Every process has waste…. especially in HR… heres how to find it

Mapping your process is easy

If you think you know what is happening on a day to day basis within your teams and departments you have either conducted a recent mapping exercise or you are deluded. Every process has waste, legacy focused tasks, quality checks (that customers aren’t prepared to pay for), needless double checking and handling, rework, needless motion…. I could go on!

You can map your process in a few easy steps.

1. get the people who are doing the work in a room, ideally 6-12 people.
2. get some paper, posted notes and pens
3. ask the team members who the different groups involved in the process are, divide these into swimlanes (in the example below we have 7 swim lanes)
4. what they do first in the process and who starts this step… write it down
5. ask them what they do next…. and write it down (hopefully you are starting to see a pattern)
6. join the posted notes with a line to show direction
7. ensure that each step is connected and that decisions have a yes or no / different pathways as options, and connect them to other steps.
8. take photos of the map
9. draw the map on visio or lucid chart

Relax, because now you know what is actually happening!

Next time your boss or member of the executive team assumes they know what is happening and how to solve it, show them the map and talk them through why changes A & B need to be made and why you need funding. Now we can begin to improve it by identifying issues or areas of improvement

 

Identify waste/improvements with sticky dots – Workshop Tip