The percentage of “workaholics” among IT specialists is incredibly high: they can spend hours discussing the solution to a problem, sit at the computer for days, go without vacation for years, moving from project to project. However, for some reason this dedication may not in any way affect the efficiency of the IT department team.

Improving staff efficiency- a subject of concern for almost every IT service manager - both a small company and an industrial giant. The personnel motivation system is often built by trial and error, and the number of errors is quite large. How to optimize motivational models? How to make people want to work in this particular organization, to work to achieve business results?

In IT services, a situation often arises when people are well motivated to work on a project, understand the goals and objectives of the work, clearly see the horizons, are aware of their areas of responsibility and work with full dedication. In everyday work, the picture is often significantly different: people do not think about the ultimate goals of their work, and do not feel the incentive to do it as well as possible. It turns out that the team completes the sprint distances quickly and harmoniously, but the achievements at the stayer distances look much more modest. Since managers are often unable to change the situation, the search for external influences begins. Any explanation is used - from the general state of the Russian economy, which, like an ocean in a drop, is reflected in the organizational characteristics of individual companies, to the specifics of the Russian mentality, which, of course, sometimes allows you to “go fast”, but only due to the fact that in front of with this they “harness” for a long time and slowly. However, no matter how reassuring and reliable the explanation may seem, it does not solve the problem.

In order to understand the reason for this phenomenon, it is necessary to consider the real, and not the declared, organizational principles of the company in general and the IT department in particular.

Formula for success

People think about creating or improving a motivation system when there is a need to increase the efficiency of employees and to use labor resources more rationally. Often managers describe the problem something like this: “People work great, love their profession - to the point that they are ready to give the company their personal time, working overtime on their own initiative. They are good professionals. But in general, the IT service is not working as efficiently as it could be, time and labor resources are being used irrationally.” Often the feeling of ineffective use of labor resources arises on an intuitive level and is not supported by any indicators. Managers often see a way out of this situation by changing the system of personnel motivation, which, as a rule, means increasing salaries.

“Increasing the efficiency of a company or its division is not limited to the creation of motivational schemes. The effectiveness of people depends not only on motivation, so it is necessary to consider it in combination with other significant influencing factors. The approach to creating an effective personnel work system that we practice is quite often used in the West, but has not yet become widespread in Russia,” says Dmitry Voloshchuk, consultant in the “Personnel Performance Management” department of Ecopsy Consulting.

Within this approach, efficiency is considered as a derivative of three elements:

• Efficiency = competence / organizational barriers x motivation, where competence is professional knowledge and skills (and in the case of an employee in a leadership position, also managerial skills). Leadership qualities are an important component of the competence of IT service employees, since in a business environment, a significant part of which is organized on a project basis, most specialists from time to time take on a managerial position - project manager, head of the project office, etc.;
• motivation is a system of material and non-material incentives based on people’s values ​​and guidelines;
• organizational barriers are attitudes and features of the organizational structure that prevent people from working with full dedication for the benefit of the company. These may be inorganic work rules, standards that make it difficult for employees, gaps in the organizational structure, lack of regulations and procedures - for example, procedures for responding to problem situations, and so on.

Based on the formula, we can consider the activities of employees in three dimensions - professionalism, motivation and corporate environment. “In order to understand the degree of efficiency of a department, you need to look at what point in this three-dimensional coordinate system it is located: how great the competence and motivation are, and what are the organizational barriers. Only after this can we draw a conclusion about what steps need to be taken to increase efficiency,” says Dmitry Voloshchuk.

The level of professionalism of IT specialists can be measured using professional tests or based on the assessment of their immediate supervisor. The situation is more complicated with their managerial skills and competencies - often IT specialists do not undergo any training in management skills and implement their managerial functions based on their own ideas about them. Moreover, a common situation is when the best IT specialist becomes the head of the IT service, regardless of whether he has the inclinations and skills of a manager or not.

Organizational barriers vary from company to company. Endless mandatory memos that must be written for any reason, complicated approval procedures, outdated corporate standards and much more can hold back the development of the organization. “People find it difficult to look at their activities from the outside and take steps to optimize them - there are so many current operational priorities and absolutely no time for a critical look. As a result, the importance of organizational barriers is often underestimated. Meanwhile, experience shows that simple steps to improve business processes can free up 20–30% of employees’ useful time, says Dmitry Voloshchuk. “In addition, if a person is engaged in “monkey work,” this demotivates him.”

Theory and practice

Roman Zhuravlev: “The management practices of IT services in companies do not form any system.” Like any other process in the IT management system, personnel management must have clearly defined goals, clearly related to the goals of the IT department, agreed, in turn, with goals and priorities of the company. To achieve these goals, tasks, main activities, and procedures must be defined. Responsibility for the implementation of both individual procedures and the process as a whole must be distributed. The necessary resources must be allocated and the availability of the necessary competencies ensured. It is advisable to identify and learn to evaluate measurable indicators of the effectiveness of the personnel management process. It is important that human resource management activities include phases of planning, execution, evaluation and improvement.

“As a rule, the management practices of IT services in companies do not form any system,” says Roman Zhuravlev, director of the IT training department at IT Expert. - Processes, even if identified, interact ineffectively. The goals of the IT function are not defined or are not related to the goals of the company.” The main activities in the field of personnel management are carried out, according to him, something like this:

• planning: quantitative - within the quota for staff expansion, usually annually. The quota calculation is not based on anything. In the field of training - within budgets - on the one hand, vague ideas about the prospects for infrastructure development - on the other.
• personnel selection: sources are not systematized. The activities of the relevant department at the company level do not produce results when it comes to IT service personnel. Professionally oriented selection is carried out haphazardly. Employees selected based on the expert assessment of IT department heads are sent “to personnel” for registration and formal checks.
• training: in full accordance with planning, that is, randomly. (A detailed calendar plan can not only be drawn up, but also observed. However, the question “Why are these particular people and these particular programs in it?” belongs to the category of rhetorical.)
• motivation: employees involved in projects are financially motivated to complete the project on time. Employees engaged in operational activities are motivated to retain them within the framework of a corporate-wide incentive program (salary, bonuses, social package). The IT manager gets involved in special cases, such as when a key employee tries to leave the company.

The described practices are not at all similar to the recommendations set out in modern IT management models, such as COBIT, MOF, which determine the need for effective personnel management, including planning, selection, training, development, motivation, rotation and dismissal. The reasons for this discrepancy, according to Roman Zhuravlev, are:

• low level of maturity of management processes in most Russian companies;
• uncertainty of the status and goals of the IT service in the company;
• insufficient training of IT service managers in the field of management;
• lack of adapted personnel management techniques that take into account the specifics of IT services.

“Under such conditions, in most cases there is no practical need to “optimize motivational models.” They will remain models,” notes Roman Zhuravlev.

“The most important thing is to integrate the motivation system for a specific person into the overall goal-setting system of the company (or division, if we are talking about an IT service), says Elena Sharova, deputy director of the corporate management systems department at IBS. - Each individual employee must understand his role in the overall “working mechanism” and see his contribution to achieving overall success. And the motivational scheme should be directly related to achieving the business goals of the department and the company as a whole.

In the process of setting, the company's overall strategic goals are decomposed to the level of individual performers. Each employee must, on the one hand, have a list of clear goals and objective criteria for achieving them, and on the other, see how his work contributes to overall success. All this creates the most important psychological effect - a feeling of involvement in a great cause. Without it, it is almost impossible to interest an employee.

It is very important that the rules of the game are initially set, not only from the point of view of motivation, but also the organization of work in general. It is necessary to clearly establish what the employees’ areas of responsibility are, how we work, how we communicate, how and who will control the work, how we will punish. Work rules (and motivation rules in particular) should not be a “black box” - they should be transparent and understandable. The less subjectivity, the better.”

Sources of inspiration

Elena Sharova: “Each specific employee must understand his role in the overall “working mechanism.” “To build an effective management and motivation system for the IT service, Roman Zhuravlev emphasizes, it is important:

• clearly formulate the goals of the activity - the IT service as a whole, its individual divisions, and individual performers. Agree on high-level goals with company management and bring them to the attention of employees;
• make reinforcements dependent only on the overt results of IT activities. Rewards for other people's successes do not motivate people to do better. Bonuses and other incentives based on company performance may contribute to the loyalty of IT employees, but not to improving the quality of work;
• determine intermediate points of activity assessment - semantic or temporary. The year-end bonus encourages you to perform better in December. The results of interim assessments should be prompt and obvious. A bonus for good work in the first quarter, paid in September, is perceived as a late repaid debt;
• make the management and motivation system adequate to the complexity of the organization, ensuring simplicity, fairness and accuracy of assessments. Take into account the features of different methods of managing activities. Use data from automation systems for IT management activities (records of work performed, reports, protocols, etc.);
• Remember that IT employees are different. A user support operator, a programmer and a network engineer have different personality traits, prefer different objects of activity, organize their work differently... And an effective management and motivation system must take these differences into account;
• provide opportunities for professional growth. For IT specialists, it is usually a priority over the career one. The opportunity to learn ensures the relevance of the professional level, maintenance and improvement of qualifications;
• try to establish effective interaction with the HR department. Often he doesn't help the CIO because neither party understands what the overall challenges are, not because those challenges don't have solutions.

Bread, knowledge, soulful atmosphere!

“If you compare the entire motivation system with an iceberg, then salaries, bonuses and other material benefits are what lies on the surface, what is visible and relatively easy to compare,” says Nadezhda Shalashilina, HR director of the Lanit group of companies. “But non-material motivation is the underwater part of the iceberg, which is much larger and deeper, and you can’t immediately see it, although it makes up the majority of the block.”

However, for most people the main motivating factor is material motivation. But this factor, according to Elena Sharova, needs to be worked subtly and competently: “Financial compensation is not just buying a person’s qualifications, it should motivate him to achieve specific goals and stimulate him to grow. The frequently occurring “ritual” salary increase by a certain percentage each year does not in any way motivate people to achieve success. Employees perceive it as a fact and do not see the connection between the salary increase and the growth of their qualifications. And more capable employees are not motivated for rapid professional growth, because they do not see how their earnings depend on the quality of their work. Thus, an objective assessment (in monetary terms) of an employee’s abilities should be formed taking into account the employee’s contribution to achieving project goals (if we are talking about project management) and the opportunities for his professional growth.”

One of the effective mechanisms of material motivation is personnel certification. During the certification process, goals for the year related to professional and career growth are discussed with the employee. The certification form records not just his responsibilities, but a development plan - what new role he should try himself in, what skills and competencies should be developed in order to step to a new level. For work purposes, the foundation for the development of certain skills is laid for the year. An increase in qualifications, development of skills and competencies is followed by a change in compensation.

The second tool for building motivational schemes is motivation by goals. “Goals must be clear, and clear indicators for their achievement must be set so that there are no discrepancies,” emphasizes Elena Sharova. - The principle is that a better result guarantees a greater reward. There is always a bonus fund. We just need to give meaning to bonuses, which in different companies are traditionally issued annually, quarterly or monthly, we need to tie them to the achievement of specific goals. This mechanism should not be a “black box”, but should be understandable and objective.”

“Given the undeniable importance of the monetary factor, non-material motivation, in my opinion, is the most reliable way to retain highly qualified specialists, especially in conditions of personnel shortages and rapid salary growth,” says Nadezhda Shalashilina. “And all because it is non-material motivation that gives people common values ​​and goals, passion for their work, opportunities for development and self-realization, recognition and true pleasure from work.”

In the IT industry, it is generally agreed that the main factor of non-financial motivation is professional and career growth. Therefore, it is necessary to plan how the employee will grow both professionally and career-wise, over the next two to three years, says Elena Sharova. “This is where the credentialing tool comes in again,” she continues. - It is during certification (if the company has an existing and not a formal procedure) that the goals of the employee’s personal growth are developed and they are aligned with the general goals of the company.

To ensure consistency between the company's strategic goals and the goals of individual employees, IBS has adopted the principle of conducting certification “from top to bottom” - first management, and then down the job ladder. Thanks to this, general top-level goals are decomposed into specific goals for each employee. In accordance with work goals, the employee is given development goals - what needs to be learned, what to master. Moreover, in order to show the employee development opportunities, we always set somewhat more ambitious goals in the certification than required by qualifications. This stimulates and motivates him to develop, gives him confidence that he has many prospects and the opportunity to constantly learn new things.”

Among other important factors of non-material motivation, one can note the importance of the leader’s personality. “Obviously, the leader and the atmosphere he creates in the team mean a lot - the company’s mission is transmitted through the leader, he must ignite hearts. But still, the organizational structure, especially if we are talking about an industrial scale, should not rest on the personality of the leader, but, first of all, on some culture, regulations, rules of interaction and development plans,” says Elena Sharova.

According to a survey conducted by Ecopsy Consulting on the topic “What primarily keeps talented employees in a company?”, 44.78% of respondents answered that what keeps them going is a constant professional challenge, the opportunity to solve interesting problems, and in second place (17. 91%) turned out to be the identity of the immediate supervisor. The high level of income did not rise above the third step (16.42%). “People are people. The material component is important, but the conditions are more important - professional and personal. No one is ready to work with people who are unpleasant to them and to pour water from empty to empty,” sums up Dmitry Voloshchuk. - The topic of non-material motivation is still poorly developed by Russian companies, largely due to the fact that the potential of material motivation has not been used up. Competition for specialists is largely due to this resource. But since we are already in a situation where candidates form the market, and the demand for them is much higher than supply, the issue of non-material motivation will be acute in the coming years. When wages reach a ceiling, other resources will begin to be sought. And here the Russian market will follow the Western path: most likely, this will be motivation, which is costly for the company, but is given to employees in the form of intangible benefits: a social package, opportunities for free education and recreation, payment for a number of family needs - life insurance, payment for children’s education and etc. These practices are well developed in the West and will soon begin to be actively implemented in Russian companies.”

How to make the secret obvious

The development of a motivation system for each company is individual; it depends on many internal and external factors. “When creating a motivation system, it is necessary, first of all, to find out the internal attitudes of people and how the employees’ own goals are related to the company’s goals,” emphasizes Dmitry Voloshchuk, consultant at Ecopsy Consulting. - At the moment when a motivation system for operational activities is being developed, it is very important to understand, on the one hand, what the company expects from employees and what it is ready to motivate them for, and on the other hand, what people expect from the company.

If the system motivates one thing, but people expect another from the company, then the motivation system will not work because it is not suitable for these specific people. And on the contrary, motivational schemes must be adequate to the company’s expectations from the staff. If a company expects teamwork from a department, but the motivation system is aimed at encouraging the manifestation of individual qualities, without taking into account how a person is involved in collective work and works for a common result, a cohesive team will not develop.”

People's internal attitudes are a difficult area to identify. They are made up of social, group and individual preferences, goals and traditions. But, despite all the diversity of internal motives, some characteristic features inherent in IT specialists can be identified.

Life from project to project

Nadezhda Shalashilina: “Intangible motivation is the underwater part of the iceberg.” When selecting employees, managers sympathize with like-minded people. As a result, over time, the team consists of people with the same way of thinking. Along with obvious advantages, this approach has some disadvantages.

Today, the heads of companies and their departments, in the overwhelming majority of cases, are people aimed at constant professional and career growth, and the IT sector, as already noted, is distinguished by the fact that professional growth has priority. Each successive step in professional growth, as a rule, is correlated with participation in a project. Accordingly, many IT specialists have developed design thinking. When they become managers, they select employees with similar business qualities. If the work of the IT department in such a situation is organized on a project basis, it will be very effective, especially in a dynamically developing company. But if the current operational activities of employees are not marked out by clear time periods and clearly described goals, people on this “plain” quickly begin to lose their taste for life and soon go in search of new Everests. “The daily activities of such employees can be organized in the form of mini-projects, with clear goals and a clear system for evaluating results,” says Dmitry Voloshchuk. “Motivation should be built in such a way that people see clear guidelines and realize what the achievement or failure to achieve their goals will mean for them.”

Design thinking poses another danger. People accustomed to project work consider it necessary to get involved in the implementation of as many projects as possible, regardless of the real possibility of completing them. They consider project abandonment to be the main indicator of professional failure. Therefore, the IT department can be involved in many simultaneously implemented internal projects aimed at automating various business processes or improving existing systems. At the same time, the total volume of work significantly exceeds the capabilities of available resources. Accordingly, dozens of projects may remain unfinished for years. “The significant difference between an internal IT department and an independent company implementing projects on the market is that the internal department does not evaluate its own profitability,” notes Dmitry Voloshchuk. - This is the situation in most IT services of large companies. Of course, the manager would have to filter proposals from internal customers based on the resources at his disposal. But, as a rule, he himself is characterized by project thinking, and he formed a team of like-minded people. The circle closes.

In such a situation, we propose to change the value orientation - the main thing becomes not the number of projects being implemented, but the number of successfully implemented projects. This automatically entails the creation of a filter of customer proposals - only those projects in which functional departments are really interested begin to be accepted. At the same time, obviously hopeless projects must be terminated so that resources are not wasted.”

Player coach syndrome

The problem of the “playing coach” is very typical for IT services. The IT service employees are wonderful professionals with a high level of knowledge and extensive experience. They have gone from beginner programmers and system administrators to high-level professionals, they thoroughly know the subject area and have a good understanding of what their subordinates at all levels do. However, their current work lies more in the field of management than in a specific subject area. The main function of these specialists is setting tasks and monitoring their implementation. But knowledge of the subject area and lack of managerial skills lead to the fact that they tend to analyze every problem that arises among employees too thoroughly or undertake to correct the shortcomings themselves. They react to any request for help or in the process of monitoring the execution of orders not as managers, but as engineers. “This is a very common problem in IT,” notes Dmitry Voloshchuk. - The department operates ineffectively because employees of higher official and qualification levels spend their time and effort on solving the problems of their subordinates. They love their work very much and are unable to refuse interesting problems in the subject area, because management tasks do not captivate them so much. In such a situation, it is very important to build a system of priorities in the motivational scheme. If employees are motivated by business results, they will solve the problem as a whole, without going into small details.”

Public is higher than personal

Dmitry Voloshchuk: “Motivation should be structured so that people see clear guidelines.” Another common mistake in creating a motivation system is when the system motivates people only for individual work and all indicators reflect the personal effectiveness of each employee. In such a situation, employees lack a sense of team, collective mutual assistance and support to work comfortably. In addition, in a team where everyone feels like a “star,” the team effect does not arise. Having messed things up, people unconsciously try to lobby for the priorities of their area, which slows down the common cause. There is a lack of synergistic effect from the team's work.

“It is necessary to create indicators of the collective work of the unit,” advises Dmitry Voloshchuk, “and reinforce the achievement of these indicators with a bonus system. In this case, the bonuses will be fragmented: part is issued on the basis of general indicators, and part - on the basis of individual ones. There is nothing revolutionary in this method of motivation - this is exactly how, for example, the bonus system was organized at industrial enterprises back in Soviet times. But it almost never occurs to IT service managers to apply this experience to the work of their subordinate department. Perhaps, at first glance, the idea of ​​comparing the work of a person producing material values ​​with the work of a person creating intellectual values ​​looks absurd. But if you take a closer look, you will find many similarities in the process of organizing their work and their goals. We just need to build a motivation system in strict accordance with the expectations of employees.”

CIO to note

Like any field of activity, the field of information technology goes through various stages of its life cycle. At first, creators come to a new area, but over time, technologies are developed and a wide layer of artisans emerges. A clear procedure appears, a set of algorithms and templates designed to solve problems. This is necessary and inevitable. Since the IT field is quite young, creativity in it has turned into a craft relatively recently. Therefore, a typical situation today is when an IT specialist, who has reached the highest professional level, loses interest in a subject area that no longer gives him the opportunity to solve problems of increasingly higher complexity. The sacramental question arises: what to do? “There are two options: either push professional priorities into the background and enjoy life, or look for new uses in professional activities,” says Dmitry Voloshchuk. - If the first option is unacceptable, then for the CIO the solution to the problem may be in changing the role, in entering managerial activities. Moreover, the IT environment is designed in such a way that a person can reach a very high career level while remaining an expert.

Today, companies have a serious need to increase the efficiency of IT services and increase their manageability. IT services have large budgets, great prospects, and great risks if they are poorly managed. The situation has reached a critical point when it is necessary to reach a qualitatively new level of IT service management. Companies have already begun to allow IT managers to participate in business management and strategic planning. Accordingly, not just specialists will be in demand, but specialists with the inclinations and knowledge of a manager. Those who know how to combine both of these roles – expert and manager – are already becoming competitive and interesting to the market.”

Elena Nekrasova

Accounting automation for any business

Share

There are four prerequisites that are necessary in order to successfully implement the concept of lean manufacturing in the office. You should always remember them and implement them, no matter what stage of transformation you are at. Without them you will not succeed. Each of the conditions implies that you will try to understand your employees, explain to them the new principles of work and involve them in the implementation of the new concept. These four conditions represent the foundation on which everything else will rest.

Condition 1. Model “Behavior - Attitudes - Culture”

This condition will minimize staff resistance to change. The first step in implementing lean manufacturing principles is to change the behavior of your employees if you intend to create a culture of continuous improvement in all processes in your organization. Your employees need to understand that making positive changes (i.e. implementing lean principles) will help the organization succeed in the long run.

This condition will help your employees understand why the organization's operating procedures may not be entirely effective. As a company grows and its workload increases, reducing waste should become a top priority across all areas of its operations. Company employees must recognize that each type of administrative process incurs costs. In the section on condition two, we'll explain how to communicate the need for change to staff.

Condition 3. Seven types of losses

Lean manufacturing tools and principles help organizations identify and eliminate seven types of waste. The old saying “You can’t manage what you can’t see” can be rephrased as “You can’t improve what you don’t understand.” It is critical that employees gain basic knowledge about losses and learn how to understand them.

Condition 4: Management Commitment

The implementation of lean manufacturing principles must occur from the top down. Senior leaders must be 100% committed to positive change in the company and 100% committed to creating a lean enterprise to maintain existing success or reach new heights. Collaboration between management at the head of the organization and employees interested in change is the key to ensuring that lean principles are not only adopted, but also become an integral part of the company's long-term development strategy.

Condition 1. Model “behavior - views - culture”

To be successful in improving any process, it is critical to understand the behavior and attitudes of the people working in the office or on a given task.

In the 1990s. In the USA, such concepts as “teamwork”, “autonomous work groups”, “employee involvement”, “empowered teams”, etc. arose. Autonomous work groups consisting of ordinary employees were supposed to change the organizational culture of companies. Strict control by managers became a thing of the past, and employees took more and more part in the management of the company. The idea was correct, but there were not enough tools to achieve the desired results. Nevertheless, during such projects we managed to learn a lot of useful things.

When introducing such concepts as “team leader”, “teamwork” and “autonomous work groups” into practice, people were faced with the question of what exactly should be done and how.

Empowerment alone (without special tools) did not bring the desired results. There were some successes, but they were not supported by anything and, consequently, the initiative quickly faded away.

The figure shows that American managers first tried to change the corporate culture, expecting a subsequent change in the attitudes and behavior of subordinates. When taking a closer look at lean manufacturing concepts and the Toyota Production System, the researchers discovered a completely different approach. They found that when lean manufacturing tools were used, people's behavior first changed as they sought to identify and eliminate waste. Once workers began to feel that they could control their area, reducing losses and making their work easier, their views changed: they realized the need for continuous improvement of all processes. Along with the views of each individual employee, the culture of the organization as a whole changed radically. The main principle of work was not identifying errors, but preventing them, which, in fact, is the essence of lean manufacturing.

The Behavior-Attitude-Culture model, which is based on the lean philosophy, is simple. Its implementation requires constant efforts from both management and ordinary employees. It is difficult to break habits that have developed at work. For an organization to grow, it takes discipline, determination and perseverance. The first small successes will serve as an impetus for changes in people's behavior and attitudes to changes in the entire organizational culture.

Possession of knowledge

Another important point regarding the traditional approach to organizing office work is that, as a rule, an individual company employee is the bearer of 80% of the knowledge about a particular process. This can cause problems if that employee gets sick, goes on vacation or business, moves to another job, or quits. In these cases, the job cannot be completed. Narrow specialization of personnel and concentration of knowledge in one or a few people can pose serious obstacles to the development of a company.

Since in cases where managers do not have the necessary knowledge (they do not understand a particular process well), they can only provide support to their subordinates, the effectiveness of the organization is compromised for the following reasons:

Building a lean office includes (but is not limited to):

1. The focus is on processes, not people.
2. Organizational knowledge is easily transferred from one person to another.
3. There is a detailed understanding of work processes, which allows for better control and continuous improvement.
4. Process knowledge is standardized to ensure maximum uniformity.
5. Losses are identified and eliminated as they occur (daily, hourly and minutely).

These five principles will allow an employee to better understand not only his own work, but also the work that his colleagues are doing. This ensures that process knowledge is shared within the group.

Change doesn't happen overnight. Any changes should be implemented in stages.

Stage one. Convince others and set the right direction

In most cases, company employees are the carriers of 80% of the information about processes, and managers (or the organization) - 20%. This step also explains why the organization should be the knowledge bearer. It may take up to six months to complete.

Stage two. Organize your workflow

Employees will control only 50% of process knowledge, while managers (or the organization) will control the remaining 50%. The tools will allow you to systematize the knowledge of employees and transfer it to the organization so that positive changes are felt by everyone. This stage can take from six months to one year.

Stage three. Save your results

At the third stage of the transition to creating a lean office, company employees will begin, unnoticed, to participate daily in the continuous improvement of all business processes. 80% of knowledge will now be structured within the new approach to work. It's hard to believe that 100% of process knowledge can be within an organization. At this stage, it is necessary to begin the process of gradual, systematic documentation of knowledge.

The key success factor in implementing the lean manufacturing concept in the office, as well as in maintaining the achieved results, is continuous, daily improvement. As your employees' behavior changes, you will need to introduce rewards to recognize the changes. People who easily adapt to change will quickly accept the new system. They will immediately see its benefits. Those who adapt to change slowly may resist and cling to old principles. Be patient: sooner or later the new concept will speak for itself, and employees will feel its benefits. You cannot move to a lean office in one fell swoop. You need to take many small, gradual steps every day.

Condition 2. Economic justification for the transition to lean methods

For a company to remain globally competitive, managers need to focus on costs. Administrative, or office, expenses account for the bulk of the cost of a product or service. Administrative costs usually amount to 60-80% of the final price of the product. To remain competitive, companies are intensively reducing their administrative costs. Toyota has created a whole philosophy of cost reduction. Market conditions (the constant in the equation) determine the selling price. Cost and profit are variable quantities. The desire of companies to reduce internal costs served as an impetus for improving all business processes.

Thanks to the philosophy and tools of lean manufacturing, any organization can reduce its internal costs by eliminating waste and thus remain competitive in the global market. To eliminate waste in administrative processes, it must first be identified, and this requires a detailed understanding of what waste is.

Condition 3. Seven types of losses

The goal of lean manufacturing is to identify, analyze and eliminate all waste in the production process. Work to eliminate losses must continue every day, every hour, every minute. The new approach is also advantageous for the department and does not mean cutting people, but using their labor wisely and increasing its value for the organization. Therefore, company management may need to review the job content or job responsibilities of personnel so that they meet the principles of efficient production.

To better understand the concept of lean manufacturing, it is necessary to first understand waste. It is important to identify losses at the lowest level.

Wastes are all operations that require time and resources, but do not add value to the finished product or service. The consumer pays for value; Waste is any transaction your organization makes with a product or service that your customers may be paying for when they shouldn't be. As consumers become more and more aware of the true costs of goods and services, they expect companies to optimize their costs and eliminate waste. Customers demand stable prices and lower prices as a result of savings. The organization's losses have to be paid by consumers. As a result of all this we see that:

• the daily cost of treatment differs in different hospitals;
• the fee for processing a mortgage application, as well as mortgage rates, vary significantly among different lending institutions;
• there is a wide variation in tuition fees in higher education institutions;
• annual interest rates vary widely between credit cards;
• The price for a particular construction project offered by different contractors may vary significantly.

Such variability in all of these examples and many others arises from the amount of loss that is “acceptable” for an organization (regardless of how it is defined).

1. Overproduction

Doing a certain type of work before it is needed is a waste. This is the worst kind of waste because overproduction leads to other losses.

Examples of overproduction:

• compiling reports that no one reads and that no one needs;
• making extra copies of documents;
• sending the same document by email or fax several times;
• entering repetitive information into multiple documents;
• pointless meetings.

Tools to eliminate overproduction:

• takt time;
• pitch;
• standardized work;
• workload balancing;
• studying the need for a particular operation.

2. Waiting (time in line)

Any wait (for people, signatures, information, etc.) is a loss. This type of loss can be compared to a low-hanging apple that is easy to reach, pick and use for its intended purpose. We often don't consider the paper in the incoming tray to be a source of waste. However, remember how many times we go through this tray, trying to find something we need? How many times do you start something before you finish it? To get rid of this type of loss, you need to follow the “finished and filed (or thrown away)” principle.

Examples of losses of the second type:

• a large number of required signatures and permissions;
• dependence on other employees to perform any tasks;
• delays in obtaining information;
• software problems;
• task execution by different departments;

Tools for eliminating losses of the second type:

• pitch;
• couriers;
• document management system.

3. Movement

Any movement of people, documents and/or electronic communications that does not create value is waste. This type of waste occurs due to poor office layout, faulty or outdated office equipment, and lack of necessary supplies. These losses are insidious and invisible in those office processes that have not been analyzed for possible improvements. Regardless of the industry, you can find employees in a company who appear “busy” but don’t actually add value to the product or service. Lean manufacturing tools can help you identify, reduce and/or eliminate Type 3 waste.

Examples of losses of the third type:

• search for files on your computer;
• searching for documents in a file cabinet;
• constantly re-reading reference books in search of information;
• performance of one task by different departments in the absence of effective interaction;
• lack of responsibility for completing a task.

Tools for eliminating losses of the third type:

• standardized work;
• redevelopment of the workspace;
• pull system and supermarket;
• document tracking.

4. Moving

The unnecessary movement of documents affects the time required to complete any work in the office. Even with easy access to the Internet and email, clients are often sent documents of little or no value. To organize effective work, it is important to reduce or eliminate this type of waste, for which all work should be divided into sequential operations and located as close to each other as possible. If you cannot get rid of moving documents between processes, then it needs to be automated as much as possible. Ask yourself questions, for example: “Is the office layout optimal?” or “Is the transfer of documents from one stage of work to another automated?”

Examples of losses of the fourth type:

• sending unnecessary documents;
• too frequent registration of documents in progress;
• too many addresses in the mailing list;
• manual transmission of documents to the next stage of work;
• execution of one task by several departments;
• incorrect prioritization.

Tools for eliminating losses of the fourth type:

• uniform distribution of workload;
• value stream map;
• continuous flow;
• document management system;
• standardized work;
• means of visual control.

5. Overprocessing

Doing work that is not required by internal or external customers is the fifth type of waste. Excessive processing does not create value for the customer and the customer should not have to pay for it. In administrative processes, these losses are the most difficult to detect. To do this, you can ask the following questions, for example: “What basic operations need to be performed to satisfy the customer’s needs?” or “How clearly do we represent the needs of our customers?”

Examples of losses of the fifth type:

• duplicative reports or information;
• entering repetitive data;
• dissemination of false information;
• constant editing of documents;
• ineffective meetings and lack of agenda;
• lack of clear project planning.

Tools for eliminating losses of the fifth type:

• data collection methods;
• document tracking;
• standardized work;
• document management system.

6. Inventory (time)

Piles of papers, extra office supplies, a large number of signatures on documents - all these are losses. They take up space and time. If processing of a document is suspended until additional information (signature, etc.) is received and the situation changes, then the time spent on this document can be considered a loss. In an office environment, there are two main types of waste that can be classified as inventory: 1) office supplies and 2) time.

Examples of losses of the sixth type:

• documents awaiting someone's signature or visa;
• work that requires the completion of other processes to continue;
• outdated documents;
• outdated office equipment;
• insufficient training of support staff;
• buying extra office supplies.

Tools for eliminating losses of the sixth type:

• value stream map;
• standardized work;
• Kanban cards for office supplies;
• balancing the workload - heijunka;
• visual pitch;
• document management system.

7. Marriage

Losses due to defects include any processing that resulted in defects and additional processing necessary to eliminate them. A defect (both internal and external) entails additional document processing that does not add value to the product or service. It takes less time to do a job right the first time than to redo it. Correction of defects is losses that increase the cost of any product or service, and the consumer does not have to pay for them. Losses of this type can significantly reduce profits.

Examples of losses of the seventh type:

• data entry errors;
• errors in setting prices;
• transfer of incomplete documentation to the next stages of processing;
• loss of documents or information;
• incorrect information in the document;
• ineffective organization of files on a computer or folders in a filing cabinet;
• incorrect selection of employees to serve the client.

Tools for eliminating losses of the seventh type:

• ensuring predictable results;
• visual control means;
• standardized work;
• document management system;
• log of stops and unscheduled tasks;
• short organizational meetings;
• error prevention tools.

8. Irrational use of labor

In many cases, irrational use of labor is the eighth type of waste. People's labor is misused when workers perform tasks that do not require all of their knowledge, skills, and abilities to create value. A proper performance management system can significantly reduce this type of waste. Develop a corporate strategy and methods for assigning employees to those areas where they will bring the most benefit to the organization.

Examples of losses of the eighth type:

• violation of project deadlines;
• uneven distribution of workload due to insufficiently broad qualifications of personnel;
• frequent absenteeism and high staff turnover;
• inadequate performance management system;
• insufficient assessment of professional skills before hiring.

Tools for eliminating losses of the eighth type:

• accounting of work processes;
• standardized work;
• document management system;
• short organizational meetings;
• justification for the transition to a lean office.

Consider the following questions.

1. How can I convey information about losses to all employees of the organization?
2. What losses can be eliminated quickly?
3. What can you do to immediately improve customer satisfaction?

These questions will spark reflection for others and help you have a productive dialogue about loss.

Condition 4: Management Involvement

Companies such as Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Federal Express, GE and Nike have one thing in common, a very important feature - an undisputed leader at the head, whom others follow. Top managers Bill Gates, Sam Walton and Fred Smith are the core of their company. They are distinguished by exceptional insight, and it is they who have turned their business into an immortal empire.

John Maxwell, in his book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership,” describes his first law, the law of the ceiling: “The ability to lead determines the level of effectiveness of a person (organization). Strong leadership greatly enhances an organization's capabilities. If leadership is weak, then the organization's capabilities are limited."

It is important to understand that the transition to lean management is impossible without the full participation of the company's management. When a CEO reads about lean in the Wall Street Journal on the plane back from vacation and tells his top manager, “There's something there,” that doesn't mean he's ready for long-term change.

The company's management should be driven by the desire for improvement. The top manager must take an active part in the implementation of new principles. Even if a business process redesign pilot project involves three people, the company's top management should be involved. This participation includes:

• allocation of necessary resources;
• attendance at the kick-off meeting;
• consulting the team if necessary;
• showing interest in the team’s achievements and attending team meetings;
• rewarding the team based on work results;
• support for team members in case of difficulties.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it outlines key ways that company management can demonstrate its commitment to lean management.

Time frame

Transitioning to a lean office can take anywhere from a few months to a few years. This will depend on the following factors:

1. Organization size. The smaller the organization, the less time it will take. In large companies (more than 500 office workers), pilot projects should first be launched in one department and then expanded to the entire company.
2. Availability of necessary tools.
3. Realizing the benefits. The reorganization of office work will be successful if the company realizes the need to train staff in related professions, cooperate between departments, attract generalists rather than narrow specialists, use organizational knowledge and encourage partnerships between managers and subordinates.

Increasing the efficiency of enterprise personnel is currently acquiring particular importance in the world. Working in a modern progressive society dictates new rules:

• determine the qualification level of personnel,
• knowledge and skills of workers,
• searching for ways to improve staff efficiency.

Modern researchers of this issue are looking for new approaches, for example, new organizational forms of employee activity, calculating the labor participation coefficient. In modern market conditions, the management apparatus of any enterprise, for effective personnel selection, must take into account not only the professional qualities of future employees, but also the level of emotional stability. Labor as a phenomenon is directly related to the intensive development of production, as well as to the use of automated systems, information and computer technologies. This significantly changes its basic functional content. Therefore, the professional and qualification composition of workers is changing radically. Of great importance is the long-term analysis of human resources, which includes labor productivity per unit of time or the amount of working time spent on the production of a unit of output, and the effective use of human resources in general. By effectively increasing the productivity of personnel at an enterprise, it is possible to exceed plans for projects. To repeat this result, it must be rewarded with a bonus.

Ways to increase effective staff productivity

Often, companies achieve prosperity of a particular business structure through the efficiency of their personnel. Business expansion usually leads to an increase in the number of employees. It is necessary to list the main ways to possibly increase the efficiency of the staff. Among them:

• control and maintenance of labor discipline,
• high-quality management and recording of results for the work performed by each employee,
• possible correction of deficiencies,
• diagnostics and correction of the emotional atmosphere in the team as a whole and specifically for each employee.

Failure to pay attention to these factors can cause serious problems. Among the methods for increasing staff efficiency are:

1. control of workers’ attendance at the workplace (at the beginning of the working day),
2. control of employee working time (its rational use),
3. labor-intensive payroll calculation based on hours worked,
4. identification of malicious violators of labor discipline,
5. documentation of violations of labor discipline,
6. control over the implementation of work schedules.

A competent, qualified HR specialist plays a key role in this situation. This position should be in any enterprise.

Methods that increase staff efficiencya

You should pay attention to and adopt the following proven methods for increasing staff efficiency:

1. mandatory entry of job descriptions,
2. implementation of an automated working time recording system,
3. employee certifications,
4. conducting regular personnel monitoring,
5. employee motivation system,
6. incentive system for disciplined employees (employee salaries must correspond to their efficiency for the enterprise),
7. strict accounting of time away from work even for a good reason when calculating wages,
8. punishment for violators of labor discipline,
9. development and implementation of a transparent system of work control schedules.

It must be remembered that any boss needs to be in tune with the news, interests, circumstances and psychological mood of each of his subordinates. This is the golden rule of running a successful business. Without respect for the personality of each person (employee), it is impossible to achieve high results. The employee, in turn, should have the following motivation:

• guarantee (preservation) of a job;
• opportunity for professional growth at the enterprise;
• the employee’s income, that is, wages that must completely suit the employee;
• incentive system (bonuses, excursions, free trips, benefits, discounts, gifts).

I wish you sociable, responsible employees.

Good organization of employees on old equipment produces better results than new equipment with poor organization.

Super productive people are no different from anyone else. In addition, they value their time and know how to use it. Sometimes trivial and simple things can help save a lot of resources and significantly increase work efficiency. Travis Bradberry collected for Inc. 11 things that productive people do differently from everyone else.

When it comes to productivity, we all face the same problem - there are only 24 hours in a day.

However, sometimes it feels like some people have twice as much time: they have some kind of supernatural ability to do everything. Even if they lead several projects, they achieve their goals and avoid failures.

“Time is the only capital a man has, and the only thing he cannot afford to lose,” Thomas Edison.

We all want more from life. There is hardly a better way to achieve this goal than to find a way to wisely manage the allotted time.

Leaving the office after a really productive day feels really good. The so-called “working euphoria”.

With the right approach, you can achieve this state every day.

To do this, you don’t need to work longer or stimulate yourself more actively. You just need to work smarter.

Super productive people know this. They rely on productivity hacks to make them exponentially more efficient. They squeeze every second out of every hour without wasting time on unnecessary things.

The best thing about these hacks is that they are easy to use. So much so that you can start doing it today.

Read it, use it, and you will see how your productivity will increase.

1. Don't start things twice

Productive people never procrastinate because starting a task twice is a big waste of time. Don't put off writing or calling. As soon as something comes to your attention, either do it, delegate it, or delete it.

2. Prepare for tomorrow before leaving the office.

Productive people end each day preparing for the next. This practice solves two problems: it helps you structure what you did today and makes sure you're productive tomorrow. It only takes a couple of minutes, but it's a great way to end the work day.

“Every minute spent planning is worth an hour of work,” Benjamin Franklin.

3. Eat a frog

"Eating a frog" is an American idiom that means "to do something deeply unpleasant." “Eating a frog” is the best cure for procrastination and super productive people start with this every morning. In other words, they do the most unpleasant and uninteresting tasks before all others. After that, they move on to the things that really inspire them.

4. Fight the “tyranny of the urgent”

The “tyranny of the urgent” is when small tasks that need to be done right now take time away from what is really important. This creates a big problem because immediate action usually has very little effect.

If you succumb to the “tyranny of the urgent,” you may find yourself going days and sometimes weeks without doing important tasks. Productive people know how to notice in time when “burning” tasks begin to kill productivity and prefer to ignore them or delegate them.

5. Keep your meeting schedule

Meetings are the biggest time killers. Super productive people know that a meeting can go on forever if it isn't set to a strict time limit, so they keep participants informed of the schedule from the beginning. The time limit prevents relaxation and makes everyone more efficient and focused.

6. Say no

“No” is a powerful word that super productive people aren't afraid to use. When it comes to saying “no,” they don’t use phrases like “I don’t think I can,” “I’m not sure,” and the like. When you say no to a new commitment, you show respect for the ones you've already made and give yourself the opportunity to successfully keep them.

A study conducted at the University of California San Francisco found that the more difficult it is for you to say “no,” the more likely you are to experience stress, job burnout, and even depression. Learn to use this word and your mood and productivity will improve.

7. Check your email only at designated times

Super productive people don't let emails constantly distract them. Not only do they only check email at certain times, they use features that allow them to sort emails by sender. They set up notifications for emails from the most important vendors or users, and postpone the rest until a certain point. Some people even set an auto-reply message telling them the next time they check their email.

8. Don't do several things at once

Super productive people know that multitasking is a productivity killer. Research conducted at Stanford has confirmed that multitasking is less effective than working on one task at a time. Researchers have found that people who are constantly bombarded with electronic information are not able to concentrate, process data, or switch from one job to another as well as perform one specific task.

But what if there are people with natural multitasking abilities? Scientists at Stanford compared groups of people based on their propensity for multitasking and their belief that it was good for their productivity. They found that hard multitaskers—those who do many things at once and feel that doing so improves their performance—performed worse at this task than those who preferred to do one thing at a time. Constant multitaskers showed the worst results because they had problems organizing their own thoughts and filtering out unnecessary information. They were slower to switch from one task to another. Oops.

Multitasking reduces your efficiency because your brain is able to focus on one thing at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain doesn't have enough power to complete both tasks successfully.

9. Drop out of society

Don't be afraid to drop out of society when necessary. Give one person you trust a phone number to call in case of an emergency. Let this be your filter. Everything must go through this person, and if he does not consider this matter to be critical, let it wait. This strategy is a bulletproof way to finish high-priority projects.

“Some achieve weekly goals in a year, while others achieve annual goals in a week,” Charles Richards.

10. Delegate

Super productive people accept the fact that they are not the only smart and talented people in the organization. They trust people with part of their work so they can concentrate on their core business.

11. Make technology work for you

Technology can be disruptive, but it can also help you focus. Super productive people make technology work for them. In addition to setting up email filters that sort and prioritize inboxes, they use apps like IFTTT that set up connections between other apps and notifications for things that really matter. So if your stock peaks or you receive an email from a top buyer, you'll be in the know.

In any business, there comes a time when assessments like “we went to kindergarten together, he won’t let me down” stop working. You can evaluate your teammates this way as long as there are two or three of you. You can select heads of departments this way as long as you have a dozen people on your team and two levels of hierarchy: “me and the rest.” Once you understand that you need part of the main responsibilities, the question of making the right choice becomes an issue. And the price of the issue grows - along with the scale of your company.

Of course, for some time you will rely on simple logical categories: the company’s overall profit, indicators of a particular area, absence of failures and scandals. But you can only lead at random for a while; there comes a time when you have to use “smart” tools.

Fortunately, many management tools have been developed over the centuries. We will tell you the basics - where to “dig” if you are serious about researching the personal and business qualities of your employees. Choosing a specific method and applying it in practice is a topic too broad for an article; we will only suggest the direction.

Personal qualities

It is believed that only a “strong personality” can lead successfully. Behind these general words are hidden entire lists of qualities that a manager should have.

Here is one example - the vision of an effective leader proposed by academician V.A. Trapeznikov. In this interpretation, the one who is able to manage people is “ knows - can - wants - has time».

• Knows: this presupposes not only professional knowledge, but also managerial skills. Knowledge is power, and this is not just a phrase. In fact, a manager must have two sets of knowledge: professional and managerial.
• Maybe: another key concept. It is obvious that management will not be effective if the leader is a “theorist”. It is not enough to learn the formulas for managing people; you need to use them in practice. We already wrote about this when we talked about how to see a potentially strong leader through the prism of his work in CRM.
• Wants: this is motivation. Agree, a leader without the desire to accomplish the impossible is the same as a performer. The manager also needs to be motivated, and the motivation system will be more complex than at lower levels of the hierarchy.
• Achieves: here again we need to return to “knows - can”. The ability to organize one’s own work is an important leadership skill that needs to be developed in the same way as professional skills.

You can simply draw a table with four columns and evaluate your managers according to these parameters. The assessment will be subjective and inaccurate, but if it suddenly turns out that you confidently put a minus in some column, congratulations, you have found the weak link.

The American “standard of an effective leader” looks like this:

• Vocational training- including not only formal, but also acquired through self-education or personal experience - sufficient to perform at least an average level of their various professional functions.
• Level of general education, which includes the degree of functional literacy (skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic), as well as the ability to quickly comprehend information.
• Types and characteristics of temperament - a balanced, strong and agile nervous system, which contributes to the acquisition of management skills, their improvement and accelerated adaptation to changes in the professional, social and political environment.
• Health status and physical indicators, relevant in the context of this profession.
• Motivation for specific activities - an aspect that is often overlooked as a matter of course (it is generally accepted that a manager by default must be motivated to achieve high levels of achievement and effectiveness).

But is it enough to simply have certain character traits to manage people well? Can we talk about the effectiveness of a leader only because he is sociable and motivated? No. It is necessary to analyze not only static criteria (the presence of certain qualities), but also dynamics - the manifestation of these qualities in the work process. There are different methods used for this; we will look at some of the most popular ones.

Motivators - assessment of values ​​and motivation factors

Personal effectiveness directly depends on motivation. Where does a person’s motivation “grow” from? From his beliefs and values.

What is the technique suitable for?

The information obtained allows you to:

• identify needs for the development of personal and professional effectiveness, drawing up individual development plans;
• distribute bonuses based on performance evaluation;
• form a personnel reserve by identifying promising employees.

Let's sum it up

Assessment of personal effectiveness - this is a way to find out how much the desired corresponds to the actual.

All presented tools require “calibration” to suit your goals and objectives. This is especially important in the preparatory phase - to determine acceptable results, the appropriate rating scale and its settings, as well as the further steps that will need to be taken in response to a particular result.

All truly useful techniques show not only the presence of certain qualities, but also the degree of their manifestation: it is not enough to know what you have, you need to understand what motivates you and what resources you can use in your work

Personal effectiveness needs to be assessed dynamically, that is, regularly. The optimal period is once a year, but if necessary, assessments can be carried out more often. By comparing the results of different periods, you will see an objective picture:

• How successful are you as a leader?
• whether you are moving forward or standing still,
• what qualities you need to develop in yourself to achieve more.

Without any research, we only see the point in our career path where we are now. If we systematically evaluate effectiveness and analyze the results, we will get a complete picture: accumulated professional knowledge, hidden potential and future prospects. And then knowledge of your resources and competencies will be the basis on which you can build a map for further professional advancement.

If you have finished reading the article, it means you care about your own successes and the work of your employees is important. Here are a couple of thoughts that will help you use our recommendations wisely:

• Do not discuss intermediate results under any circumstances; do not tell one person what grades others received. Discuss this with the performers in advance - information should not leak outside the working group. The results need to be discussed personally, and measures taken carefully, otherwise you will disturb the team.
• To prevent research from becoming a subject of acute anxiety in the team, conduct it regularly - they will simply get used to it, and you will see changes in dynamics.
• If you've done your research and ostentatiously taken drastic action as a result - like firing or moving someone - expect unrest. And the second time these studies will be met with great caution.

And most important: Don't get hung up on research results. Sometimes tests show one thing, but people show another. If research shows that your best manager is the weakest in the company, then this is a reason to a) run other tests to double-check and b) take a closer look at why you think he is the best.