Are Your HR Processes A Worm Pit?

Human resources staff have a keen grasp of knowing that their company's employees are their customers. Few, I've observed, along with their hiring managers act like they understand that a prospective employee is a customer, too. Because of a failure to truly recognize who the customer is along this particular value stream, a worm pit is created.

A worm pit in the space of talent acquisition is an acronym describing the seven wastes in Lean.  They stand for the Waiting, Over-production, Rework, Motion, over-Processing, Inventory, and Transport of documents associated with the hiring process. There are inefficiencies in requisition management, sourcing, and in the screening and assessment of candidates, and Lean Six Sigma can be used to make substantial improvements. Here's a breakdown...

Waiting - How many escalations or approvals must be obtained from getting the requisition opened to hiring the candidate? How much time is spent waiting for feedback from those participating in the process? What about the indecision that occurs on those "hold" prospects? And when it comes down to the end of the process, who controls and how much time is spent waiting for an offer to be released?

Over-Production - Are you putting out requisitions prior to the need? Do you have too many candidates waiting in the pipeline?

Rework - Did you get correct and accurate information from the hiring manager to acquire the right candidates without having to rewrite the job posting? Are your job descriptions up-to-date with current duties, skills, knowledge, etc.? Are the right stakeholders involved?

Motion - Is there a smooth flow of paperwork that doesn't require it to be "tracked down"? How much time is spent on activities by all parties involved that don't add value to the process? Don't forget who defines value - value is determined by the customer!

Over-Processing - Are the job flows in the applicant tracking system (ATS) efficient? Are there too many or too little steps that creates additional work elsewhere? Are the filters in the ATS too loose or too tight, resulting in a less-than-adequate talent pool for the listing?

Inventory - How many resumes are waiting to be reviewed? How many offers are waiting to be processed?

Transportation - How effective and streamlined is the interview process? What takes place when offer letters are sent out? Is there a defined acceptance to joining timeline?

All seven of the aforementioned areas are waste in a lean environment. By removing waste, process velocity will increase. Once the majority of the waste is eliminated, the focus turns to process quality and eliminating defects (i.e. special cause variation, poor hires, etc.) because variation is the enemy in Six Sigma. Thus, by using both Lean and Six Sigma, your company can move towards a lean, just-in-time recruiting process that quickly and accurately identifies candidates, and moves them through the hiring process in days or weeks instead of months. This will save your company a lot of currently untracked money and operational efficiencies will improve for all who become involved in finding and hiring a new employee.