The H.R. Doctor Is In
Keepin on Track
The
beautiful HR spouse Charlotte recently bought a birthday gift
for me. It was something Ive wanted since I was a child.
(Actually, I still am a child, although that is a subject for
another article.) The gift is being shipped from St. Louis via
UPS.
UPS, as well as other "logistics"
organizations, has harnessed the power of the World Wide Web
to create online parcel-tracking services. In the case of my
birthday present, this means that I could watch as the parcel
left St. Louis and went to Earth City, Mo., then to Nashville,
then to Doraville, Ga., then to Jacksonville, Fla., then to
Orlando and finally to my front door in Coral Springs. I could
watch the supply-chain movement, including knowing the exact
time of the arrival and departure of the package at every "way
point."
Being able to measure the
performance of a process or an organization in a linear
fashion is an amazing thing. It is hypnotic. It encourages the
consumer to visit the company regularly to check the progress
of the process and to see, in my case, where the package is,
how its doing and when I might expect its delivery. It is
even more valuable since, from the moment it was shipped, the
tracking included an estimated arrival date. Not only could I
watch the performance, but I could watch the performance in
relation to a pre-established goal. If there was a delay at
any point, I would know it, and, if necessary, the goal could
be modified to reflect an unexpected problem or perhaps an
early arrival.
This is a spectacular tool for
the customer as well as for the provider of the service. UPS
is now able to engage the interest and involvement of the
customer in a positive way. Assuming an overwhelmingly on-time
delivery history, the organization can bring that history to
life at an individual level with each customer.
Inside any organization, having
measurements and goals, along with a tool for assessment,
allows the organization to monitor its own performance and
identify areas that need improvement or modification. Such a
tracking tool is really a tool for organizational success. The
more effective and engaging the tool is, the more valuable it
will be to everybody concerned as a way to achieve desired
outcomes. Tracking certainly can be, and is being, applied to
public service as well.
From a human-resources
standpoint, this is the concept we should be using when it
comes to performance evaluations. For example, automated,
online employee-performance evaluation makes the process much
simpler and should allow for more rapid feedback to an
employee. At the same time, it provides for more rapid
intervention by management to recognize and appreciate great
work or to counsel, coach and take corrective action when
needed.
Making a relatively inexpensive
tool, such as the "Performance Now" software, available for
this purpose is within the financial capability of any public
agency no matter how large or small. It can save time and,
therefore, money and staff energy. Such outcomes make it well
worth the investment.
Tracking of the performance of
public-sector work as diverse as street maintenance,
responsiveness to work orders, citizen inquiries, paramedic
calls and law-enforcement responses are just a few areas where
effective tracking, combined with goal-setting, can challenge
employees and managers to excel and minimize taxpayer
expenses.
There is no reason the same
concepts cannot be applied to the purchasing process,
warehouse-supply management, the handling of meals for
hospitals or jails and hundreds of other applications. Having
a goal-setting process and a tracking or monitoring system are
essential ingredients to process improvement.
Despite being a regular
consultant to various agencies, Im sorry to report that a
consultant is generally not required to create process
improvements. The improvement process can be done, and perhaps
can best be done, if driven locally from within an
organization by the very people who deal with the process
day-to-day.
However, there are several BOLOs
("Be on the lookout!") and dangers in applying process
improvements.
First, the approach itself can
become mired in minutia and measurements not really important
to anyone other than perhaps an auditor who may later attack
outcomes. Selection of meaningful markers of success or
markers of process flow must be done carefully and with input
from those involved. As with getting your vision corrected by
an optometrist, the prescription that is too intensely
microscopic will harm your vision rather than improve
it.
The
second danger, perhaps the greatest danger, is that the
monitoring process itself can become the focus of attention
rather than the significant business practice. In the case of
my own birthday present from Charlotte, following the travels
of the gift could become more important than caring about the
actual arrival date.
Finally, tracking for the sake of
tracking, without caring about the results, is a useless
exercise in bean counting. In the case of an improved
performance-evaluation process, for example, if supervisors
and managers are not committed to doing evaluations on time,
in a way understandable and meaningful to the employee and in
following through on praise or corrective action, it does not
matter at all whether the process is paper intensive and done
with a quill pen and ink well or rapid and online. A lack of
caring or personal and organizational inertia will defeat the
value of any process we come up with.
On
the other hand, selecting meaningful measurements and creating
milestones which can be effectively assessed by asking and
answering the two powerful process questions ("How many? By
when?") will make a public service or a private business more
accountable and more successful.
Heres hoping you stay on
track!
Phil
Rosenberg
The
HR Doctor http://www.hrdr.net/
PS:
Today is the day my birthday present is suppose to arrive. My
faith in UPS will be shattered if it is late, but at least I
will be able to know quickly, for better or for worse, just
how late!
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