People variation is a given in every business; the key is to understand how it’s impacting your processes. Distractions, skill-level, attitude, personality, and inadequate processes are all conditions that cause people-related variation. What one employee might do well can be a challenge for another, and this variation in people skills can impact processes.
Distraction is a common cause of people variation, and every employee is distracted at one time or another. One person might come to work stewing over an argument with a spouse, while another might be financially stressed or dreaming about an upcoming vacation. Whatever the root cause, distraction often results in on-the-job errors.
In my consulting business I’ve developed a list of questions that I use to ask clients so I can determine how people variation affects their processes. Here are a few of them:
- What is your employee turnover rate?
- Does your company struggle with an inconsistent hiring process?
- How adequate is your training process?
- Do employees lack mastery of procedures, instructions, standard work or operational definitions? Do documented procedures, etc. exist?
- Do your employees have the skill level to perform the job?
- Do your employees work with one another to solve problems?
- Are some employees especially prone to making careless mistakes or errors? What has been done to correct the issue?
- What kind of work environment do you have? Are employees blamed when an error or mistake is made or is there an attempt to analyze and improve the process to prevent the problem in the future?
- How good is your communication process? Do you discuss problems with employees and ask for their ideas on what can be done to eliminate them?
- Is management proactive in resolving process issues and preventing problems?
If any of the above are a problem, then people created variation is most likely affecting your processes and causing errors and mistakes. Discussions must take place to determine what can be done quickly to improve the situation. Action plans must be developed, put in place and monitored weekly until the issues are resolved.