Lean HR

I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of hearing about how bad the economy is doing these days.  But, until it improves a great deal, we all will have to continue to deal with it.  Having read several articles about this, it made me think (scary, I know!). 

All of the experts advise us to do some key things related to talent management with this economy.  Incorporate Lean HR practices wherever possible, focus on talent acquisition to upgrade your staff, etc.  Great ideas, but in a practical sense, how do you do those things?  Especially if you are a small or mid-sized organization?

I'm seeing more companies turn to technology to accomplish these tasks.  Using applicant tracking software and automated onboarding solutions can really help to incorporate those Lean HR principles into most any mid-sized organization.  Likewise, using employee assessments or career personality tests that can be administered online can really augment any talent acquisition process by helping to ensure JobFit is present for both the new hire and the organization.

These human capital management systems are becoming more affordable and can really improve the overall talent management function within most organizations.  More to come, but if you haven't investigated these solutions, I would encourage you to begin. 

If there was ever a time to underscore the importance of Human Resources, it has arrived.  In these days of economic woes--phrases that ring loud and clear are; Lean HR, Human Resource Planning, Job Fit, Talent Management & Talent Acquisition.  The importance of using hiring assessments and human resource planning when adding colleagues to the team is more critial than ever.  Maybe you don't know where to start nor do you have the tools?  Visit our site for more info www.exacthire.com

It all comes back to marketing.  We are stuck with bad processes, and we are comfortable with that.  Millions are spent on the choice of a name for a product or a company, but one of the most important concepts for our economy - Lean Theory - is saddled with a name that had little thought applied and is now causing problems.  Lots of negative implications, and little upside.

What should the new name be?  If we had a clean sheet of paper and wanted to rename the process of waste reduction and simplification, what would we call it?  I'm spending time today on this little problem - I need 3 people to respond to this with one idea each of a better name. 

If we rename it, and it is more effective, it will be worth it.  Time to quote Shakespeare...

Juliet:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

These are times that get irritating when all of the pressures start to mount.  Our personal reserves vanish when we are under stress,  and now we are all poster children for acting snippy and crabby.

We all need to get the answer, and fast.  That's where Lean comes in. The whole point with Lean is making things simple, eliminating waste and getting better results, fast.  That is exactly what we all want, yet we often just add another layer of stuff on the top of a pile of earlier stuff.  Over time, it all just collapses from it's own weight.

In all of the work I do, I seldom see people who are willing to go back to a clean sheet of paper and start fresh.  The joy of Lean is looking at the pile of stuff that has built up over the years, and getting rid of the pile and doing it right for right now.

Let me repeat that - doing it right, for right now.

We need new answers and the questions are getting tricky.

Who has 'em?  Try the Lean Blog.  Better yet, read the entry on Why Lean Hates HR

My vision of the future is simple - back to basics in our organizations and families, our diets, and our life.  In the work I do in assessments and applicant tracking, I get a chance to change the world of the organizations in my life, which is truly wonderful. 

Beyond my family, my other passion is getting a new way of thinking into the organizations on this world.  If we make things simpler and better, good will come from it.

So, a question.  What will you change first?  I will be keeping you in the loop...

We need to adopt a better phrase than "Lean HR"

It's all in the packaging.  We are very sensitive to the words behind a concept.  Would you go to a marketing firm named "Red F"?  Ick.  Yet, they exist.  Click here to see how proud they are of their name. 

Years ago, RCA came up with a very expensive set of component electronics they named (at great expense) Dimensia.   It failed to get market share - somehow sounding like a psychological diagnosis was not helpful.

Which brings me back to Lean HR.  In the work that I do simplifying the hiring process, I am often frustrated by the concern that flickers across employee faces when the term Lean is mentioned.  This has gotten worse as the employment marketplace has gotten worse.

If I'm working on job fit or pre-hire assessments, fine.  But if I start talking Lean Theory, their imaginations jump into the "worry about my job" column and the project gets slowed down.  Making matters worse, there are times that when Lean works and the process becomes more efficient, there are extra workers that can be reassigned. 

Anyway, the purpose of my rant is to ask the community for a better term for Lean HR...what do YOU use?  What should we use?

I'm personally sick and tired of headlines bemoaning the general gloomy economic outlook. What to do?  Simple.  Get back to basics.

We need to adhere to the fundamentals of life/business/etc.  Fundamentals begin with values (i.e. what is important to us?).  Values are the core of our being. They are what drives our behavior. If we don't know what is important to us and/or our business, then how are we going to survive?

The challenge is to identify our values (i.e. integrity, service, passion, harmony) and live by them.  Look for new employees that are in alignment with them.  Build an applicant tracking system that asks about values and attitudes.  Have pre-hire assessments measure values, not just skills and behaviors.  Have a Lean HR focus, so that high performers see a performance management system that works, and is fair and consistent.

Doing so will allow us to thrive in good times and bad.  And that will make all the difference.

I met with some Lean consultants this morning over coffee and eggs.  I opened my half of the conversation with the thought that, if a Lean initiative fails, the blame generally falls on the Human Resources.  They both blinked, thought, and agreed.  Conversely, HR can make a significant contribution to lean success.  Lean works if the people are aligned with the processes.

So, which HR practices are helpers of lean success?

First is how performance is calculated, communicated and tied to incentives. Too often, staff go home not knowing (or caring) whether or not they accomplished their goals.

Next is team development. An organization that is based on individual performance will struggle to get the team behaviors needed for lean success.

Then, clarify roles and responsibilities.  The job description for a supervisor are different than those of an engineer.

Then, communicate. A lean communication plan must go beyond posters and newsletters into walking the talk and reminding everyone of their success.  When you feel you are over communicating, you have it about right.

Finally, celebrate success.   A lot of repetitive hard work follows.  Before enlightenment, there is chopping wood and carrying water.  After enlightenment, there is still chopping wood and carrying water.  It's an old saying, but it applies.

Over communicate, celebrate, and clarify roles.  Get Human Resources on board, using assessment tools, good HR Management, Human Resources software and a focus on job fit.

Then, and only then, will your Lean initiative survive over time.

I presented this morning on Employee Engagement to a great group of HR professionals.  The coffee was fresh, the coffee cake was tasty, and the issues were predictable.

"What metrics really work in today's business environment?"

We worked through what metrics they were using, and got into what metrics they SHOULD be using, and ended on how to measure and project the impact of good employee engagement.  We talked about Lean HR, about applicant tracking, and HR services that are aligned with the organization's vision.  All good.

As I drove away, I reflected on the wish of everyone in the room for a "silver bullet" that would fix tough employee relations issues and solve the talent management problems of the future. 

There is a great first step.  Train all of your managers in the skill of active listening.  If the managers start to listen better to their staff (or at least appear to) and if they can know more about their staff through the use of valid assessment tools, then the staff will feel well-managed and deliver the goods.  Whatever the goods are.

So, there you have it.  As an extrovert who does not like to listen, this is tough advice.  Just listen to it...the answer is out there.

Just saw some scary data from a global Engagement consultant.  There were several data points that predict either pain or opportunity, depending on your actions during the slowdown.

Scary things -

The percentage of highly disengaged employees has increased by more than 25% since 2007.  These are "hostile passengers" that are actively hurting you in productivity levels and quality, all of which translate to numbers that matter.

The decline in overall productivity is huge - 3 to 5 percent. 

There is a second "time bomb" with this.  The disengaged are itching to leave - and will leave when the economy starts picking up...which is exactly when you will want them as high performing employees.

The moral is simple.  Get your talent acquisition in place before the green flag is waved.  Use employee assessments to better manage the staff, and use fair and consistent methods, as a part of a Lean HR system, to keep the good ones engaged.

Then, engagement will work for you...and be a competitive advantage.

People who are thinking of installing an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)need to step back and think for a second.

An ATS is a system that is built to manage resume flow and gives the recruiters the ability to sort, sift and prioritise candidates on the basis of keyword searches.  Great  technology, perhaps… but built to speed up a flawed process.  The same hiring answer is arrived at, just faster.

What people should want is an Applicant Relationship Management system.   An ATS, if you will, that has ties to social networks and a database of interested people.   It would give the candidates a chance to interact in an uncommitted way with the company – register to get cool stuff and targeted communication – then give them a chance to get interviewed online when they are ready to do so.  Meanwhile, the company learns a huge amount about their various demographic target groups and gets a chance to grow relationships over time.  Then, good human capital management can start happening, with job fit and Lean HR principles in place.

That is when the front part of hiring gets really interesting, and high quality candidates start emerging from the sourcing process.  None of this has ties to the expensive world of the online job boards...which is why it is even more interesting.

Does anyone know of someone already doing this?  Let me know...

 

There seems to be a lot of fear in the workplace lately.  From the adult perspective, we know that crises happen, markets go up and down, people get laid off.  But that used to happen to someone else, not us.  That is no longer the case.

What do we do?  Paul H. Sutherland of Zenvesting teaches: establish a habit of doing more than you're paid for.  Do everything you can to keep your employer profitable.

Help keep your employer's core values in the vision.  Don't let panic overtake reasonability.  Keep connection to ethics, virtue and common sense.

As an employer, when hiring new employees what steps are you taking when hiring new employees to find the people who embody your culture through pre-employment testing & assessments?  Do you assess what you need for job performance, think lean HR, or make use of applicant tracking and use human resource management systems available on the market to access for job fit?  These steps will help set your employees up for success, not failure.  After all, it is all about the people.

What are you doing as an employer or employee to insure your success?

People are under pressure, and wanting simple answers to complex questions.  A silver bullet, if you will.  In the past week, I have received several phone calls from prospects that have bothered me. 

I have set up employee assessment systems in a lot of different situations.  I know the amount of work needed to build a talent acquisition system that produces good job fit.  I have set up the feedback loops that are needed for a good Lean HR system.  All of this makes sense.

The problem often comes from the corner office.  It happens when the CEO or somebody on the senior team goes to a board retreat and falls in love with some particular assessment tool.  As this is often the first assessment tool that they have personal skills with, it becomes the window that they start looking through for all HR matters. 

As my grandfather said, "When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."  When the CEO hears of other assessments that are different than the one they know, they push back.  The project stops.

There are more than 3000 assessment tools out there, all measuring different things.  Many are only suited for one or two specific tasks.  Many are not suited for organizational use at all, but are for clinical settings.  My task is to work backwards from the need, and recommend the tool for the job.  Not just the hammer.

So, if you are considering an assessment tool and someone in the "C-Suite" recommends an assessment that they know and love, go ahead and examine it, but be very careful about the validity and reliability of how it measures what you are looking for.

If you need help in selecting or with strategies on how to push back without getting fired, give me a call or ping me with an e-mail.  Part of my passion is finding the right tool for the right job fit.  Not just the hammer or the silver bullet....

Talent acquisition is changing.  A recent survey reveals that 43% of the companies polled are pulling their spending from Internet job boards and re-directing those resources to better showcase their brand to potential employment candidates. The shift away from job boards is a response to current market conditions, which have made more high-value candidates available to companies looking to capitalize on the market's turnaround with strategic hires. 

There is hope.  While the current business environment remains grim, optimism still dictates many of the respondents' near term hiring plans, with more than 30% planning to increase hiring during the second and third quarter of 2009: adding the fourth quarter raises that number to 41%.

Referrals are still the most popular avenue for sourcing jobs, but the companies polled indicate their Web site or career page as being the next most valuable vehicle for finding candidates. Job boards, while useful for generating a higher volume of resumes, are being criticized for not delivering qualified candidates, which are seen as the key for surviving the tough current economic climate and building future organizational strength.

There is another factor.  In the effort to build a Lean HR hiring process, I have been simplifying the hiring process and getting better results.  This is partially driven by creating new channels for sourcing by using RSS feeds and opt-in email channels, and ties to social networking.  These new channels - especially the RSS one - has big implications for the future.

If you can post for free on a RSS-enabled job board and get good results, why spend big dollars on a formal site that is focused on value?

Question - who has abandoned the big job boards, and why?

For extra credit, how have you tied your applicant tracking system to the new sources?

I am the crash test dummy of applicant tracking systems.  Before I talk with an organization about the quality of their new hires or their screening and assessment systems I check out their web site.  I read their mission statement.  I try to get a feel for what an applicant sees and feels from the most important chair - the applicant's seat.

Most of the systems may be efficient for the organization, but few systems do two very important things.  They seldom project the values and attitudes of the organization, and the almost never ask me anything beyond what a basic resume has on it.  In fact, most allow me to simple paste my resume into a box and move on.

Sadly, all of the technology and effort is used to speed up a flawed process, rather than using the opportunity to change the rules and get a better answer.

If you could change the outcome to your current application system, what would you want as a better result?  Better job fit?  Faster time to good job performance?  A lean HR process?  EEO reporting with a single click?

Social networking is requiring me to say "no" more than I prefer.  At the start, I was happy to add anyone who would have me.  Kind of like dating in Junior High.  With the current business climate, I have been getting requests from a large number of strangers. 

I'm saying "no" to the guy from Utah who is looking for a "new calling" and wants to be a part of my network.  No to a guy with a vaguely familiar name who, from what I can tell, is doing nothing but sending invitation requests to the world.  No to the intern with the perky picture who wants a few minutes of my time to demonstrate a knife set that she is going to be selling as a summer job.  Nothing about what I am interested in, like Lean HR, employee engagement or talent acquisition.

I am a nice guy.  Let me make it clear - I am accepting initiations from interesting people in my world, people that I can help in a reasonable way or people that are a part of my life. 

I am not a cranky isolationist, by nature.  In the work I do with hiring processes, applicant tracking and assessment work, I help organizations screen out applicants that are not a fit for their culture, and screen in those who will probably be high performers.  My clients say that they are having the same problem with their hiring - an overwhelming volume of applicants that do not care about the job description, only that they get in.

So, what have I learned?  Apply your rules of friendship to your in-box - accept those that will benefit from friendship, and will be of benefit to you.  For the others, don't dilute your time and just say "no"

New data and projections are in from all points - we're looking at a year at least of bumpy roads and grumpy people and the new reality is firmly here.  Widespread layoffs will include a continuation of reductions in our staffs - by that I mean HR - at the same time that needs and issues are climbing.  With stressed employees come higher employee relations demands, heavier use of EAP services, and (probably) higher medical utilization.  In all of this, we've got to stay productive.

There is no graceful way to automate the face to face part of HR.  We've got to be able to make more time to BE THERE for our people.  We can either stop doing background things (not likely) or better use technology to do the background work.

If you have technology that you have not implemented fully (and you probably do) now is the time.  If you have "grandfathered" processes, retire them.  Simpler is better.

Simply put, now is the time for LEAN Human Resources.  Now is the time for assessments as a tool for productivity and management development.  Now is the time for human resource planning to guide the future.

Now is the time.  What will you do to get ahead of the curve? 

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Change is the mother of invention.  In my work on changing how HR Services are delivered and how assessments are used, I have found some secret methods for making change happen.

There are a lot of self-help books out there with all sorts of advice, and more motivational speakers with messages of treating each other nice and getting things done.  I have a better idea.

Move your office.  All of it.  Get some boxes, and take all of the stuff that is in your desk and on your desk and so on and get busy.  Mark the "keep" and "pitch" boxes and start sorting.  If you don't have a different space to move to, just haul everything out into the hall and only move back in that which is useful.

Do the same with your processes.  Find ways to simplify, find ways to use technology better, and even find ways to stop doing things altogether if they are not aligned with your strategic goals.  This, in a real sense, is how you apply Lean Theory to HR, and make Lean HR.  Eliminate Waste, and rethink the processes at the core of your work.

By taking all of the flotsam and jetsam of your office and sifting through it, boxes and boxes of waste will be generated.  This is good - you will be amazed at how liberating it feels to have a new, clean focus.  Now, do the same with your Human Capital Management processes.  All of the talent management ideas, all of the job fit efforts, everything.

If you need some help after you get everything out in the hall - give me a call.  I'm happy to be that ruthless, objective friend that can help clean out the closets...and, also, I have just moved my office, so I'm an expert.

My question is this: if you could change one part of the hiring process, what would it be?

"There is something rare, something finer far, something much more scarce than ability. It's the ability to recognize ability."

Writer Elbert Hubbard penned those words to live by many years ago, but they still have legs today. Consider organizations facing tough business decisions. They need the most competent people they can find to help them survive. It is all about "the ability to recognize ability," and what to do about it once you discern it.

It is important to ask every worker to give his or her all on the job. That means all of their creativity, innovation, inspiration and energy. Of course asking them to give 150 percent every day comes after finding, developing and retaining the people who can roll with the bumps. One crucial piece of advice is to count your blessings if you are not operating under a hiring freeze. But don't stop with hiring well!

In our next blog will supply suggestions on applicant tracking, employee assessments, how to survive tough times with lean HR, Pre Employment testing  and applying best practices in talent acquisition.

In today’s economy, surviving the storm has become an organization’s main priority. The uncertainty that makes quick changes necessary means organizations must rely on their well-trained employees to carry them through. Strong workers who come to work each day with enthusiasm, focus and creativity make for trusty copilots during times of economic turbulence. They can help navigate above, below or around obstacles while offering solutions that no one else has thought of to help calm everyone aboard.

Remember, nothing is more crucial than hiring competent people and helping them develop the skills necessary to help pilot the plane. Making sure your employees have the talent, skill and knowledge to make it through the storm is more important than ever.