates by letting them know of the hiring manager’s decision. Often times hiring an internal candidate will be an employer’s best decision as you have access to the candidates performance reviews, typically there is no drug testing, background checks or concern about performance.

 

Consider establishing a career opportunities program for your company. Promoting from within is often times the best business decision a company can make.

Is Turnover Going to Be a Problem in 2011?

As the economy improves and employees start to see new opportunities to increase pay and responsibility employers will start to see an increase in turnover.

 

Turnover is very expensive to businesses as there is the cost of sourcing candidates, time to interview and check references and then the training of the new hire to meet the daily tasks. 

 

One of the best ways to meet this challenge head-on is to ask your employees what their long-term goals are, do they need any additional training to be more productive on the job and what are some of the key challenges that they face. Often times it is just the discussion that makes the employee feel better about their manager and company. So ask your employees to share their thoughts and learn from their ideas.

 

Communication is very important and two-way communication is critical to retaining employees. As a reminder, if you lose an employee you will often have to pick-up their job in addition to your own so learn to listen and communicate more effectively.