HR Approaches to 5 Common and Persistent Business Problems

Got A Solution?

Dr. Dale J. Dwyer, The University of Toledo

• What are the top three (3) general business/organizational problems, issues, or concerns that keep you [your executives] up at night?

What Keeps Leaders Up at Night?

The 5 Common & Persistent Business Problems:

3

2

1

4

5

How Do We Keep Vision-focused and Strategy-directed?

How Do We Become More Competitive in Our Marketplace?

How Do We Attract and Retain the Most Competent Talent?

How Do We Deal with All the Changing Laws & Regulations?

How Do We Deal with a Changing Society?

Got A Solution?

Describes the environments that cause the headaches

Offers example approaches that HR can develop and implement with employees to address the 5 common business problems

3

2

1 Addresses 5 major organization-level concerns faced by most managers

Discusses why organizational problems don’t get solved

4

• Leaders miss, ignore, or deny critical problems until it is too late.

• Causes of problems are misidentified.• Critical organizational problems must be

managed; they generally can’t be solved.• Environments change, but organizations

don’t adapt quickly enough.

Why Don’t Problems Get Solved?

The Critical Environments

Economic Regulatory Competitive Market

Where Do I Begin?

…With the Root Cause

With the Problem and Its Causes!

Cause 1

Cause 2

ProblemCause 3

Why is Turnover So High?

Example Problem and Causes

Poor rewards

Poor managers

Turnover Exceeds

40%Inflexible Schedules

PROBLEM

How Do We Keep On Top Of Problems?

Leading vs. Lagging Indicators

Lagging indicators are measures of key outcomes (e.g., employee turnover, 4th quarter earnings, 5% product scrap)

Leading indicators are measures that enable (or prevent) the overall key outcomes (e.g., quality of employee training, customer satisfaction, quality of raw material)

Leading (“If”) vs. Lagging (“Then”) Indicators

Interior Lights Left On All

Night

Car Won’t Start in Morning

Drained the Battery

Leading Indicator

Lagging Indicator

Lagging Indicator AND

Leading Indicator

• They must enable you to forecast relevant lagging indicators (e.g., principal revenue and cost drivers)

• They must be simple to understand and to measure at multiple levels in the company.

• There should be no more than seven leading indicators

How Do I Choose Leading Indicators?

EXAMPLE: Responsiveness to Customers

GOAL: Respond to customer inquiries within 24 hours

LEADING INDICATORS: % of inquiries not worked on within 2 hours. % of open inquiries older than 24 hours. Average backlog of inquiries per CSR

How Do I Measure Leading Indicators?

LEADING INDICATORS: % of inquiries not worked on within 2 hours. % of open inquiries older than 24 hours. Average backlog of inquiries per CSR

• Measured each day; reported each week• Provide understanding of reasons • Design training/mentoring/feedback systems

How Do I Identify Leading Indicator Problems?

• Identify employees at any level who have knowledge and experience with the problem

• Ask them for their help• Get commitment from them and their

direct supervisors• Put their time and effort to its best use

How Do I Get

Employees Involved?

Determine the priorities of YOUR senior managers, e.g., revenue, profit, market position, customer retention

Communicate HR’s Impact on the priorities in a Compelling Manner (e.g., ROI)

The key to recognition as a profit-center (not as overhead) is by offering solutions to costly organizational problems!

How Do I Sell the Value to the Boss?

• Describe clearly what you intend to do, why you want the employees’ help, and how much time and effort will be involved from employees.

• Explain to your boss the plan, the importance of employee involvement, and how it will make your boss’ job easier.

• ASK for boss’ commitment (“Will you support us as we do this?”).

How Do I Convince My Boss to Involve Employees?

• Do your homework and understand the true leading indicators for problems.

• Tie your solutions to the Business Plan from the CEO’s perspective.

• Get commitment from everyone involved.• Engaged employees will help every

organization. • Calculate ROI and Get the Word Out!

Take-Aways from Today

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

--Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Engaged Employees Will Help Solve and Manage Problems!

Want More Ideas?

Got A Solution?HR Approaches to 5 Common and

Persistent Business Problems

Dr. Dale J. DwyerDr. Sheri A Caldwell

Let’s Practice!