In part two of Paul Carey’s article on the role of HR within Six Sigma, we look at the specific steps HR can take in order to play a meaningful role in any Six Sigma initiative
In part two of Paul Carey’s article on the role of HR within Six Sigma, we look at the specific steps HR can take in order to play a meaningful role in any Six Sigma initiative
The key to success in Six Sigma is having ‘the right people in the right projects’. Where HR is on board early and playing its strategic role in a Six Sigma initiative, one of HR’s key roles is to assess and select the people who will be right for these projects.
HR can act as a powerful ally in persuading managers to part with some of their most prized talent for the 18 months or two years required for the Black Belt role, according to Garth Rymer, Motorola University’s representative in Australia. “Some managers, even when they have agreed to let the employee go, demand 90 per cent of their time in their old function, while the Six Sigma initiative needs 90 per cent of their time on a crucial project.”HR interventions to resolve this impasse are vital and can help the employee emerge without appearing to desert the manager or pay lip service to the project.
Meredith Doig, managing director of Potentia Australia, has had experience in a large mining organisation in assessing the roles of Black Belts and then profiling the prospective candidates. Although her normal clientele are senior managers in large organisations, this initial contact with Six Sigma led her to further develop the Potentia system in Six Sigma roles. In the mining company she used this system to profile about half the selected Black Belts, while the other half were selected by the site managers using the ‘I like the cut of their jib’ method. After two years of implementation, it emerged that the two least effective Black Belts had been chosen by the site manager and the two most effective had been identified as high potential in the Potentia framework. In particular, one was a ‘sleeper’– an accountant from the finance function at one of the sites (see last issue).
HR setting an example
It would also seem that in some of the best Six Sigma installations, HR sets an example by providing challenging projects within its own sphere of influence. Rymer cites the case of Motorola, who have rigorously attributed resignations within three months of hire to the selection process. They are counted, not entirely fairly, as selection ‘defects’. But Motorola’s HR, driven by data, has grasped this particular nettle and strenuously overhauled its selection practices with a consequent and continuing reduction in this category of resignations.
Some typical projects within HR include modelling the hire versus overtime dilemma. This is done by balancing the cost of entry point wages and salaries and the cost of induction and learning, against the cost of overtime, taking into account burnout, fatigue and additional allowances and breaks. Cross-functional mapping of various HR processes is often a precursor to improvements in those processes, with single-point data entry, elimination of redundant tasks and automation of some of the more tedious and time consuming work. People working in Six Sigma commonly quote the hiring process as one with rich rewards for mapping, understanding, reengineering and streamlining, rewarding both the people being hired and the organisation. The point is, HR can demonstrate their commitment to the organisation behaviourally, both as a supplier and as a lead function in the implementation.
HR as cultural and social change specialists
HR is often at its most effective as a function in deploying its skills in facilitating and monitoring change – especially where the change is to the prevailing culture. Experienced HR change agents are invited on board early as part of what seems to be technical change and subsequently ride shotgun over the accompanying social and cultural changes as they occur. Such events where HR typically helps smooth the impact on the people involved include plant and office closures, new business start-ups, ‘big bang’ERP installations, restructures and so on. They bring this expertise to Six Sigma projects, some of which can potentially have the same degree of social impact as the examples just cited. And Six Sigma is a new culture and way of behaving; a mindset based on facts and data.
HR as facilitators for re-entry of key Six Sigma roles
Prising talent loose from their old roles is the reverse of HR’s role in facilitating re-entry into either the old role or a new mainstream role. HR also has a role in assuring that the Black Belts continue to be challenged by the projects which succeed the first one, as this is one of the most common reasons that Black Belts lose their desire.
The Black and Green Belt market is currently a seller’s market, with the burgeoning of Six Sigma initiatives, and indeed of consulting companies promoting Six Sigma. Thus there is a temptation for some of the organisation’s best people, now tried and tested, to leave the organisation for lucrative consulting positions.
It therefore behoves HR to anticipate this pull on its best talent from the outside, and to provide countermeasures so that the best people stay and continue to grow. A ‘backfilling policy’ cuts in here. A major inducement to stay is challenging assignments in the mainstream. Another consideration is reward and recognition for a job usually well done. Such reward and recognition should occur after each project and at the end of the role. As mentioned previously, performance review systems should be flexible enough to cover Black Belt project work and orthodox functional progress and achievement. As far as possible the newly graduated Black Belt should have at least as much idea of where they might head in the medium-term as their high potential equivalents still in the mainstream, or possibly even more idea, as it is they who have taken the risk, especially in new implementations.
Paul Carey is a Melbourne-based consultant in organisational development and change. Tel: 03 9773 0502
