People are the most important asset

Lal Fonseka - Productivity Consultant, Brandix Lanka Limited

“Since it is people who manufacture things, manufacturing is impossible unless people are developed. Based on this philosophy, Toyota has been working on human resources development, ever since it’s founding.” This statement was extracted from the board displayed at the Toyota exhibition center located in Nagoya, Japan.

Based on this principle, it should be the duty of the companies in the present day to assemble the right individuals and teams with the right set of skills to perform their business tasks, be they are physical or cerebral. Therefore, recruiting and retaining human capital is number one key concern area of the organisations in their quest to maintaining a competitive edge. Hence, as a matter of policy, they should spend a fair amount of time for interviewing parents before taking decisions to recruit people in order to ascertain the following two important criteria.

That is to ascertain whether

There is a genuine need of the employment

There is a peaceful family background at home

In addition, by interviewing the parents, organisations could go in to details to find out the economic background of the families before they take a decision of recruitment.

Training and Development

All successful organisations do strongly believe that training and development is an investment while others treat training as consumption or a waste. In a well to do company in Sri Lanka, I have seen a well complied document has been introduced namely the training passport something similar to present day travel pass port. Like stamping the visa details in the travel document, this company gets its management staff to get the details of the training they undergo entered in their training passports. This passport is a property of the individual employee and by any chance he leaves the organisation he can take it along with him and present to the next company at the interview just indicate the details of the training he had undergone. What a beautiful method this particular company is practicing with regard to training and development.

This company has a TRAINING POLICY.

It is shown below.

“We recognise that the productivity and performance of the organisation ultimately depend on the depth and quality of knowledge and skills of its employees. We also understand that advancing such knowledge and skills rest on the training and development offered to and taken advantage of by the employees.”

In accordance with the desire of the Company administration to ensure the quality of the work of its employees the following policies have been adopted:

1. Within a year of initial employment, it is expected that all new employees will complete the respective training programmes established by the Training Department.

2. Every employee is expected to acquire the basic skills that are required to perform his work effectively and efficiently and the work of the other departments.

3. Blind obedience is not expected from a skilled employee and they should acquire all the requisite knowledge through training before getting on the shop floor.

Other than the skills shown as employees during their normal operations, the top management is always attempts to train people on the subjects such as music, debating and dramas etc. off the time.

The Company recognises that such training may at times disrupt the normal operations of organisational day-to-day work. However, such disruptions should not be used as a reason for supervisors to routinely deny training and development opportunities for employees. Therefore, all managers and supervisors are encouraged to incorporate training activities into their annual planning initiatives as a way of minimising potential problems.

All successful organisations have their in-house training programmes, sometimes these programmes are affiliated to the training colleges these companies operate outside of their parameter. In one particular company, this comprehensive programme carries on for one full year. Under this programme, a multiple training covering all the activities of the organisation is given to all the employees above the staff level. This particular programme of this company was started in the year 2000/01 and it continued with a lot of new developments and improvements and the existing programme is one of best the Sri Lankan companies have. In the years to come, it is sure that there will be much more developments and improvements to the existing programme. Certain companies in Sri Lanka do incur for training a cost of sometimes more than 4 percent to 6 percent per year of their total employment cost which is to my knowledge is a very high amount.

Whatever said and done above, in training sessions over the last 12 years, in both the public and private sectors alike, I have received some comments criticising managers for being uncaring, inconsiderate and bombastic or the like. Even in the places where the top management thinks that there are the great, same comments came in without any reservation.

Comments on participant training evaluation forms have included comments like "this training should be compulsory for all managers, not for us". Such comments show that employees believe that managers need to develop their interpersonal and leadership skills. They also indicate concerns about the way employees feel they are managed. When such concerns are discussed with participants, a better picture emerges. Often some clarification is required. Sometimes misunderstandings have occurred. Even in the places where I have described above, employees below the managerial cadre came out with the same comment. As I explained above, organisations spend huge money on training for managers, but after coming back from the training they do not practice what they learnt. This is the biggest crime these so called mangers do.

Unfortunately, this does not negate the impact of negative feelings in the first place. Perception is different to reality, but it is perception that guides feelings.

If employees have a perception which is negative, then morale and performance will suffer.

So what can managers do?

The first thing is to be very conscious of how statements and actions may be perceived. Managerial actions must match the rhetoric. Employees look for the behaviour that supports the words. Many people can quote examples of managers talking about the importance of customer service whilst simultaneously slashing operating budgets. This mismatch between the rhetoric and actions constantly undermines the attempts made by organisations to bring about cultural change. Secondly, any consultant will tell you that the most frequently mentioned problem in most organisations is communication. Communication flow throughout the organisation is essential. Communication channels need to be adjusted for the more fluid organisational structures and the new technologies. There are several types of communication in the globe.

1. Glass Wall management (Open communication throughout the entire organisation; pertinent information shared with everyone, therefore all people in the company can participate in managing the company)

2. Opening communications up and down the line

3. Internal and external dissemination of 'Best Practices'

4. Management by walking – The managers of a certain company which I know as a practice, do not call the people in to their Air Condition Rooms. Instead, they use to walk up to them, whenever the necessity arises to meet them.

At the same time, they believe that whenever they walk around the shop floor, it will be easy for them to attend to day to day problems without disturbing persons who are directly involved with production.

5. Management by open door policy – The managers’ doors are open to all the employees without any restriction for any matter they wish to discuss with the management but a few companies in our country is seen keeping their managers under lock and key which is a new fashion for them.

Thirdly, managers need to pay constant attention to the people issues, particularly in environments of change. Most people do not like change being forced on them. Some are used to change.

Some welcome it, particularly if they play a role in determining and implementing it. The emphasis nowadays on increased participation in the workplace is partly a reflection of the environment of constant change. We need participation to reduce the stress change causes.

The company encourages the teams and small group activities by empowering them to form teams. Such teams are Steering committees, Quality Circles, Firefighting Teams, First Aid Teams, Workers’ Council, Canteen committee, Cross functional Teams and Barrier removal teams etc.,

Many organisations are experiencing relatively high employee turnover, but managers are saying they do not have the time to investigate the reasons. These warning signs may require investigation, particularly remembering the old adage that symptoms may mask the real problem. One of my favorite stories as a trainer, the real problem for the high labor turn-over is the low morale of the work force and the organisation culture was not right.

One of the key issues now is increased workload across all organisational levels. Increased workload has arisen because of restructuring, downsising, increased responsibilities etc. A real difficulty is determining whether a person has too much work, or alternatively, is inefficient or ineffective. People can innocently confuse "busyness" with efficiency or effectiveness. It is important to review activities and processes to assess their importance and contribution. Morale and organisation culture may also be a factor.

One important factor is workload associated with the planning and implementation of change. Often change activities have to be run in parallel with existing systems. For example, the old payroll system still needs to be run whilst the planning, development, testing and implementation of a new computer payroll system over a six month period is carried out. The need to develop a new payroll system is not a good enough reason to stop paying people for six months! This change will place a heavy responsibility and workload on the payroll officer. Additional staff support may be required or maybe it is possible to carry the additional workload for six months. However, if the new system took two years, would the additional load be reasonable?

The additional work generated by change is often the key factor in workload discussions. Workload increases caused by change activities can be justified in the short term, particularly if the change brings better processes and increased efficiency. Incremental change is particularly stress free i.e. make a change, reap the benefits and increased productivity, which then frees time for more change activity, which when implemented, then frees more time for change, etc. This approach keeps the workload at a very manageable level.

If however, the changes come frequently and constantly, with little respite from normal day to day requirements, then workload can become unmanageable. If this continues, both the employee and the organization suffer. These matters require constant attention, as the damage may be hidden. For example, if customer service levels deteriorate, it may be some time before impacts start to manifest themselves in performance indicators. As mentioned previously, high employee turnover exists in some organisations. Why? Are employees 'burning out'?

As another example of the importance of people, research into organisational performance in Sri Lanka and elsewhere is now starting to question the merits of corporate downsizing and the 'slash and burn' restructuring. Loyalty and trust are being increasingly recognised as important elements if long-term performance is to be achieved.

All these examples highlight the need for organisations to be diligent in the management of people. Changes have caused issues. Sometimes many issues have to be responded to. All responses should include consideration of the human element. People need to be assured that their interests and concerns are constantly being addressed. And by the way, it is good, sound business practice too.

In order to overcome this low morale of the employees, employees should be involved at individual level such as thro’ Kaizen and Suggestion Scheme. I am glad to highlight in one of the well to do companies where I used to work as a consultant, employees are encouraged to come out with improvement suggestions and which continued to give the much desired results to the company.

In the factory of this company, Kaizen boxes are posted in different locations facilitating employees to furnish their individual suggestions through these boxes.

The practice of appreciating the employees who furnished the successful suggestions in order to encourage the suggestion thinkers was introduced. As soon as they submit their suggestions, company management take action to discuss with the presenter just to find out as to what benefits that company is going to achieve, if the suggestion is implemented. Because, they believe that Kaizen events are very successful because all the participants see in each project a very important professional growth opportunity. The savings and increased productivity during and after the event pay back in a short period the effort of the company and each member in the team. Kaizen is a humanistic approach, because it expects everybody-indeed, everybody-to participate in it.

It is based on the belief that every human being can contribute to improving his workplace, where he spends one-third of his life.