Chief executives, HRD, HSEQ managers: How to manage differently to deploy your strategy

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Forget management by employees' diplomas classified wisely in the personnel files during all their careers with their post and function descriptions. Everything is going too fast now to have a management fixed in a "personnel department". There is a need for teams to adapt to ever-changing markets.

 

HR challenges are described in the new ISO standards version 2015.

 

Chapter 2.1 of ISO 9000: 2015:

               "... the emergence of knowledge as the main resource."

The consequences are considerable:

- Behaviors and attitudes can not be explained by procedures.

- Employees need to understand what is happening and why they need to change their practices.

- The management needs to get the involvement and commitment of staff to the strategy.

- The management must offer employees opportunities to develop the skills necessary for the performance and sustainability of the company.

 

Our customers constantly solicit us with new specifications. Our suppliers regularly modify the components we integrate into our products and services. Not to mention globalization and the Internet, which constantly open us to innovative components that can enter our products and services. As a result, the working instructions of our employees change constantly, the risks on our products and services are transformed in no time, so our business processes must be reviewed very frequently. Here too The ISO gives the direction to follow:

 

Chapter 7.2 of ISO 9001: 2015

                 "The organization has to determine the skills needed ... on the basis of training ... or appropriated                     experiences, to lead actions to acquire the necessary skills ... a quality-oriented system fosters a                       culture  that materializes through behaviors, attitudes that provide value by meeting the needs of                     clients and stakeholders. "

In this highly dynamic business world, we must ensure that our employees are adaptable to changes and well-being, measure their degree of freedom and commitment to the company. This inquiry into the relationship between the company and its employees and their working conditions requires that each employee can express his / her feelings freely and in the strictest anonymity. The answers must be the subject of a report that can be consulted by everyone. The objective is of course to create a multidisciplinary steering group to discuss the results and to arrive at concrete actions on the key factors of the employee's relationship with his company.

 

Also in this economy characterized by a permanent change, globalization of markets, I consider the strategy as the main guarantor of sustainable performance, much more than the operational efficiency generated by the Quality Management System. As HR develops the strategy, we must think in terms of culture, skills, experiences and training of employees to meet the strategy.

 

There is no strategy deployment without leadership from the management.

 

Leadership is communicating the strategy, making trade-offs and creating right balance between company's activities. The general management plays a central role in the strategy: defining and communicating the company's unique position. This is a delicate and sometimes absent subject in companies. At a lower level, managers often lack perspectives and assurance to enforce a strategy.

 

Michael Porter, Pr at Havard explains it very well:

 

"There will then be ongoing pressure from employees, subcontractors and customers to compromise, to make trade-offs more flexible and to imitate competitors. One of the main tasks of the general management is to teach the strategy to other people in the company and say no. The strategy requires constant discipline and clear communication. Indeed, an essential function of the explicit and shared strategy is to guide employees to make the right choices arising from arbitrations in their individual activities and in their daily decisions.”

 

General management leadership is therefore a sine qua non for employees to be involved in achieving the company's objectives. It is then possible to align strategy and QHSE processes. According to my observations in 3000 companies in 16 years, the first step is to visualize the strategy in terms of system of essential strategic positions and correlated declined positions.

 

Then the second step is to check the consistency with the process mapping and the organizational structure, dedicated then specifically and exclusively to the strategy. Lastly, a transversal action plan should be developed to reinforce the correlations of strategic positions.

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Jean-Marc BRIAND
Jean-Marc BRIAND
CEO de BlueKanGo et auteur de nombreux articles et guides / CEO of BlueKanGo and author of numerous articles and guides / CEO BlueKanGo y autor de diversos artículos y guías/BlueKanGo CEO i autor wielu artykułów i przewodników
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