The employees of many organizations fear and despise analysis of their activities and job functions. More and more, however, granular examination is becoming crucial to saving their jobs - and they're beginning to recognize it. In fact, smart organizations, both government and private, are learning how to create corporate cultures built around efficiency, in order to save jobs.
While highly effective, this approach requires careful implementation in order to be successful. Here are 4 key factors to the success of building an efficiency-driven culture:
Obtaining Buy-In (But Not Approval)
The first challenge that any organization typically faces is getting past the fear of micro-management and scrutiny. However, many organizations confuse gaining employee buy-in with getting approval from their employees. "Employees need to be made aware that analytics is not up for debate, but that they can use it to their advantage," says Jade Meyerhoffer, forner Southeast Customer Service Director for retail giant Bed Bath & Beyond. This comes from the second factor: education.
Education
Often one of the most overlooked components of operations, especially in smaller organizations, is (re) educating personnel. This is also a crucial step toward obtaining not only buy-in, but embracing of analytics. "Too often, employees don't realize the importance of thinking like a business owner, especially when it comes to saving their own jobs," states Charlie Walsh, organization development consultant with HOPS International.
Continuously updating (and reminding) employees of tips and strategies helps reinforce the culture. With the assortment of electronic tools available, this need not be a costly endeavor.
Effective Tools
Making sure the proper mechanisms are in place to not only capture important metrics, but also allow employees to contribute, is critical to success. It is as important to make sure that granular collection of time spent on job functions (beyond traditional timekeeping systems) is done, as it is to provide a solid process for employees to contribute. According to Clay Shrum of Spring Lake Imrovement District, "Often, employees see opportunities for improvement in the trenches that may get overlooked by management."
Attrition
Quite often, positional vacancies create opportunities for employees to improve their earning potential or scheduling, while saving the organization money. With detailed information of each employee's job functions, decisions can be made to redefine and reallocate duties, rather than simply re-filling the vacant position. "We've had staff volunteer to divide duties into part-time positions so that they could spend more time with family or work seasonally," explains Joe DeCerbo, District Manager of Spring Lake Improvement District.
How effective is this? By simply involving employees, one organization was able to cut production time in one area by 42%. This actually resulted in a cost savings in excess of 60% when overtime, benefits and those employees' ability to accomplish other tasks in the same timeframe was factored in.
Stay tuned for more information and educational opportunities on optimizing your organization's workforce.
Solutions of Interest: Workforce Optimizer Learning Management