Talent Aquisition & Organizational Performance Improvement

Recently, at a conference of C-Level executives I was asked the following question:

"What contribution does the organization's Human Resource department make towards the performance improvement initiatives within the organization?"

This was a very interesting question. Why? Because many-a-times the Human Resource department of the company gets over looked as being an integral part of the company. Yes, the HR department is responsible for finding candidates, making offers, developing employee related policies and procedures, etc. -And one job that the HR Manager always gets involved (unwillingly) is the termination of employees. Aside from the above mentioned tasks (and a few others) the HR Manager is seldom brought in to operational meetings that relate to performance improvement initiatives within the organization.


In this blog, I will explain not only why is it important to keep the HR Manager involved in such discussions but also why such involvement by the HR Manager is a critical piece of the overall organizational performance improvement efforts.

The job of the HR department is a critical one. The HR Manager is the first line of defense against an organization's poor performance. Let me explain. One of the key functions of the HR department is to acquire the right talent for the organization so that the organization is able to reach its objectives "with ease". The most valuable assets of any organization is not its tables and chairs, nor is it the products or IP's; in fact it is it's workforce or in other words the organization's Human Capital.


The HR Department along with the operational folks need to hire the right type of people. However, it does not stop there. They not only need to hire the right people, but also need to align (staff) the abilities, i.e. strengths, accordingly with the job at hand. As any human resource (and hiring manager) will tell you "this is easier said than done".


companies that have a low turnover rate are able to retain talent due to proper planning and proactive staffing. Generally speaking, high turnover can be seen within organizations that have a reactive approach to hiring. This means that such organizations wait too long before they staff-up. When this happens they not only need people but also they need them fast (-and in some cases yesterday). In such environments, managers are being pressured to produce results faster and with limited resources. During the same time the HR Manager is working overtime, just trying to find the first "some what" good fit; but not neccessarily the "best fit". Needless to say, the requisition turnaround time is high and due diligence is not optimum. Reactive hiring usually results in low performance of the company because the wrong talent was placed or the talent acquired quit due to unrealistic expectations. Even worse, in some cases, wrongful termination lawsuits could bring the company to a screeching halt.


Therefore, in order to plan effectively, the HR Manager needs to be involved in some key operational meetings where the strategy for the business is being developed. If the HR Manager is aware of the business direction, then he/she can work proactively with the department managers to formulate a staffing plan in accordance with the strategic goals of the company. If this is done in advance, the HR department can then perform effective searches and present "the best fit" candidate to the hiring managers. In a proactive approach, ample time can be given to aligning the candidate's skills to the job; which eventually will affect the performance of the company.

If you think that this is not being realistic; that many jobs do not directly affect the performance of the organization, then consider this. A proposal for business comes via mail to the mail room. The person you hired was "just o.k.". You thought, that the mail room job is not that important, so anyone who can file will do. The person you hired was more interested in the clock out time and not so much in timely mail delivery or "information distribution". So, the delivery was delayed by a day. Unfortunately, the client wanted a 24 hr intent letter for this multi-million dollar project. This is only an example. The point here is, EVERY job is important; otherwise, why have the position?

It is unfortunate that many executives discount the role of HR and merely see it as an employee policy enforcement unit. As such many HR Managers are often left out of the critical initiatives of the company. Yet, they are held responsible for finding the right talent; and are often criticized for finding the wrong candidates.


A company's performance is directly related to its Human Capital. The right employee, in the right job can produce millions in revenue. At the same time the wrong talent can reek havoc at the bottom line of the company. Therefore, staff requirements need to be planned ahead of time, and the HR Department needs to be kept in the loop of the major initiatives so that they can acquire and retain the "best" person for the job. -And this is why HR does play a vital role in a company's performance.


Question: How involved is your HR department in strategic planning initiatives within your company?





Do you Need help with Performance Improvement within your organization? Give us call at 866-361-1275 (toll free)



Till Next time....



Salman Khan

CEO & Senior Advisor

skk@skkservices.com

www.skkservices.com

Project Management Office; A Quick Start Guide

This weeks topic will be on Project Management; specifically on the indicators that tell you (as a business) that it is time to set up a Project Management Office, What does a PMO mean, how to go about implementing it, and finally how to ensure that the PMO is effective and efficient.

So lets get started.

1. What is a PMO:

A project is different than operations because projects have a specific beginning and end. Project Management is the application of tools and techniques to ensure that projects get executed the right way and yield the desired results.

A PMO (Project Management Office) is a business unit within an organization that manages a group of individual projects or multiple programs within the organization and monitors and ensure the delivery of the projects or programs.

2. Indicators for the need of a PMO:

The typical indicators of the need for a PMO are:

• Initiatives in the organization are not ending as planned
• There are significant cost over runs
• Lack of control of the tasks within initiatives
• Frustration and confusion among the workforce on the purpose of various initiatives
• Unexpected reactions to implementations

There are many other indicators. However the ones mentioned above are the more predominant.

3. Implementing a PMO; the correct way:

A PMO is not a one person business unit. A PMO is a little more involved than just having one Project Manager within one's organization.

Having clarified that point, the implementation of a PMO involves:

1. Verification of the indicators
2. Management buy-in
3. PMO implementation structure identification
4. Budget allocation
5. Resources identification
6. Workforce buy-in
7. Inauguration
8. Execution

A brief explanation of the above points are as follows:

First the indicators need to be verified to ensure the need for a PMO. This is usually done under the direction of Management. Depending on the organization size, a task force can be created to conduct an analysis and present its findings to the Management or the Management (typically including the CEO, COO, CFO and CIO) can conduct this analysis themselves as well.

Once the indicators have been validated, it is important for the Executive Management (and/or Board) to fully support the implementation of a PMO. It is important to clarify that implementing the PMO will increase costs in the short-term; however the cost will decrease and benefits will increase once the PMO has been established and has gone through a maturity cycle.

Next, the Management needs to decide what powers to give the PMO. This involves understanding the company structure and then deciding how much authority the Project Managers will have over the functional managers.

The structure will determine the budget that needs to be allocated. Some organizations first establish a budget and then conduct the Matrix Identification exercise (i.e. the power of the PMO). There is nothing wrong with this just as long as the organization understands that it PMO success is directly proportional to the budget allocated.

Workforce buy-in involves educating the worksorce on the benefits of a PMO. A PMO typically increases the workload for employees as they will need to perform additional functions during their work to satisfy the PMO requirements as it related to their tasks. Resistance to this can be significantly reduced with the proper training and incentives.

The official launch of the PMO, which includes a PMO Director and several Project Managers, is conducted by an official internal memo and/or press release. This step gives the PMO legitimacy within the organization and should not be skipped.

Finally the PMO goes into the execution phase where it implements Project Management Best Practices as well as the tools needed for running the PMO.

4. Ensuring PMO Success:

This is a very critical piece within the whole PMO implementation process. It is very important to understand that the PMO "will" receive a lot a resistance from the workforce. -And when this happens the Management needs to be strong and re-enforce the longterm objectives and the reasons for the PMO.

Many-a-times, the Executive Management will crumble at the first sign of resistance. When this happens, the effectiveness of the PMO plummets and will never be able to effectively function.

Therefore, the PMO Director and the Management must follow the steps in point #3 (above) to ensure that the resistance has been identified and that at least 80% buy-in has been obtained. Unfortunately, there will always be some people in the workforce that will never accept the PMO and its objectives. This is where the PMO Director's skills as a strong communicator will be put to test.

In summation, a PMO can ensure smooth operations by successful project delivery. However, the way the PMO is formed, implemented, and executed will determine its own success.

Question:

Have you seen the indicators for a PMO in your company? Have you implemented a PMO and if so what have you experienced?

If you need more information on this topic please contact Sal at skk@skkservices.com or visit www.skkservices.com

You can see into the future. Strategy for guranteeing success.

Hello Everyone,
This week's topic is on ensuring success through iterative feedback and monitoring. Most often than none ventures, projects, implementations, and other initiatives fail because the leadership fails to implement proactive monitoring and feedback into the process.

The following is a practical tip/strategy that anyone can implement to ensure success in their tasks. The easiest, quickest, and the least complicated method to implement iterative feedback and monitoring within tasks is to:

1. Identify the feedback indicators
2. Choose the iteration frequency

Identifying the feedback indicator means to select the unit of measure by which one will determine if the progress is going as planned or not. The unit of measure is dependant on the task that is being performed. In many cases it is as simple as asking "Are you satisfied thus far?" or "Is there resistance". In other cases it could be the measure of the rate of implementation against a deliverable timeline.

Once the unit of measure has been identified, then the next step is to determine the frequency of the iteration. This means determining how often will the unit of measure be checked. This can be by day, week, or level of production, etc. For example, one may want to check the feedback indicator every week, every time 10 units are rolled out, or every time a milestone is reached, and so on.

Yes, I compare implementing iterative monitoring and feedback to the ability of seeing into the future because if one implements iterative monitoring and feedback processes, one can gauge how the tasks are progressing and can predict the outcome with a high degree of certainty; provided that the two factors mentioned above have been accurately identified and implemented.

To illustrate this with an example, if one is implementing a new process within Operations and using the iterative monitoring and feedback techniques one find out that there is much resistance then one can conclude that if the present course is not altered in a way to reduce resistance then the change will most likely fail. The same holds true for the opposite; that is if the monitoring and feedback indicators show that the change is being received and implemented with little resistance then success is ensured.

Therefore, do not discount implementing iterative monitoring and feedback within initiatives. It could be the difference between success and failure.

Question of the week:
Do you implement iterative monitoring and feedback within your initiatives? If yes, then what have you noticed? If not, what have your results been?

Till next time...

Sal
www.skkservices.com

Ensuring a Successful Process Change Implementation

Instituting change in an organization is not an easy task. Generally speaking, the larger the organization, the harder it is to manage change and ensure its success. However, in my experience I have seen small organizations struggle with change.

Change Management is a whole other topic in its self that has its own intricate processes. In this blog we will look at a larger issue of successful implementations of changes versus those that fail; why do they fail, and how to avoid from failing.

Successful process change implementation is dependant on the following two criteria:

1. Communication
2. Speed to delivery

Let us examine each one individually. However, let me first set the context of process improvement. In this blog, by process improvement we are talking about taking an existing process within an organization and improving upon it whereby changes are make to the process flow resulting in the process being optimized.

1. Communication:
Typically when any process that requires improvement has been identified it is because the stakeholders have determined a need. When the process (needing improvement) has been identified, there is usually a discussion among the stakeholders about what is wrong and how to improve it. This communication usually decreases with time as the process improvement begins; resulting in the process improvement being dragged on beyond its scheduled completion date.

The cause of this type of behavior of the change process is due to the lack of communication among the stakeholders. Slow or negligent communication causes people to forget and/or lose focus of the main driving factor for the change in process.

The solution is to establish a communication plan that routinely informs the stakeholder about why the process is being improved, how it is being improved, where in the process doe the change implementation stands, etc., In other words keeping the discussion and awareness of the process change alive.

2. Speed To Delivery:
The second factor in failed process improvement initiatives is unnecessary extensions of the time line for implementation. Speed to delivery is defined as the amount of time required from the inception of change to implementation of the enhanced process.

Common causes to slow down the speed to delivery is improper or non-action by stakeholders, poor communication, and lack of enthusiasm/urgency.

Improper action means to conduct activities that are not related to the process improvement initiative. Poor communication has been mentioned above. -And lack of urgency means that the stakeholders do not give the process that is being changed the attention it truly deserves.

To correct this issue and to instill the sense of urgency, stakeholder communication should be optimized. The communication should remind the stakeholders of the significance and reasoning for the change.

In summation, successful process change can be implemented by keeping the motivation/energy high. This is done by continuously communication and encouraging a sense of urgency by reminding everyone the reason for the process improvement efforts.

Question:
Do you agree with this blog? If you Dis-agree, please state why?

Till next time....

Sal
http://www.skkservices.com/