The HR Factor

9/18/10...When involving our people in the company, whether it be administrative or operational, HR plays a key role. It starts with hiring. HR takes the applications, narrows down the field to qualified candidates, and then involves the team in selecting the personality, etc. that they believe will work best with the team. As one employee said, well what happens if we hire the wrong person? Exactly. Our people now see the other side which management faces all the time. At best most selection criteria is 60% reliable, but for the most part (Nowlin Process), it is a 50-50 shot. The only saving grace is our people making the selection and in turn having a vested interest in who they work with. They now want to see the person succeed, they now will put them under their wing, and they now will demand more from them, all because how this person performs is a reflection on the team's pride. They care. As we all do. No longer can they say, why did you give us this person, because this person is the one they said ok to hire.

Equally as important, something of which I am now learning, is the 30-60-90 day review and 90 day probationary period. Our people now participate in these interim reviews to give feedback on performance. Some are a little hesistant because they do not want to be the cause of firing someone, but the fact is, this is a part of the process. A new employee who is not working out will generally deselect themselves from the process. Easy to write, harsh as a reality...

Also, the involvement in setting up committees is important. People empowerment without the meaning creates potential false motivation. Social Responsibility, Activities, Wellness, and Safety are some suggested ones. At a previous employer, the Plant Manager and I set up something such as this but a little different. We also pursued self-directed work teams but this was almost 12 years ago. While the experience was a success for about 3 years, eventually it died out. Why? Lean Six Sigma tools were not a part of it. Lack of resources including HR, maintenance, coach/facilitators, process technicians, and quality were not part of it. There was flawed thinking that the supervisory level could be eliminated, what really needed to happen was the role redefined. A flawed gainshare program which upper management kept raising the bar to the point the employees felt like it was not attainable. After all there is no such thing as 0 scrap. Also team building events were not part of it. This is something which needs further exploration to reinforce teams and create bonding experiences. These can come from visits to customers, fun events, dinners, involvement in Kaizen events, or crisis events.

In the future I may flesh more of these thoughts out, but right now they needed to be captured...but where is God in all this? That still remains the question and still remains how we address false motivation.