Today, we’ll discuss some Human Resource system that clarifies responsibility and authority.
[Intro Video]
Hi this is Mike Negami, Lean Sigma, Black Belt.
I received this question from one of my viewers: “Many companies have this issue and discuss
that responsibilities and authorities are unclear among employees.
Are there any tools to clarify those?”
Haruhisa, thank you very much for your question.
The answer to “What tool clarifies responsibility and authority?”, would be a job description.
In western business culture, this is a document that is commonly used to show the details
about a particular position in the company.
A few years ago, during my last job hunt, I must have read over a hundred detailed job
descriptions.
Each description has a lot of text and it was a bit overwhelming to go through all of
them.
However, as I read more descriptions, I was getting to know more clearly what I wanted
to be doing career-wise, and what skills and certifications I needed to get.
By making detailed job descriptions, companies can clarify their expectations for a candidate's
profile, and increase their chances of finding and hiring the best talent for the position.
Once job descriptions are made, you can use them repeatedly.
I'll explain more about how to make them in my next video.
In addition to hiring people, you can also use job descriptions to make your employees'
KPI's (Key Performance Indicators).
When you make KPI’s, make sure that each item on the KPI’s is measurable, then you
can use those KPI's in your yearly performance appraisal.
All employees, including managers, should review the current year's KPI's at the beginning
of the fiscal year.
Then, six months later, everyone can receive a mid-term appraisal.
Supervisors won't just evaluate their direct reports' KPI’s all by themselves.
The employees should self-evaluate first and have an opportunity to promote their work
performance to their boss.
After reviewing the submissions, the supervisors can then make mid-term evaluations and interview
each employee and tell them the results.
Since it's still mid-term, they can discuss not only how to achieve goals in the remaining
six months, but also any issues there might be, what kind of support from the company
the employee may need, and how they can develop their skills in the long run.
At the final appraisal at the end of the fiscal year, the same appraisal process can be repeated.
However, the final evaluations will affect bonuses and salary increases.
Here are three important points: First, this performance appraisal activity will increase
communication and improve the relationship between the boss and his/her direct reports.
The second point is that the performance appraisal gives managers more authority because the
employees meet with the evaluating manager who will judge their KPI's, and at the same
time, this process clarifies who’s in charge of improving each employee and their progress.
Evaluating employees is secondary, but improving employees is the main purpose.
The third point is that effective performance appraisals rotate the PDCA Cycle for human
resource development.
Growth of employees is essential for the company to grow, so please check how your company
is currently managing the rotation of the PDCA Cycle in terms of employee development.
If you are not rotating it well, please consider introducing this kind of performance appraisal.
It's also not necessary to introduce an entire IT system right away to get started with this.
Even using just pen and paper can get the ball rolling.
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