Don’t Guess, Assess!

When work isn’t getting done as quickly as desired, often a manager’s first reaction is to assume that more staff is needed. Not true. Throwing more people onto a sinking ship, will not fix the ship. Sometimes finding the leak and mending the holes is better done with the people you have on board.

When things aren’t going as well as expected, refrain from drawing conclusions until you take the time to meet with your teams to uncover what is keeping them from being successful. To do this, it’s important to provide a safe space for them to express their challenges and frustrations -- even if you suspect they might say that part of the problem is you! You might even discover that some of the challenges are completely out of your staff’s control, and yours.

You may have heard of the assessment performed at Ritz-Carlton. This highly service-oriented hotel was not able to meet its desired speed for room service. They tried adding staff, timing kitchen processes, and more. Still, they could not achieve the desired timing. In an interview, a staff member mentioned that he often must wait for some time for the service elevator to be free. This piece of information led the assessment team to look at other departments, with the unexpected result being that room service is slow because the hotel needs more sheets! It turned out that the housekeeping staff were having to make several trips to the laundry, tying up the service elevators, because there weren’t enough sets of sheets to remake the beds until some of the used sheets were laundered. 

Just like at the Ritz-Carlton, what is slowing down your processes, may not have anything to do with your staffing levels or processes, or the processes or staffing of the departments with which you directly interact.

So, take the time to conduct an assessment to understand the root cause of the problem before adding (or disciplining) staff. An assessment will be less costly, more effective, and your employees will feel valued and supported, leading to higher productivity. 

When you meet with your staff to conduct an assessment, ask them which parts of the process are taking the most time. If it’s a small team, I suggest meeting with each staff member individually. For larger teams, take a representative sample of staff including newcomers and long-term staff, experienced and inexperienced, and of various ages. (Be sure to include staff who are not your favorites.) Then set some ground rules:  

1.        I am just here to listen. (I do not have any preconceived notion of the answer.)

2.        I want you to be honest. (Even if the truth is hard for me to hear.)

3.        My only goal is for the team to be successful, and I will do my best to remove the obstacles to success.

After you draw some conclusions from individual interviews, bring the team together to fact check your reasoning. Let the team discuss it as a group; then refine your conclusions.

Next, act. Do what you can to remove the obstacles. Or hire more staff.  Because you took the time to investigate, you now know what you need. It might just be more sheets – or something equally unexpected.

HR-EQ is skilled at conducting team, department, and organizational assessments. For more information, email julia@hr-eq.com.