SIX SIGMA IN HR

 Six Sigma is a methodology that focuses on understanding and meeting customers' needs
by using a variety of tools, especially statistical analyses, to drive performance metrics.
 Motorola in the 1980s--breaks down processes, maps them out and constantly works to
improve them, simultaneously improving the company's overall performance. This Six
Sigma process is known as DMAIC--define, measure, analyze, improve and control.
 HR professionals with the right skills can contribute to a Six Sigma initiative at both
strategic and tactical levels.
 Although HR is not a big department in most organizations, HR processes have a major
impact on the employee's efforts for delivering services or product.
 The Human Resource department is suited in two ways for Six Sigma projects. One is
implementation of a project in the HR activities, and the second is the involvement of the
HR department in carrying out some of the activities in the execution of Six Sigma
project at the organizational level.
 It has to be understood that though HR is not a huge department of the organization, it
has a huge effect on every organization.
 Human resource is human capital and has to be considered for good returns on
investment. The processes have a major impact on the employee’s efforts for delivering
services or product.
 Six Sigma is a management technique that seeks to drive defects to less than 3.4 defects
per million. Defects are defined as any non-conformance to customer specifications.
Once the causes of defects are identified, processes are modified to avoid the causes.
However, many companies fail to have systems and processes to assure the human
performance component of the processes!

1. Understandable, objective and measurable position requirements and performance

standards
2. Hiring and candidate selection processes driven by the position requirements
3. Identifying leaders for management positions
4. Effective, objective and accurate performance appraisals
5. Focusing training and development programs on specific position requirements and
individual performance
6. Integrating individual performance with overall performance and quality management
system
7. Eliminating waste and inefficiencies
8. Tracking and measuring continuous improvement in your HR processes
9. Assuring the quality and effectiveness of your hiring and HR processes will improve the
quality and profitability of your entire organization! No matter how automated your
processes, people still make sales, design the products, program and maintain robotics,
provide customer service and develop continuous improvement. Having the right people
with the right training in the right job who are held accountable to specific job standards
will do more than anything to improve quality and profitability

 Six Sigma HR - Measurable Position Requirements

 To hire the right person for a position, it is essential to define what a person must do in
support of each process. Most job descriptions are woefully inadequate for Six Sigma or
 other performance management systems. They often consist of a jumble of personality
traits, undefined objectives and general responsibilities and accountabilities that fall short
of concisely defining, documenting and communicating what people actually do in
measurable terms. Without this information, employees cannot be objectively selected,
trained, managed and reviewed.
 The Position Matrix Communication System and PerformanceWare provide objective
and measurable position requirements that integrates fully into your performance
management system for objective and measurable...
 Goals  Specific work activities
 Tools and processes used  Levels of responsibilities
 Impacts on others  Position challenges
 By defining, documenting and communicating what employees do in a measurable way
with the Position Matrix Communication System and PerformanceWare, individual
performance can be quantified and measured in terms of something other than vague and
fuzzy monetary amounts, responsibilities and accountabilities, turnover rates, employee
opinion surveys and other well-meaning but generally useless standards for measuring
the effectiveness of HR.

 Six Sigma HR - Hiring and Candidate Selection Tools

 If a company can't objectively and measurably define what a person is to do in a given
position, how can it identify and hire the right person for the position? Unspecific
individual performance standards lead to...
 Inefficient recruiting process that  Putting the wrong person in the
waste HR and hiring managers' position
time  Poor performance
 Employment discrimination claims  Ineffective training and
 Poor product or service quality development
 We have developed a unique Position Matrix based technology to identify and screen
candidates based on their objective experiences with the specific individual position
requirements for each position. This system identifies the right person for the position in
an objective and measurable way!
 Hiring and interviewing procedures, checklists and forms which are designed to promote
objectivity, measurability and legal compliance are found in MeetingBusinessNeeds.com,
our on-line source of performance management systems and procedures.
 These technologies and systems can be used by your staff or you can outsource the
process to our professional search and recruiting division.

 Six Sigma HR - Identifying Leaders for Management

 One of the greatest mistakes companies make is to promote their best technicians or
performers into management positions when these persons are not qualified for the
management aspects of the position. After all, the skills of a technician are far different
from those of a manager. Yet companies make this most fundamental mistake over and
over with the end result that it is estimated that 60 - 70% of managers are incompetent.
 Our systems and services assure the right persons are hired or promoted to management
positions by ...
 Identifying the individuals with the requisite skills for the position as defined,
documented and communicated by our Hiring and Candidate Selection Tools as noted in
the prior screen
 Evaluating the attitudes, interests and motivations of management candidates through
proven and validated personality assessments
 Identifying the training needed to develop the individual to meet the performance
standards demanded in the next position
 If the manger is incompetent or otherwise not up to the task, the company is wasting his
or her salary and achieving far less than optimum performance from the people reporting
to the manager! All of this leads to poor quality and profitability and yet can be avoided
when the same proven concepts which have been applied for years in the production
quality systems are applied to the hiring process!

 Six Sigma HR - Objective Performance Appraisals

 Employees cannot achieve Six Sigma in their positions if they are not doing what they
are supposed to do! It seems like an obvious premise, but most HR systems simply do
not provide this information in an objective performance appraisal based upon specific
performance standards for the position. HR must rise to the challenge and achieve Six
Sigma in performance appraisals.
 As you have already seen, a good performance appraisal process has to start with good
measurable position requirements. If a company hasn't defined what an employee is to
do in measurable terms, how can a manager determine whether or not he or she has
succeeded in the position? It is not enough to measure whether the employee hit an
overall goal such as sales and production. He or she may have been shortcutting
something else (like quality or customer service, for example) to get there. To achieve
the continuous improvement mandated by Six Sigma, ISO 9001:2000 and other
performance management systems, the position requirements must be broken down into
measurable goals and activities for all aspects of the position!
 The Position Matrix Communication System and PerformanceWare provide the ability
to...
 Objectively measure all aspects of an individual's performance
 Relate and integrate this performance into the overall performance management effort
 To embed continuous improvement into each individual, they must initiate their own
performance appraisals with a self appraisal. The next step is an appraisal by the
individuals impacted by their work as identified by the Position Matrix. The supervisor
then reviews both appraisals and completes his or her appraisal of the employees
performance. When offered the opportunity, employees will time and time again be more
objective in their appraisals and seize the opportunity for continuous improvement.

 Six Sigma HR - Training and Development

 How does an organization train an employee if it has not defined what the person is to do
in an objective and measurable way? The simple answer is they can't, yet companies
waste billions of dollars a year trying to accomplish this very thing! You have to start
with the right person in the position. Without productive employees doing what they are
supposed to do, any Six Sigma or other quality initiative is doomed.
 The Position Matrix Communication System and PerformanceWare provide the ability
to...
 Hire the best persons for the position which simplifies and reduces training
 Identify specific training needs
 Provide training on specific work activities and tools and processes used in those
activities
 Objectively measure the outcome of the training
 Track training on an individual level
 All of the above will facilitate on the job training that...
 Meets both the employer's and employee's expectations
 Grounds training in the reality of the job - not theory
 Generates a greater training return on investment

 Six Sigma HR - Overall Benefits

 Six Sigma is an excellent process improvement tool, but once the process has been
improved it is essential to define, document and communicate the individual human
performance standards required by the improvement. People perform the tasks that
comprise the process and to improve the process, you must improve (change) what the
employees do and how they do it.
 The Position Matrix and PerformanceWare are unsurpassed as tools for defining human
performance in objective, understandable and measurable terms.
 Only the Position Matrix and PerformanceWare...
 Integrate individual performance into an overall performance and quality management
system
 Eliminate waste and inefficiencies
 Track and measure continuous improvement in your HR processes
 Promote Six Sigma throughout the organization