|
|
|
Advice on choosing health food and healthy foods and reading nutrition labels
Health food doesn't need a definition, does it? We all know what
health food is it's yogurt and granola, whole-grain cereal and
organically grown vegetables and fruit. It's 100% natural, no
preservatives or dyes, unadulterated, pure. When you put...
Advising on the
most informative
advice
with reference to ram memory.
...
Freelance Copywriting Advice #1: Take the Scary Jobs
From time to time you will be faced with an opportunity that looks downright scary. The temptation is to think, "Hey, that's way outside my level of expertise. I'm not ready for that." My advice to you is this: Do it. When you are faced with...
Get Practical Advice From A Natural Health Magazine
As the general public becomes more educated about health, more
and more people are turning to natural health magazines for
cheaper, healthier, more sustainable ways to improve their
health for the long run.
Natural health magazines also...
Looking for the best sourced advice regarding migraines.
Looking for the best sourced advice regarding migraines.
When you are trying to find the best advice about migraines, you'll find it easier said than done unscrambling quality advice from amateurish migraines suggestions and advice so it's...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Process Analysis - Advice to the Interviewer
This article provides advice on how to get a job description from an employee that is complete and accurate. Also noted are the more comprehensive benefits of having excellent job descriptions for every employee.
A Process Always Starts Earlier and Ends Later Than You Thought
In this essay we will take a look at the nuts and bolts of creating excellent job descriptions. Time studies, workflow, whether the employee is doing the right things at the right time or not, is for another article.
The viewpoint taken here is that the information gathered about a process should be described in such a way that a new person filling the post could do it without having to run to their boss every five minutes to find out what to do next. The unfortunate facts are that the person’s boss may not know how to do the job either.
If you ask an employee to describe what it is that they do, do not be surprised if their description has more missing information than a New York Times editorial. To find that missing information a good process analyst should be equal parts confessor, snoop, and detective. Attention to detail is essential. You must also be as persistent as black flies in Michigan.
Why is this so? If people know their jobs; surely they can describe what they do? Yes, most employees do know what they are doing, but the distance between what they do and their ability to describe it may be vast.
It isn’t a bad idea to have an employee write a description of what they do, but by no means should it be taken as the red-hot gospel. If nothing else it will give you an outline to work from and possibly uncover something you may already know, that generally people don’t write very well at all. A hundred writers and experts have described the state of education in the United States ably. It is unfortunate that so little has come of so much writing.
Here’s a short example to illustrate some of the points of interest. The process example is making coffee for the office in the morning. You sit with the person and have them describe it to you. Don’t try to flow chart or anything; just take down a narrative description. Leave plenty of space between the steps. Before you start, you tell the employee that together you are going to create a detailed job description, showing each step of getting coffee made every morning and any alternative or conditional actions that occur in the process. You explain what this means carefully and be as certain as possible that the employee gets it. Most of the time they will get some of it, but not all. What is hoped for is that the employee will discover what you trying to accomplish as a part of the interview.
Here’s some more advice. Always, always acknowledge the employee after he answers your question or they will go on trying to tell you about it, It’s as if they aren’t sure you heard them or not. Let them know you did hear when they answer the question. And always take copious notes, always.
Interview:
“So, John, lets talk about getting coffee made every day. What do you do first?” “Well, usually I get a filter and put it in the machine.” “Okay. Is the coffee machine clean when you arrive in the morning? What I mean is, has the old filter with grounds been removed? Is the pot clean? That sort of thing?” Laughs. “Not likely. I’m supposed to clean it at the end of the day, but I don’t always get a chance to do that.” [If you wrote down what he said at the top of the page, you are going to have one messy work sheet before you finish.] “What happens if you don’t have any ground coffee, John?” “Oh, right, well sometimes I can borrow some from another department, if not I have to go out to the store and buy it. You know, another problem is that I have to get money from the Office Manager. She’s not always around. Then the coffee doesn’t get made and everyone blames me.” “I understand. We’ll look at ways to fix all this later. Let’s continue with the process. Do you run out of
filters or coffee, any of the supplies you need very often?” “More than you’d think. These guys drink coffee like there’s no tomorrow. And people from other departments come by and use our coffee. They don’t pay either.” [Make notes. When the interview is finished you’ll want to write a report with recommendations. It will be a great opportunity to apply some simple remedies that may end up saving the client time and money.] “John, is the machine on or off when you put the filter in?” “On, usually, but I suppose it could be off.” “Which should it be?” “You know, I’m not sure. I’ll be darned, I never thought of that.” “That’s all right we’ll sort it out. All right, lets say you have the filter in place and the grounds measured. By the way, how many scoops do you use?” “Eight for a full pot, but someone always complains that it is too strong or too weak.” “I know. Do you use tap water or filtered water?” “Filtered. Hey, that’s another thing, I’m supposed to change the filters every so often. The coffee starts tasting weird if I don’t. I have to buy those on the other side of town.” ““Got it. What happens next?” “I turn the machine on. Oh, that’s interesting; it is turned off when I start. You know, Joe, it seems like such a simple thing; get here in the morning and make a little coffee. I never thought there was that much to it.” Smiles. “Glad we cleared that point up.”
I’ll stop here. Hopefully you have seen enough of how this goes to understand some of the pitfalls and problems. To the person doing a specific task, especially one that he or she is well familiar with, of course the job seems simple. They have reached a point where all the exceptions that happen seem normal. If the employee says something like, "Oh, well, everyone knows you're supposed to do that," be nice, and then insist they tell you exactly what that thing is that everyone knows they should do.
When interviewing keep going earlier until you are sure you are at the point where the process really begins. The same is true for where the process ends. Processes create products. Products are completed things correctly made or done that others need. If steps are left out, the product doesn’t get delivered or is incomplete or both.
When you do this carefully and patiently so many things leap out at you. This is because you are outside of the process looking in. One gets a much clearer view from outside. When you are inside the forest it is hard to see the edges.
For example, you could create a simple checklist and schedule for purchasing supplies. And why not buy in bulk; get some of those economies of scale process improvement people are always talking about? Or how about a laminated step-by-step process sheet put up right next to the coffee machine? Add your ideas, I am sure you've had them.
It is a safe bet that you could promise any manager you will save him or her the cost of the process analysis just from isolating wasted time and material. These areas of loss will leap into view. You won’t have to ferret them out.
Process descriptions are innately excellent things to create in any company, and not just for manufacturing tasks. No department should be without them. The opportunities for savings in every way are remarkable. For example Human resources would love to have excellent process descriptions for each employee. It would make training new people much simpler.
You can do this yourself or hire a professional. Whatever you choose don’t leave it to chance. If you are a manager, this is a big time stress remover. Get it done and enjoy how much smoother your department or company runs.
About the Author
Mr. Ladew has traveled and worked all over the world. He spent many years as an aerospace engineer. He works as a technical writer and trainer. Mr. Ladew is also a novelist (2 books published), writes articles, essays, short stories and Haiku. he has also written a best selling business book for mid-level supervisors.
|
|
|
|
|
|