Acting Human

In consideration of the increasing globalization the mobility of employees seems to more important than ever. In Europe around 60% of the company’s record stays abroad. Very common are single-status-postings where employees are send abroad without their family for a special amount of time. Even the number of women who work a while abroad is increasing in Europe.

A company who sends its employees abroad should consider a couple of points. First of all there is the question about the costs. Sending an employee in a foreign country means normally around one and a half up to four times more costs for a company compared to the hiring of a local worker. Especially if an employee takes his/her family abroad the costs can increase quite fast: apartment or house, costs for education, special payments and so on.

A company also must be clear about the ROI (Return of investment) for the deployment abroad. There are different factors of success which can be considered: will there be an increase of returns, is it meaningful to build up a base of high qualified managers, how important is a global corporate culture and competence, does the deployment abroad fit together with the expectations of the employee, will there be a development of local competences and will there be an increase of the market share in the destination country.

The main problem companies have is the re-integration of employees who worked abroad. The re-integration including better job perspectives and a job guarantee are the main aspects. Furthermore a company must know that the returnees might suffer a cultural shock especially in the beginning. The loose of an employee with experience abroad might be very pricey in the end. Eventually the employee ends up at the competitor.

Of course the Human Resource Department needs to take care of most of these aspects. It’s important to figure out if the deployment abroad fits the expectations of an employee, to talk about the leaving, problems which might occur and also the return. The employee should get an idea what he/she can expect when he/she returns. And as said also the re-integration is important because time can change many things in the end.

The other day I tripped over the term “Lean Manufacturing”. The principles sounded interesting to me especially since they seemed to be contemporary. Before having a closer look to the human site of that it is need to know what the term means and where it comes from.

Lean Manufacturing originates from the Japanese automotive manufacturer Toyota. The method was developed in the middle of the 20th century. The aim of the Toyota Production System (TPS) consisted in the creation of a stable process organization which forms the base of the reached quality level of their products. Toyota describes it as follows:

A production system that is steeped in the philosophy of the complete elimination of all waste and that imbues all aspects of production with this philosophy in pursuit of the most efficient production method.

The term was first used by Professor James P. Womack and consultant Daniel T. Jones. They spent years analyzing the success of Japanese companies. Nowadays the lean principles are used in all division like lean production, lean administration or lean maintance. The most usable definition which covers probably the best way the different use of the term “Lean Manufacturing” is the following (Source):

(Lean Manufacturing) is a manufacturing phenomenon that seeks to “maximize the work effort of a company’s number one resource, the People.” Lean is therefore “a way of thinking” to adapt to change, eliminate waste, and continuously improve. There are a number of tools and techniques, to be used in concert, to achieve maximizing the effort of the workforce and to operate as a “lean” company

For reaching those targets it is necessary to eliminate redundant activities and adjust the value added chain in an optimal way. On the one site the needs, wants and wishes of the consuments need to be considered like quality, price, availability and individuality. On the other site the company has to realize that to act profitable and keep its competitiveness on its market. That means that the base for the companies work forms the customer preference with processes orientated towards the customer and with a high efficiency.

For reaching all that the company needs adequate process definitions, descriptions of the cut surfaces, clear responsibilities, and timely reactions on errors, simple organization methods and stable processes.

The question now is what that means for the Human Resources? The targets only can be met when the stuff is embraced early in the conception and realization. The sensitisation of the stuff for errors are important with the aim of motivate them and integrate the knowledge of every single worker.

But for reaching a sensitisation of the stuff it is first necessary that it stands behind the company and its philosophy. If a worker doesn’t share the company’s views he probably doesn’t care of possible errors which might occur. Or he might not be aware of the needs of a client. After all he might not stand in the “full service” of the company. Also the motivation will be hard then.

Further it might be hard for a worker to distinguish problems. Even if there are guidelines, the human acting might differ from it out of his known routine. For him other things might occur right and he probably will act in his way according to the guideline.

So after all it is important for the company to win the stuff for what it does. This also includes reaching a maximum of job satisfaction not only through money.