Do You Have Great Job Designs?
Most organizations have job descriptions, but many fail to specify in those one or two page documents how time on the job should be spent. It is more often the case that expectations are listed along with regular job tasks, but no reference to the percent of time that should be used in these areas is provided. Why are time percentages necessary? Time percentages are necessary for two reasons. First, time and money are the two main things we spend on the job each day. In turn, when we spend our time in areas where we don't need to, or in areas that don't give us that much performance improvement leverage, we are creating waste. Second, most people do not do a very good job of tracking how they spend their time each day. This is especially true if you work in a crisis focused environment - as you get caught up in a crisis, your emotions overwhelm your mind's ability to keep track of time. Similarly, if you are intensely focused on performing a task, it is difficult to track the minutes and hours that go by. Over the years, most organizations have invested a lot of time and money in defining how time is spent on the front lines. As an Industrial Engineer, I personally measured down to the tenth of a second how long it should take to do such work. On occasion I would be asked to take a similar look at a middle management level job, but this practice was much more the exception than the rule. I believe that we have reached a point in the evolution of business where we have nickel and dimed the front lines to death. At the same time, we have largely ignored the time efficiencies of management, with this ignorance becoming greater the higher up you go in a given organization. What are we assuming here? Are we assuming that because we pay these people so much money, they should and do make sure that they are spending their time in the best way possible? Think about it! If you aren't spending enough time with people and on projects, you can't improve. It's that simple. Do you need great job designs? Do You Like Fighting Fires?
My business learnings have led me to realize that every person in an organization spends their time on two types of things - processes and projects. As you go higher up in a company, you will find that a greater percentage of job time is spent on projects - or at least it should be. Managers spend a lot of time in meetings for example. A meeting is either project focused or process focused. Some meetings are training oriented, but in every case the training focuses in either on process improvement or personal development (which is a project). Do all of your managers know what percent of their time they spend in meetings? Are they working to make these significant time investments more value added? A lot of managers and supervisors thrive on 'living in a crisis.' Their self esteem is largely rooted in solving problems. Fewer managers enjoy working on projects. Some do realize that true process improvement, which requires the implementation of one or more projects, helps eliminate the potential for crisis, but they just can't find the time to work on them. They're too busy fighting fires! In order to move towards higher levels of performance, you have to shift your time expenditures from processes to projects over time. At first, the projects will be directed at putting out the fires for good. Once the majority of the fires are put out, the project focus can shift to benchmarking other high performers, developing skills, and defining and implementing innovative system changes. I think you see the potential dilemma however - if you can't put out the fires for good, you can't expect to go a whole lot faster. Are You Hiring for Excellence? If I had to pick one process that has the greatest effect on an organization, I would select the hiring process. A lot has been said about the need to shift cultures in order to reach higher levels of performance. While that is true, we often fail to realize that the hiring process, more than any other process, serves as the primary driver of culture, and in turn, organizational performance potential. When an organization hires its first employee, it creates its culture - after that, it is all about shaping that culture. We would like to think that leadership, training, and meetings can serve as the main drivers of performance improvement, but if you really think about, the hiring process is what determines the fate of your business, school, or team. This is particularly true in this day and age, when it is much more difficult to get rid of those problem employees that 'somebody' hired. Additionally, most supervisors will tell you that employee problems take up much, if not a majority, of their time on the job each day. The cost of a weak hiring process is both astronomical and long lasting. Do you hire for excellence? Some Simple Questions
Who makes more per hour, a front line employee or a manager? Does this wage rate increase or decrease as you move upwards on the organizational chart? Who in your company measures their personal time use on an hour by hour basis, or has it measured by someone else? What are the reasons for measuring the low wage rate people to a high degree and only measuring the people that make a lot more money per hour only at times, if at all? Would it help if you chose to make some changes in your time measurement practices? These questions are important to consider if you desire to have a high performance workplace. You should also question the logic behind the two tables shown at the right if this is your goal. In high performance workplaces, people spend more time working with others than they do working alone. If you are going to be working more with others, shouldn't you all be holding yourselves to the same set of time monitoring and usage standards?
Would You Like Some Help? Over the past 20 plus years, I have helped set up and manage job design systems in five different companies - both small and large - in the manufacturing and service arenas. This experience has helped me discover value added, simple ways to set up systems for measuring personal effectiveness and helping each person get more out of the time they invest at work each day. Failing to 'put out the fires for good' is the primary power restrictor for this power system - these tools help you both eliminate that barrier and move forward more rapidly towards higher levels of performance. If you are interested in the job design systems and tools that I have to offer, send me an e-mail at kevin@greatsystems. com. Better yet, give some thought to working further with me to help you improve your job design system through my interactive job design improvement workshop. It's a one day experience that will change the way you do and measure work forever. Keep improving! -- Kevin McManus, the Systems Guy |
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