Leaderboard

Let us assume the talent pool available in the market is same for company A and company B. Company A decides to to use Six Sigma for improving their results from recruitment process while company B does not do this. Now we would like to understand how company A can get better results with Six Sigma. Let us assume that Company A goes through DMAIC in the following way. Define - Using appropriate Six Sigma tools, it defines the problem as inability to meet SLA for recruitment. This problem is converted into a charter document and discussed in a senior management meeting. The objective of the discussion in the meeting is to finalize whether this improvement project meets the criteria for approval as a Six Sigma project. As senior management gets convinced about the opportunity for improvement and sees the possibility of good return on investment through this project, the project gets approved with a leader assigned. A team is identified to work on the project with clear objective and a time frame of 4 months is provided to the team. These 4 months shall be used to select the right Six Sigma techniques on the issue, with right people working on the project and senior management support assured with resources (time, meeting places, communication support). Company B continues in a haphazard manner fire fighting as always. You might have noticed that well begun is half done for company A. Measure phase - Team at company A prepares a detailed process map of the current process, finalises the CTQ with an operational definition (bringing absolute clarity about when do we consider SLA as met and when is it considered as not met). It also checks and fixes the measurement system and brings visibility and accuracy (Company B does not know at a point in time how many people are on rolls, how many recruitment requests are pending and for what reasons). Company A now measures and documents its current process performance to be at sigma level = 2.3 and fixes a target of improvement at 3.0 Analyze phase - Using appropriate six sigma techniques, team at company A now identifies that various factors that influence the recruitment success. These are listed as - i. Understanding of hiring needs from departments properly. ii. Identifying the right approach for recruitment drive iii. Selecting the message (including introduction to company and career prospects) iv. Selecting the right media for recruitment. v. The short-listing mechanism. vi. Making the offer with terms and conditions vii. On-boarding and induction process. Analyze phase part II - Team at company A now identifies the factors that are critical to recruitment success. For this it carries out a survey on good (selected people or people who got an offer) people who did not join in a recent drive. Team uses certain techniques like FMEA, graphical techniques like box plot, hypothesis tests like the t-test to finalize on validate few critical factors that influence selection success. Company B meanwhile knows that there are several factors that influence the efficiency of recruitment process, but has no idea where to focus for improvement. Improve phase - Team at company A identifies solution alternatives using techniques like creative thinking, benchmarking. The team then selects the best solution using the appropriate technique out of pugh matrix, multi-voting, delphi technique etc. Before implementing the solution, the team finds that they can carry out a DOE to optimize the solution further. The new alternate process (improved process map) is documented, piloted, validated and implemented. The team records the benefits with the next recruitment drive. Company B continues as before. It has no mechanism to learn from its own mistakes or to learn from mistakes of others (and no data driven approach to reach conclusions, no management support to approve good recommendations when they arrive) Control phase - Team at company A puts in the right controls in the improved process so that the benefits can be sustained over a period of time. It carries out mistake proofing at few places, and creates a control plan with audit check-lists to ensure that desired behaviour changes does actually happen. Finally with a better process in place and removal of gaps, delays, errors, and ineffective communication (at the right places), Company A starts attracting the best talent more effectively. To put in in brief Six Sigma philosophy is about using a systematic, scientific, data driven approach that leads to the best possible process (the best does not remain best for long so there is a need for continual improvement and more improvement projects periodically) Six Sigma methodology provides us with world best tried and tested techniques and we select and use the appropriate ones for a specific improvement project. Benchmark Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt training gears you up with not just the right techniques but also provides the wisdom about when to select which one. Do let me know if you have more questions.