Continuous Improvement as a TQM Principle

Work Smart

Continuous improvement is the third principle of TQM. You can never be satisfied with the method used, because improvements are continuous. Certainly, the competition is improving, so it is very necessary to strive to keep ahead of the game.

Working smarter, not harder

Some companies have tried to improve by making employees work harder. This may be counter-productive, especially if the process itself is flawed. For example, trying to increase worker output on a defective machine may result in more defective parts. (more…)

Talent management. Should CEOs get involved?

Talent management, the well thought-out process to get the right people, with the right skills, working in the right teams, that do their jobs in the right way, is too important to be assigned to the human resources department alone. CEOs should get deeply involved in it.

IN ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, ‘TALENT MANAGEMENT ‘is one of the hottest topics. This terminology was coined ten years ago by a software product development company, Softscape, which needed a name for a process to provide a central repository for feedback about all organizational functions.

However, after all this time there is still not yet a common understanding of what talent management is about. Different people have different interpretations. For some it should be about focusing on retaining the most promising employees while, for others, it should also include attracting high performers outside the organization as part of its process.

Based on my firm’s experience partnering with clients in managing human capital issues, I suggest the following definition: Talent management is the well thought-out process to get the right people with the right skills working in the right teams to do their jobs in the right way. From this it’s clear the potential impact that talent management can have on the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization and how important it is to consider it a strategic issue.

More and more organizations are including talent management as an integral part of their business strategy. Therefore, it did not come as a surprise to me when the latest Fifth Annual MetLife Study of Employee Benefits Trends stated that 88% of employers expected the competition for valuable workers to increase or stay the same in 2009. For the first time in the history of the study, retaining employees ranked first amongst top company goals. (more…)