A. Michael Hiles & Associates Inc.
Human Capital Management
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A. Michael Hiles & Associates Inc. Human Capital Management
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Organizational Analysis - Auditing Your Company"Our company expects to fill two to three vacancies on our nine-member staff, and we have identified skills gaps. Before we do any hiring, we want to review work requirements and job skills, to help us become more efficient. The result will be revised job descriptions and a professional development plan. To achieve these results, what are the key items we should include in developing an audit plan?" -- Planning to change, executive assistant, nonprofit, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Conducting a periodic organization assessment is a great idea, even if you haven't observed any significant problems within your organization. It's always helpful to understand if changes within your business environment are having an impact -- or could have an impact in the future -- on how you structure the organization, define roles, manage people, design HR programs, measure performance, and communicate information. So what is the right approach? Define or validate the organization's three-to five-year business strategy. This typically comes from the Board and executive group, and should be communicated broadly to the organization. Determine the organization structure required to support the business strategy. For example, if the company is planning to grow by acquisition, the organization needs to be structured in such a way as to facilitate the integration of new divisions or business units. Define job roles. Using the new organization structure, create specific job roles. The most important thing to remember in this step is to consider positions, not people. Designing positions around the capabilities of the current incumbents, not the business requirements, invites for disappointment. Define skills and competencies for each role. This step helps you to objectively determine the behaviors and knowledge required for successful performance in each role. This is a difficult step, because it forces you to take a hard look at individuals who may have been part of the organization for a long time. However, if the business requirements have changed, and have resulted in new skill and competency requirements, then the workforce you need will have changed concurrently. Review compensation and other HR programs. It is important to ensure that HR programs are aligned with the market. If positions responsibilities change as a result of the organization assessment, then the new position's compensation should be benchmarked against the external market. Communicate the changes. The effectiveness of your organization changes can be lost without the support of a strong communication and implementation program. People will want to know what is changing, why it's changing, when it's changing, etc., and it's critical to never assume that people have the same perspective of the organization that management does. So over-communicate. Help people feel like they were part of the change process, not just affected by it. Involve line people from the organization in some of the design decisions, and ask for their input along the way. It's really the only way that a change like this will be sustainable. Be flexible enough to change again soon. Change is never over, and new business challenges may force the same process again soon. The organization will trust that management is steering the company in the right direction if it understands why the changes are required. SOURCE: Mitch Stern, Specific, human capital group, Deloitte & Touche
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