Case Study 1
Balancing Process and People
Introduction
In today’s challenging scenario for all kind of industries, be it a manufacturing industry or service industry, it is observed that the organization is unable to balance the process and people.
Scenario
We have conducted study in electronic products department store, where we have gone to buy a laptop in Diwali season (November 2013) around 7:00 pm. We were quite satisfied with the service and closure time. (The closure time includes the time from making payments, giving demo, providing accessories, re packing the laptop and taking the feedback) which was quite short around 15 minutes after we have purchased the laptop. It has shown the remarkable triumph of closure process in stipulated time.
Whereas in January 2014 -Tuesday afternoon around 3:00 pm, we again went to buy a laptop in the same electronic departmental store. They have taken the closure time of around 45 minutes. We have observed that the same number of staff was available and there was not so much rush in the store. It seems that the staff members were not focused to follow the closure time.
Finding Facts
It was observed that the process sequence for closure was same at both times, it was very well defined. The staff members were aware about the process of closure (They were trained for same). Only the time, day and occasion was different, which may have caused the deficiency in closure process. During first occasion, at the time of festival the process was dominating the people due to customer demand and making them more enthusiasts and energetic to address the customers as fast as possible, they were closing almost all the deals within stipulated time.
During the second occasion that was a normal day sale, the people were dominating the process and they were not focused to provide the same kind of energy, enthusiast to address the customers and provide service. We have discussed these point with floor manager and shown some concern about the closure time and then she has initiated the speedy process of closure and then also discussed the issue that people gets distracted/ imprecise during such seasons, but she has ensured that this can be resolved by defining closure time and make them focused- motivated to abide to the closure time and by this way people can be motivated- focused with closure time commitment, they can be compensated with this process achievement. Further to the discussion she has ensured to balance the process and people to make employee motivated and focused.
Conclusion:
In most of the organizations it is apparent that the same kind of scenario is observed where the organization head / HOD do not distillate on process and people together, they either focus on process enhancement or people motivation. But if they balance the process and people, they can improve processes and the organization can bring the “enjoying” experience to all customers one time, every time irrespective of occasions, day and time.
The Organization head/ HOD can assess the process achievement deficiency and can take appropriate actions either in process enhancement or training, motivational attributes for employee {Balancing Process and People}