Perspectives: Business Operations (Back-office)

While most of my other posts focus on front-office business units and their strategies for success, this one will focus on the back office and their strategies for success. Back office business units focus on the bottom-line and incremental reductions through the prevention, reduction and control of costs.
1. Business administration centers (Executive/human resources/finance/etc.)
2. Offering production centers (Manufacturing/delivery – operations)
3. Supplier (partner) management centers

Workforce Productivity VisionIn today's fast paced and highly competitive marketplace, workforce productivity is a corporate wide, strategic business imperative that must focus resources and initiatives on delivering tangible benefits at key levels of the organization.

Corporate Cultures
In today's business environment, two basic types of corporate cultures have emerged

Activity Based (Cope) Corporate Culture (Glass half empty)Identified here are some of the key characteristics of today’s “cant-do” corporate culture. These informal and assumed attitudes, expectations, beliefs, behaviors, values and standards have typically evolved over a long period of time. They are generally fueled by negative industry, marketplace and customer experiences compounded by mission critical business mistakes. Drop me a note and ask for a detailed description of this established culture.

Results Based (Compete) Corporate Culture (Glass half full)
Identified here are some of the key characteristics of today’s “can-do” corporate culture. These clearly defined and articulated attitudes, expectations, beliefs, behaviors, values and standards tend to build on positive industry and business experiences. They continuously evolve and are often impacted by prevailing marketplace expectations and customer demands coupled with timely and accurate business decisions.
Drop me a note and ask for a detailed description of this emerging culture.

Workforce Productivity CultureWorkforce productivity is the integration of human and company resource management, organizational leadership and individual employee coaching functions into a cohesive program focused on meeting business priorities and challenges at mission critical levels of the business.

The Traditional Hire and Hope Culture (Refer to Management Perspectives Post)
This traditional culture is based on the simple premise that business success is based on chance and the chances for success can be increased with a reactive workforce productivity strategy. It is based on a tactical principle that a business typically leaves its chances for success up to individual effort and their ability to maximize that effort through responsive workforce productivity programs.

The Emerging Profile and Predict Culture (Refer to Management Perspectives Post)This contemporary culture is based on the simple premise that business success is highly predictable and a proactive workforce productivity strategy can shape that success. It is built on the strategic principle that a business can not afford to leave its success up to individual effort, they must ensure their success through workforce strategies that profile, plan and model success. Only then can individual effort become a competitive edge.

Top Line Benefit of Profile and Predict Workforce Productivity Culture
On one side of the workforce productivity value promise is the top line benefits that it can bring at mission critical levels of the organization. Each element of the program can drive short-term, tangible and long-term, intangible benefits to departments, groups, and individual employees that can generate substantial increases in performance and results.

Bottom Line Benefits of the Profile and Predict Workforce Productivity Culture
On the other side of the workforce productivity value promise is the bottom line impact that it can have on avoiding and minimizing the consequences of not having a cohesive and effective workforce productivity program in place. These short-term, tangible and long-term, intangible benefits can eliminate or reduce profit drain caused by poor recruiting, inconsistent hiring, in-effective training, high turnover and other manpower challenges.

Workforce Organization and Staffing
Maximizing workforce productivity begins with a workforce that is effectively organized. Many organizations apply a tactical approach to organizational structure instead of a strategic – planned approach at key phases of the business evolution. We begin our evaluation of your workforce productivity requirements by looking at current organizational structure priorities and challenges.
     1. Organizational Structure
     2. Staffing Requisitions
     3. Applicant Profiling (Job descriptions)
     4. Position Requisitioning
     5. Applicant Sourcing
     6. Internal Job Posting
     7. External Candidate Searching
     8. Turnover Contingency Plan

Organizational Structure - Established Hierarchy Business Infrastructures
Traditional, established hierarchy (silo) business infrastructures can generally be identified with these basic characteristics.
Inward focused (company friendly) hierarchy organizational structures
Traditional production, product or selling focused planning culture
     1. Production Culture (Focus on production and cost control and reduction)
     2. Product Culture (Focus on innovative offerings and competitive prices)
     3. Selling Culture (Focus on marketing strategies and sales/distribution tactics)
     4. Classic business development (decentralized/departmental) planning process

Organizational Structure - Emerging Virtual Business InfrastructuresContemporary, emerging virtual (dynamic) business environments can generally be identified with these basic characteristics.
Outward focused (market/consumer friendly) virtual organizational structures
Consumer and/or market focused planning culture
     1. Marketplace Culture (Focus on market demands)
          A. Drive customer satisfaction (needs/wants/demands)
          B. Deliver customer value (products/services/experiences)
     2. Customer Culture (Focus on buyer expectations) (Customer life cycle philosophy)
     3. Contemporary business performance (centralized/collaborative) planning process

Workforce Hiring and Recruiting
Once effective recruiting strategies are in place, timely and accurate hiring must be implemented based on the implementation of these basic principles and strategies.
     1. Application Screening
     2. Candidate Interviewing
     3. Candidate Profiling (Job descriptions)
     4. Candidate testing
     5. Record Checks
     6. Validation of References
     7. Candidate Selection

Workforce Orientation and Assimilation (New Employee)
Once the best match to the applicant profile and job description is hired, he/she must be brought up to speed quickly and effectively through an accelerated new employee assimilation program. This program must be personally configured to meet the specific needs of the new employee and maximize his/her performance in the shortest time. Refer to head-start program
     1. Process (processing and familiarization)
     2. Learn (orientation and training)
          A. General (All employees)
          B. Specific (Individual jobs) (Hard/job/task skills and soft/work/people skills)
     3. Practice (objectives and activity) Activity tracking - Numbers
     4. Perform (goals and results) Performance reporting - Ratios

Workforce Performance and Policies (All employees)The overall performance of the organization must be managed through a qualified and motivated human resources leader or team. The company wide elements of human resource management outlined here deal with the administration and maintenance of employment records and programs across the business.
     1. Benefits Administration
     2. Payroll Management
     3. Regulatory Compliance
     4. Risk Management
     5. Legal Administration
     6. Employee Relations
     7. Personnel Management (Policy Handbook)
          A. Welcome and Introduction
          B. Equal Opportunity (100 series)
          C. Terms of Employment (200 series)
          D. Compensation and Benefits (300 series)
          E. Attendance and Leave (400 series)
          F. Ethics and Employee Conduct (500 series)
          G. Environment and Resource Management (600 series)

Workforce Productivity and Procedures (Individual employees)
While overall organization performance is managed by the human resources group, individual employee productivity is a leadership function through department, team and group leadership. These important elements of workforce productivity are focused on the leadership, coaching and supervision of individual employees by their immediate supervisors.
     1. Operations Manual (Procedures)
     2. Crisis Operations Management
     3. Policies and Procedures Compliance
     4. Job Descriptions and Expectations
     5. Leadership and Coaching (Refer to Management Perspectives Post)
     6. Supervision and Control
     7. Performance and Attendance
     8. Reviews and Appraisals

Workforce Training and Development
Hiring qualified employees and placing them into a productivity environment is only a part of the process. To maintain maximum productivity from each and every employee, we must implement some key strategies focused on individual employee training and development.
     1. Business Management (Refer to Business Management Perspectives Post)
     2. Organizational Leadership
     3. Employee Coaching
     4. Personal Development
     5. Career (job) Training
     6. Sales Training (Refer to Sales Perspectives Post)