Process Capability: A Lesson from the Machine Shop for Talent Management

It was the Monday after finishing my Lean Six Sigma Black Belt class, and I was eager to apply my new skills. As the quality manager in our factory, I was concerned about the machine shop and the defects produced by our CNCs. I intended to apply the concept of process capability. Process capability is a statistic that describes the inherent variability of a given feature. When analyzing process capability, the goal is to ensure that the inherent variability consistently falls within the customer's expectations. To achieve consistency, I standardized everything: our maintenance schedule, our set-up procedures, and even the quality of the material we used. After much analysis and hard work, we stabilized our machine shop, improved quality, met customer expectations, and reduced costs.

When looking at Talent Management processes, I often reflect on the lessons I learned in that machine shop. How do we apply process capability to these processes so that our business leaders' expectations are consistently met?

• Why is there variability when we recruit new people to the organization?

• Why are there inconsistencies when managers deliver performance reviews?

• How do we create more predictable outcomes during talent reviews?

To improve the process capability and reduce the variation, I've found the following principles effective when working with Talent Management processes.

1. Design the process in a manner consistent with the existing culture. As Talent Management professionals, it's easy to advocate for external best practices. However, adoption will be spotty if the best practices run counter to company culture. For example, if the company values in-person training, a strategy leveraging eLearning will be challenging. You will get better adoption and less variation in your outcomes if you design the strategy in a manner that is consistent with the culture.

2. Diligently measure and problem-solve outliers. Most organizations have scorecards for their primary processes. However, most organizations do not use control charts to monitor outliers and to problem-solve. For example, do you only track your time-to-fill for new hires? Instead, track each new hire and the amount of variation that occurs around the median. When an outlier event occurs, aggressively analyze it and develop solutions to ensure it does not happen again.

3. Document the process and train on it. This suggestion seems basic, but look at it like a factory operations manager would. When we created set-up instructions for our CNC machinists, the operations manager checked on the operators daily. They were counseled or retrained if they deviated from the approved process. Are we willing to do the same for the manager that deviates from the approved method for delivering a performance review? Have we created training for how our talent reviews will be conducted? Documenting the standard and setting the expectation to be followed is essential to reducing process variation.

Best of luck, and hopefully, you've found something in this article helpful to your current work!