HR in Six Sigma



Chances are you've heard of Six Sigma, perhaps in connection with General Electric, the company that made it popular in the 1990s. You may even know that Six Sigma uses statistical techniques to improve processes in both manufacturing and service industries. But did you know there is an important role for Human Resources (HR) in this sophisticated process improvement approach? Or that Six Sigma initiatives are unlikely to succeed without HR's help?

HR professionals with the right skills can contribute to a Six Sigma initiative at both strategic and tactical levels. This article describes the areas in which HR should play a role in Six Sigma and discusses how HR professionals can increase their chances of being included in Six Sigma decision-making and implementation.

Six Sigma Defined

The term "Six Sigma" is widely used to refer to all of the following:

A structured method for improving business processes. This method, called DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control), is supported by an assortment of statistical tools.

A statistical measurement of how well a business process is performing. A process that performs at "Six Sigma" produces only 3.4 defects out of every million opportunities to produce a defect. Processes that perform at lower sigma levels (such as one sigma or four sigma) produce more defects per million opportunities. It is possible for a process to perform at an even higher level (and thus have even fewer defects), but Six Sigma has become popular as the standard for excellent process performance.

An organizational mindset in which people make decisions based on data, look for root causes of problems, define defects based on customer rather than internal requirements, seek to control variation, track leading indicators of problems to prevent them from happening, etc.

Six Sigma Roles

Six Sigma has a martial arts convention for naming many of its professional roles. The chart below describes how these roles are typically defined. Six Sigma Roles And Responsibilities

Table 1: Six Sigma Roles And Responsibilities



Sponsor

Senior executive who sponsors the overall Six Sigma Initiative.



Leader
Senior-level executive who is responsible for implementing Six Sigma within the business.



Champion


Middle- or senior-level executive who sponsors a specific Six Sigma project, ensuring that resources are available and cross-functional issues are resolved.



Black Belt

Full-time professional who acts as a team leader on Six Sigma projects. Typically has four to five weeks of classroom training in methods, statistical tools, and (sometimes) team skills.



Master Black Belt

Highly experienced and successful Black Belt who has managed several projects and is an expert in Six Sigma methods/tools. Responsible for coaching/mentoring/training Black Belts and for helping the Six Sigma leader and Champions keep the initiative on track.



Green Belt

Part-time professional who participates on a Black Belt project team or leads smaller projects. Typically has two weeks of classroom training in methods and basic statistical tools.



Team Member

Professional who has general awareness of Six Sigma (through no formal training) and who brings relevant experience or expertise to a particular project.



Process Owner

Professional responsible for the business process that is the target of a Six Sigma project.



Leaders and Champions usually receive high-level training on the technical aspects of Six Sigma and specific training on how to lead an initiative. At the "Belt" level, each candidate is assigned an initial "training project" that he/she will work on during the formal training period. Candidates attend classroom training for a week, work on their projects for three weeks, return to class for another week, and so on until they have acquired all the skills appropriate to their role.

HR's Role in Six Sigma

As with any major organizational initiative, many factors contribute to success. Some of these factors will fall within HR's area of responsibility, such as those discussed below.

Black Belt Selection and Retention

Having the right people in the Black Belt role is critical to the success of a Six Sigma initiative. The training investment is substantial for this pivotal role. Further, Black Belts are the visible "face" of Six Sigma. They help shape the organization's impression of Six Sigma, and, consequently, the willingness of many to embrace the initiative. Therefore, you want to pick Black Belts very carefully. (Some organizations only select Black Belts from among those who have already been identified as "high potentials.").

HR professionals can help the Six Sigma Leader find the right people for Black Belt roles and ensure they remain in those positions for the typical two-year rotation. Potential HR contributions in this area include:

*Building a competency model that will help identify candidates with the right mix of technical, team, and leadership skills and abilities.

*Creating job descriptions that help candidates fully understand the position and expectations prior to signing on.

*Developing a retention strategy that will help ensure Black Belts complete their rotation and the organization recoups its investment in training and development.

Rewards and Recognition

Rewarding and recognizing Black Belts and Six Sigma teams is more complex than it may appear. Black Belts join the Six Sigma initiative from various places in the organization where they are likely to have been at different job levels with differing compensation arrangements. Determining whether and how to make appropriate adjustments in level and compensation now that all these individuals are in the same role is both tricky and critical.

Similar complexities are involved at the project team level. Six Sigma projects led by Black Belts typically result in savings in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Deciding how the team should be rewarded and recognized and who should get credit for what is not easy. Yet ignoring these issues can result in resentment, reluctance to work on Six Sigma projects, and the potential failure of the overall initiative.

HR professionals can help the Six Sigma Leader tackle the challenge of establishing the right rewards/recognition. Potential HR contributions in this area include:

*Analyzing existing compensation arrangements to identify the extent to which those arrangements will support the Six Sigma initiative.

*Creating a strategic compensation plan that will better support Six Sigma.

*Developing a non-monetary reward program for Six Sigma teams.



Project Team Effectiveness

The work of Six Sigma is done mostly at the project team level by a Black Belt leading a small team through the steps of the DMAIC method If the team itself does not function well or does not interact effectively with others in the organization who ultimately have to support and carry out the process changes, the project probably will not be successful. Given the typical project's potential payback, failure can be expensive.

HR professionals can help the project teams work together more effectively. Potential HR contributions in this area include:

Ensuring team leaders and members get training and/or coaching in teamwork, conflict management, communications, dealing with difficult team members, and other team effectiveness skills.

Providing teams with tools that allow them to diagnose their own performance and identify when and where they need help.

Acting as a resource for Black Belts who encounter team-related challenges they cannot surmount.

Creating a Six Sigma Culture

Many Sponsors, Champions, and Leaders look to Six Sigma as a way to change an organization's culture to one that is more data-driven, proactive, decisive, and customer-oriented. But they often have little idea about how to achieve successful culture change.

HR professionals can help executives approach culture change in a way that addresses the underlying business goals without creating organizational resistance. Potential HR contributions in this area include:

*Working with Six Sigma Sponsors, Leaders, and Champions to identify elements of the culture that might hinder the achievement of Six Sigma goals.

*Advising on change plans that will target those specific cultural elements.

*Identifying how Six Sigma can be rolled out in a way that works with, rather than against, the current culture.

Change Management and Communications

Introducing Six Sigma into an organization is a major change that will have a profound effect on a broad group of stakeholders. Managers and employees at many levels of the organization will be asked to engage in new behaviors. In many cases, those leading other initiatives will see Six Sigma as a source of competition for resources, executive attention, and organizational power. Others may see it as an indictment of their past performance. Many will be confused about how Six Sigma fits with the large number of other ongoing organizational initiatives.

HR professionals can help reduce the uncertainty and anxiety surrounding Six Sigma and increase the levels of acceptance and cooperation in the organization. Potential HR contributions in this area include:

Drafting a change management/ communications plan that addresses the people side of the Six Sigma rollout.

Helping create a "case for change" that describes:

The reasons for and benefits of Six Sigma.

How the organization will help employees succeed in new ways of working.

How Six Sigma fits with other ongoing initiatives.

Counseling Six Sigma Leaders and Champions on how their behavior can help or hinder Six Sigma's acceptance throughout the organization.

Being Included in Six Sigma

Just because HR professionals can play a role in the success of Six Sigma, it doesn't automatically follow that they will be asked to participate. Unless you are in an organization that views HR as a partner in all business initiatives, you may have to push to be included in Six Sigma. HR can greatly increase its chances of being included in the Six Sigma initiative by:

1) Ensuring HR professionals have the right skills and knowledge. 2) Marketing its potential contribution early in the initiative.

Gaining the Right Skills and Knowledge

In addition to HR/organizational development-related areas, HR professionals need a familiarity with Six Sigma itself. Without a basic knowledge of the DMAIC method, supporting tools, roles, jargon, and even simple statistical methods, HR will not have the credibility it needs to be considered a potential contributor to the initiative.

The time to get this knowledge is now. Even if your organization is not rolling out--or even considering -- Six Sigma today, there are two reasons why it's worth a HR professional's time to become familiar with the concepts now. If the organization does decide to implement Six Sigma, there won't be enough time to catch up. HR has to be involved at the very beginning of the initiative. In addition, there are many applications of Six Sigma to HR's processes themselves, e.g., the payroll process, benefits administration, selection, and recruiting. HR might even consider setting an example for the rest of the organization by adopting Six Sigma techniques to enhance its own processes.



source: http://www.isixsigma.com

Suresh Kumar.K

SAP HR Consulatnt

91-9820988516

Atos Origin

Mumbai

From India, Madras
hi suresh,
Please let me the the requisites for an Six Sigma auditor. I have about 2.07 yrs of exp in HR. do we need to have some level of exp, and certain qualification. How do we get certified/certification agencies in Bangalore and how much time/money would it take.
Please let me know about these details...
Regards,
Soumya Shankar

From India, Bangalore
Well, besides the funtions already listed above there's also HR people becoming certified Black Belts and undertaking six sigma projects.

A question often wondered is whther Six sigms has applicability to HR. While six sigma isn't a once done forget later thing, and maintaining that standard is difficult, most companies (read HR focussed companies) can achieve atleast a 2 sigma level. And that's also a lot.

The costs of a bad hire can kill a company - after all people spend lakhs on an employee - which goes a natural waste with a bad hire. Companies have undertaken Six Sigma projects (not exactly Six sigma, actually they were two sigma projects) in HR as well - for instance in recruitments.

Some companies realised that the duraction of recruitment and selection can sometimes be disastrous - the longer a recruitment and selection drive (in the hopes that we'll only settle for the best) the costleir it gets. Not only in terms of repeated ads and such, but also in losing talent. talented people will not wait weeks for a company to give them a job offer after an interview. They'll go ahead and take up at the next company.

So a six sigma project was undertaken to reduce the recruitment and selection time to a two sigma level. Other areas which can be covered in six sigma are:

1. Employee satisfaction surveys

2. Reducing turnover

3. Improving employee productivity (motivation)

and infact the possibility is enormous - a project can be taken almost anywahere using six sigma tools.

So besides the obvious functions of HR which would enhance practising Six sigma, one can also undertake projects in HR itself. HR people can move from the back-end of it to the front end by becoming six sigma black belts - and from there, a CEO post may not be too far away... :wink:

From India, Mumbai
An interesting thread here.

I am an HR & Training practitioner, and have been working with Six Sigma since late 2001. I am a trained Green Belt.

I'd like to address a few apparent misconceptions.

Any organisation operating at the 2 sigma level is likely to be out of business quickly UNLESS its competitors are operating at a lower sigma level, OR it has a significant cost base advantage.

Why is this? Well, operating at the 2 sigma level means the organisation is getting it wrong 30.8% of the time. Of course, it all depends on what is meant by 'getting it wrong' but as the organisation seems to be the focus as a unit, then I have to assume that the defects we are talking about are those the customer actually sees. And by the way, what is meant by a 'defect' is actually defined by the customer in this case.

Would you continue to buy from a supplier that gets it 'wrong' more than 30% of the time? No, and neither would I!!

HR can contribute to a Six Sigma culture change (and that's what it is - it's a different way of working and managing) through effective enablement and support of change management, and of putting in place incentives to retain traines Green and Black Belts, as the investment in training is significant, and typically in the USA a Master Black Belt can earn salaries of $150K or more.

Frequently however Six Sigma can enhance HR. I have worked on a number of such projects myself. One example is in improving staff retention. One organisation lost 39% of its new hires within 12 months of them starting (32% within 6 months). Using Six Sigma we identified the root causes and tackled them. Retention improved to industry standard levels - just 16% were leaving by the end of the project, saving approx $1M in recruitment fees annually. The investment to achieve this result - just over $100K. That's a very good return!

I have seen Six Sigma used well, and badly. When it is used badly the results are awful. When used well the results are revolutionary. It's very easy to use it badly. It's also easy to use it well, but it takes greater understanding first, in order to approach problems with the right mindset and to also use the appropriate tools for the job - each project is unique!

I'm happy to discuss further if people have a specific question.

Kind regards

Martin

From United Kingdom,
Soumya asks about details for a Six Sigma auditor.
There's no such thing within Six Sigma as an auditor.
Six Sigma is a philosophy and a method. Inherent within the six sigma approach is the need to do things 'properly'. Ensuring that this happens is partly the responsibility of the Green Belts in the project team, but mostly the responsibility of the Black Belt supervising the six sigma aspects of the team.
It would help to know more about what you are trying to achieve and what prompted your question about the auditor?
Kind regards
Martin

From United Kingdom,
Hi Soumya,

Six Sigma is a methodology of making the process defect-free. It consists of 5 phases namely Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control. From the voice of the customer, you address the problem which may be inherent in one or more of processes . This initiative is taken by the top management on recognizing the business issues related to the customer dissatisfaction or over all perception of the processes or both over a period of time. It is in the interest of perpetuity of the continual improvement of the business this quality initiative is taken. Since it is a voluntary act of the oganization to prune the process/es there is no external auditing done.

In the case of ISO certification etc, the organization is committed to observe the standards specified by ISO and hence the auditing is done by external agencies. By the way, I am Hariharan belonging to Six Sigma Alchemy P Ltd located at Mumbai, Mulund. We are retained by many big companies like L&T , GodrejSare Lee, ICICI Lombard, ABN AMRO to mention a few for their quality initiatives like Lean Six Sigma , BPMS, etc.,

We conduct training programs of Lean Six Sigma both on public platform as well as Inhouse. Currently, in the month of March, on 10th & 11th, we plan to have white belt & yellow belt programs in Chennai. It is a very useful program to understand the basic awareness about LEan Six SIgma.

I have attached the program details for your interest.

pl contact over 9282327044 or email to

regards

Hariharan P S

for Six Sigma Alchemy P ltd(Chennai)

Attached Files (Download Requires Membership)
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hello Mr Hariharan,
i want to know more abt Six Sigma in HR.I am doing MPhil and i m searching for an intreesting topic for this.This Six SIGMA is quite interesting.
Can i get some more information regarding the kind of companies who undergo your program, success rate , suitablity of programs etc....
waiting eagerly for ur reply.

From India, Calcutta
Hi reader,
Since I am busy with my schedule for the next 6 days, I shall get in touch with this subject after a week. In the meantime, I have forwarded your query to my colleaques in Six Sigma Alchemy P ltd at Mumbai. They may answer it.
regards
Hariharan P S
for Six Sigma Alchemy P Ltd (Chennai)


Hii New Learner,
It is heartening to know that Six Sigma has been a field of your interest.
Six Sigma can be applied to any industry under the sun.
Six Sigma Alchemy has alone consulted almost all different kind of industries. The success rate has been phenomenally high, when it is applied with the right attitude & commitment.
Some of the fields where we have applied Six Sigma are Chemical, Computer Peripheral Mfg, Confectionary, FMCG, Heavy Eng Industry, Pharma, Refinery, Telecommunication, Infrastructure Industry, Banking, Banking Back Office, BPO, Hospitality, Transaction Industry...
For more details on our clientele & success story you can log on to our website www.sixsigmaalchemy.com
With Regards,
Barath
For Six Sigma Alchemy (Mumbai)


DEar All Can u give me examples how to apply Six Sigma in any Process ( Especially HR). Regards gargee
From India, New Delhi
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