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Achieving Operational Alignment
Mike ClelandPresident, Charted Path
Agenda
• Case Study• Model of Performance• Identifying Bottlenecks• Aligning Operations• Common Causes of Poor Alignment
Operational Alignment Defined
Alignment of critical delivery processes with the buying criteria of the targeted client base
Purpose
To discuss how to identify bottlenecks within the delivery organization and provide guidelines on how to address them in order to better align operations with client demands.
Case Study
Profile
Randstad Engineering is a large national engineering staffing firm that provides both contract and direct hires placement services.
Indicator
Job Order Conversion Ratio was flat and not to industry standards. In order to improve performance, we needed to narrow down the primary causes of the bottleneck.
Considered Causes
• Candidate Quality• Job Order Quality• Speed• Coverage Volume
Key Issues Identified
• Recruiters were over assigned Job Orders• Organization needed to improve process
time including:– Job Order Creation– Job Order Assignment– Time to First Submit
• Job Order metrics identified time to submit as the primary bottleneck
Moment of Clarity
“It doesn’t matter how good your candidates are, if the client never sees them”
Solution
• Reduce response time for specific clients
• Remove those clients’ jobs from the job order queue after a certain period of time
• Ensure recruiters are focusing on the right number and best qualified jobs
Why was the project successful?
• Spent time identifying the primary bottlenecks
• Developed targeted solutions• Strong management team
– Executive and line level– Challenged the status quo– Led and managed the change– Remained focused
Model for Performance
Model for Performance
Performance Driven Culture
Sale
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Financial Results
Sales Strategy Defined
• Value Proposition/Messaging• Targeted Buyers• Sales Process
Operational Alignment
The processes and tools that drive the delivery of the service.– Job Order Management– Sourcing– Submittal Management– Back Office Alignment
* The scope of this discussion only includes processes up to when a placement is made.
Performance Culture Defined
The processes and policies that define the performance driven culture– Right Hiring– Performance Management– Recognition and Compensation– Training and Development
Understanding the Dynamics
• All drivers have inefficiencies• Drivers are interdependent• It is very common to work on familiar
problems rather than on important ones
Prioritization
"I'm not going to rearrange the furniture on the deck of the Titanic."
-Rogers Morton
A company is only as productive as its narrowest bottleneck
Driving Improvements
Selecting the right problem is half the battle– Improvements Require Focus– Improvements Require Resources– Improvements are Disruptive
Bottleneck Identification
Health Check Method
• Information Gathering– Analytics (Metrics)– Survey Feedback
• Key Issue Prioritization
Sales Strategy: Sample Metrics
• Meetings• Job Order Distribution• GM by Client Distribution• Average GM%• GM per Placement
Sales Strategy: Sample Feedback Questions
Sales and Management– How effective is the company messaging?– Does the sales process enable effective
prospecting?– How can account planning be improved?– SWOT Analysis
Operations Sample Metrics
• Monthly Submittals• Monthly Job Orders• Job Order Close Rate• Submittal:Hire• Interview:Hire• Time to First Submit• Fall Off Percentage
Operations: Sample Feedback Questions
Recruiting and management– Describe the effectiveness of Job Order
management.– How can the organization improve time to
submit?– How competitive are our sourcing capabilities?– How effective is the company at marketing
submittals?– SWOT Analysis
Culture: Observations
• Collaborative problem solving
• Effective conflict resolution• Work Ethic• Energy Level• Inability to recruit new talent• Attrition (top producers)
Performance Driven Planning
• More detail on assessment and prioritization can be found on the performance driven planning webinar:
http://www.chartedpath.com/performance_planning.htm
Aligning Operations
Defining the Critical Processes
Critical Processes
Effective alignment considers all the processes and tools that drive the delivery of the service.– Job Order management– Sourcing– Submittal Management
Job Order Management
• Job Order Qualification• Job Order Prioritization• Job Order Assignment
Sourcing
• Active Sourcing– Networking– Cold Calling– Social Media– Resume Banks– Database
• Passive Sourcing– Web Applicants– Call ins
Submittal Management
• Candidate Qualification• Internal Submittal• Submittal to Client• Interview Preparation• Offer• Placement
Aligning Operations
Method
Symptoms of Poor Alignment
• Declining Job Order Close Rates• Increasing Submittal to Hire Ratios• Large Fluctuations in Job Order Volume• Increases in Time to First Submit• Large Variance of Close Rates Between
Client Types
Five Steps to Operational Alignment
• Capture Job Order Patterns• Evaluate Your Performance• Define the Gaps• Develop Solutions• Implement, Measure, Adapt
Capture Job Order Patterns
Review past job order activity:• Skill Sets• Locations• Volume Fluctuations
Speak to program manger for insight
Evaluate Past Performance: Metrics
From the account perspective:– Placement volume– Submittal:Hire– Jobs with no submittals– Jobs with late submittals– Placements vs. time to first submit
Evaluate Past Performance: Survey
• Team Feedback– Survey producers– One on one discussions
Bottlenecks will oftentimes be reflected in both the metrics and the feedback.
Define the Gaps
There are three types of delivery gaps:– Responsiveness– Quality– Throughput
Each of these gaps can show up in all three of the processes.
Responsiveness
• The speed in which the processes are typically completed.
• Inefficiencies that reduce responsiveness are found in all three critical processes.
• Inefficiencies in responsiveness are a commonly ignored problem.
Quality
• Where quality of the work leads to wasted effort.
• Primary causes– Poor job order qualification– Poor candidate qualification
• Secondary causes include:– Poor collaboration– Poor client management– Poor candidate management
Throughput
• The maximum number of submittals an organization can generate withoutsacrificing quality
• Common issues:– Poor automation– Skill set variance– Team size
Solution Development
• Workshops are preferred– Cross functional problem– Team alignment
• Team gains an understanding of the problem• Issues are vetted• Team help develop the solution• Team leaves with well defined expectations
– Small organizations can effectively use a top down approach
Implement, Measure, and Adapt
• Implement– Ownership– Timeline– Budget
• Measure– Build metrics to capture progress– Review as a team and challenge assumptions
• Adapt– If results are not there, then make adjustments
Common Causes of Poor Alignment
Common Causes
• Delays• Over Processing• Over Production• Poor Automation• Poor Inventory Management• Poor Qualification
*These all lead to wasteful activity that provide no value to the client*
Common Causes: Delays
• Jobs entering queue• Job Order assignment• Poor access to sourcing tools• Delay in AM reviewing resume• Delay in AM sending resume to client
Over Processing
• Job description detail• Resume reformatting• Creating submittal
Over Production
• Poor job order prioritization• Poor job order assignment• Over coverage
Poor Automation
• Poor tool usage• Insufficient
investment in tools– Dated tools– Not enough tools
Inventory Management
• Lack of passive sourcing strategy• Poor documentation of top candidates• Lack of cross over submittals• Poor replacement strategy
Lack of Qualification
• Poor job order qualification is the largest individual contributor to waste.
• Poor candidate qualification not only is wasteful to they agency but to the client as well.
About Charted Path
• Charted Path works with staffing executives to improve competitiveness through:– Key Issues Assessments– Improvement Workshop Facilitation– Metrics Portfolio Development– Implementation Support
• Contact Mike Cleland– 770-380-0046– [email protected]
