Applying Engineering Lessons to HR Challenges

Vimaleswari Ramasamye, who goes by Vimi, formerly headed Intel’s Malaysian HR Shared Services Centre, the largest of three global centres providing HR services to the company. While there, she applied the same engineering excellence that made Intel the industry leader it is today, to HR services. She is well equipped to do so, having spent 14 years as an electrical engineer testing products before they go to market. It’s that understanding of core business, she says, along with having been on the receiving end of HR services for so long, that helped her formulate a strategy for providing an invisible, reliable service that keeps employees focused on their core role of succeeding in today’s enormously competitive markets. The transformation pivoted on the crucial need to understand the customers’ requirements, and then deliver at the touch of a button. "I wanted to make sure that workers were not distracted from their core job. Anything else – like booking holidays, checking on payments – is a waste." That, in fact, is the metric by which Vimi measures the success of her team's operations. "I liken HR services to the power supplied by a utility company," she explains. "I often say: No one will ever know you're doing a great job while you are doing a great job. It's when things fail that the spotlight immediately turns on you. Just as we rely on power to run the air conditioning, laptops, and electronic devices that we take for granted, our companies rely on excellent HR services to keep their businesses going." Human Development = Product Development Leading HR services is a powerful position, and the cost of failure is enormous. But failure is not something Vimi has ever considered. She spent 14 years in electrical engineering, where her focus was on Assembly Test Manufacturing – the final test a product undergoes before it is sent to market. As such, engineering a product or service to perfection is part of Vimi’s DNA. When she made the switch to HR services, it was obvious to her that she could apply the same principles to her new role: "I look at human development as I used to look at product engineering: It's about connecting the dots to provide the right service at the right time to the right market. Instead of assembling hardware, we are assembling human talent. That means from when we bring an employee into the business, to developing, mobilizing, and sustaining him or her … our shared services team covers the full lifecycle." Workload Doubled The SSC’s scope doubled in its first three years, incorporating more job functions and increasingly moving into knowledge-management or consultative roles, while transactional elements were outsourced. "My approach is copied directly from engineering," explains Vimi. "In everything we do, we focus on creating repeatable and reproducible processes. Then we outsource those elements and focus on higher value-add work, like improving those process." 4 Steps to Service Excellence The objective of a modern day HR service is to deliver excellent service without the need for an employee to call into a centre. That means technology plays a big role – but so does training staff so that they know how to leverage technology, and how to react properly when an issue is escalated. Vimi says that HR should focus on four key components to deliver service excellence: Know what the customer wants – otherwise there is no point in providing a service. Running the SSC as a separate business unit helps create the right focus. Quality. This needs to be excellent or the customer won't come back. Again, it comes down to knowing what the customer needs, and delivering this information or service in the best way possible. Velocity. While technology has unleashed ‘speed’ as a deliverable, speed alone is not the decisive factor. It’s the impact of that speed on the business – what is referred to as velocity within HR today – that differentiates service. Be cost-effective in terms of adding value. It’s not about delivering the cheapest service, but it is about providing a cost-effective solution. That is another lesson that HR can take from a company’s frontline. Beware: First Impressions Count The first engagement a potential employee has with an organisation these days often takes place online, via Twitter or Facebook (which is where may companies now post their jobs). It's crucial to put your best team onto that, as a negative experience there will outweigh any future positive experience you can follow up with, Vimi explains. That is also why she advocates offering customer satisfaction and service training to Level 2 support teams. "They are often overlooked, but they need the training as much as anyone," she explains. "From gestures, to commentary, to how they greet a customer – it’s the service skills alongside the functional expertise that differentiates a good experience from a great one." While high satisfaction scores are great – they are not enough. As an engineer, Vimi is always tinkering with the product and looking ahead. 3 Tips On How To Transform HR To Support Your Business Availability: deliver a service that everyone needs and make sure they have easy access to it, so that they don't need to pick up the phone to call into the HR centre. If someone does have to contact the centre, make sure you are able to resolve the issue at the first interaction level. Create a structure based on predictable questions that enable your stuff to do this, and train them so that they are well equipped to provide information in a customer oriented way. Extend customer service training to everyone who touches the customer – no matter at what level. Where necessary, rotate staff into emerging problem areas so that they build up expertise and skills. "Today our focus needs to be on being more proactive," she explains. "While a customer may contact us to ask a question about "x", and in the past we measured ourselves according to how well we answered that question, today we want to focus on answering "y" and "z" at the same time – before the customer even thinks of those questions. In other words, the focus is on how to provide answers or information within the context of what an employee might need to know in future. This is the direction that visionary HR leaders should be moving towards. "It's a more constructive role, now that the transactional pieces can be taken care of through self-service technology, backed up by chat where necessary. HR is becoming a kind of phone doctor for the business. And it’s in pre-empting illness, or stopping disease from taking hold that the value of the HR team will truly shine through, says Vimi. [eventpdf] [Note: if you liked this article, please use the buttons on the left side of the screen to share it across your LinkedIn and Twitter groups – and please contribute to this discussion by posting your thoughts in the comment section below. Thank you for being part of SSON's community – Barbara Hodge]

Applying Engineering Lessons to HR Challenges

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