Introduction to the HR Gold Standard Roadmap

(Reposted by permission of the author from LinkedIn)

Our next series of articles will explore specific situations that HR is tasked with working & provide practical solutions.

As a continuation of our recent articles, we present a series of “how-to” examples. These examples are derived from our Gold Standard Roadmap architecture. This roadmap is intended to demonstrate how to build an HR system. We recognize that no one started with this roadmap and that your individual circumstances are vastly different. Therefore, we choose to establish a way of thinking that will support you as you transform or simply modify your HR system. We also realize that every step in our problem-solving process requires both a problem and a context. The problems will be defined using the intent of the Gold Standard and every problem we present will be in the context that supports our thinking.

Our thinking process is the PDCA model which was chosen because it is a universal model, based on critical thinking and adapted by many forward-looking organizations. It is by nature a systematic approach that starts with a need or an indication of a problem and proceeds through logical steps to arrive at a problem statement, a root cause, a series of countermeasures, a plan for implementing the countermeasures and a plan to follow-up on the implementation. This is our way of processing thinking and has proven in use to be both reliable and valid. We must all keep in mind that it also allows for the outcome that did not solve the problem by once again beginning your critical thinking again using PDCA. In a system that delivers on “no blame”, it backs up the process orientation that says no person is perfect and if we continue to strive to solve a problem using good critical thinking we will make progress and find the root cause of the problem. If we take our root cause solutions and standardize them, we will be most of the way there. If we standardize and follow the standard using mutual trust and respect in our interactions with members, we will sustain the changes and see very clearly any deviations from the standard.

The roadmap’s promise is if we understand its elements and follow the process of putting them in place using the Gold Standard, we will have an HR environment that supports positive improvement where the member is respected, aligned, committed and inspired. Each of these elements has a specific intent derived from the system of work. Our overall context is to satisfy the customer and develop members for the improvement of the product to the customer. We will also experience members who come to work every day not just to do their standard work but to improve it.

The architecture of the HR Gold Standard Roadmap is to find a problem, determine the facts of the situation, create a problem statement that is a deviation from a standard of expectation, analyze the cause and determine the root cause. Then, create countermeasures and a plan to accomplish them with a followup plan that allows you to monitor the desired outcomes and standardize solutions that resolve the root cause. If the root cause does not solve the problem, then the process of critical thinking starts again and the process continues until you resolve the problem at the root cause or decide the problem does not need to be solved.

As in all problem solving the context is the organization’s annual and strategic plans. Those plans should represent no more than 20% of the effort expended each year and are focused on improvement. The other 80% of the effort each year is in delivering to your customer.

These numbers are rough at best, but they deliver a very important message. Your organization has the capacity to create solutions for improvement, but it is not unlimited. Improvement is not to be at the expense of serving your customers. If it is then it will surely be diminished over time and organizations needs both customer satisfaction and improvement. We have to be aware that we could overburden the organization, and this is waste.

The HR Gold Standard Roadmap is laid out in a critical thinking flow. It reminds us that there are assessments we need to derive the facts and create a problem statement, a reminder to determine the likely causes down to the root cause, plan for resolving the root cause, execution of the plan and to evaluate, adjust if necessary and reflect on what was accomplished. We will use each of these elements to describe for a chosen problem how we would process and what we expect to find. This will lead us to describe how we plan, execute and monitor using the Gold Standard as our guide. All of the problem situations are common but not specific in how we describe it. We will use the problems we have encountered from our experience and lay them out to encourage your thinking in a similar situation. In each case, we will keep the Gold Standard as our standard for behavior and mutual trust and respect.

We are not infallible. We do not have the perfect answer for every situation. We want to encourage discussion, reflection and improvement of the Gold Standard so we can all benefit from its application. We want to hear from you. There is no perfect response; only learning for all of us.

If your organization needs help, just reach out to me. I‘m always more than happy to help. I can be reached at jallen@leancpi.com, or connect and message me on LinkedIn.

Also, you can click here to receive a free copy of the full eBook covering this topic more completely.