1. Dr. Dale J. Dwyer, The University of Toledo
Got A Solution?
HR Approaches to 5 Common and Persistent Business Problems
Dr. Dale J. Dwyer, The University of Toledo

2. What Keeps Leaders Up at Night?
What are the top three (3) general business/organizational problems, issues, or concerns that keep you [your executives] up at night?

3. The 5 Common & Persistent Business Problems:
How Do We Keep Vision-focused and Strategy-directed? 1
How Do We Become More Competitive in Our Marketplace? 2
How Do We Deal with All the Changing Laws & Regulations? 3
How Do We Attract and Retain the Most Competent Talent? 4
How Do We Deal with a Changing Society? 5

4. Got A Solution?
Addresses 5 major organization-level concerns faced by most managers 1
Discusses why organizational problems don’t get solved 2
Describes the environments that cause the headaches 3
Offers example approaches that HR can develop and implement with employees to address the 5 common business problems 4

5. Why Don’t Problems Get Solved?
Leaders miss, ignore, or deny critical problems until it is too late.
Causes of problems are misidentified.
Critical organizational problems must be managed; they generally can’t be solved.
Environments change, but organizations don’t adapt quickly enough.

6. The Critical Environments
Economic
Regulatory
Competitive
Market
Cost of federal regulations to employers over $1.75 TRILLION

7. Where Do I Begin?

8. …With the Root Cause

9. With the Problem and Its Causes!

10. Why is Turnover So High?

11. Example Problem and Causes
Poor rewards
Poor managers
Turnover Exceeds 40%
Inflexible Schedules
PROBLEM

12. How Do We Keep On Top Of Problems?

13. Leading vs. Lagging Indicators
Lagging indicators are measures of key outcomes (e.g., employee turnover, 4th quarter earnings, 5% product scrap)
Leading indicators are measures that enable (or prevent) the overall key outcomes (e.g., quality of employee training, customer satisfaction, quality of raw material)

14. Leading (“If”) vs. Lagging (“Then”) Indicators
Leading Indicator
Lagging Indicator
Lagging Indicator AND Leading Indicator
Interior Lights Left On All Night
Car Won’t Start in Morning
Drained the Battery

15. How Do I Choose Leading Indicators?
They must enable you to forecast relevant lagging indicators (e.g., principal revenue and cost drivers)
They must be simple to understand and to measure at multiple levels in the company.
There should be no more than seven leading indicators

16. How Do I Measure Leading Indicators?
EXAMPLE: Responsiveness to Customers
GOAL: Respond to customer inquiries within 24 hours
LEADING INDICATORS:
% of inquiries not worked on within 2 hours.
% of open inquiries older than 24 hours.
Average backlog of inquiries per CSR

17. How Do I Identify Leading Indicator Problems?
LEADING INDICATORS:
% of inquiries not worked on within 2 hours.
% of open inquiries older than 24 hours.
Average backlog of inquiries per CSR
Measured each day; reported each week
Provide understanding of reasons
Design training/mentoring/feedback systems

18. How Do I Get Employees Involved?
Identify employees at any level who have knowledge and experience with the problem
Ask them for their help
Get commitment from them and their direct supervisors
Put their time and effort to its best use

19. How Do I Sell the Value to the Boss?
Determine the priorities of YOUR senior managers, e.g., revenue, profit, market position, customer retention
Communicate HR’s Impact on the priorities in a Compelling Manner (e.g., ROI)
The key to recognition as a profit-center (not as overhead) is by offering solutions to costly organizational problems!

20. How Do I Convince My Boss to Involve Employees?
Describe clearly what you intend to do, why you want the employees’ help, and how much time and effort will be involved from employees.
Explain to your boss the plan, the importance of employee involvement, and how it will make your boss’ job easier.
ASK for boss’ commitment (“Will you support us as we do this?”).

21. Take-Aways from Today
Do your homework and understand the true leading indicators for problems.
Tie your solutions to the Business Plan from the CEO’s perspective.
Get commitment from everyone involved.
Engaged employees will help every organization.
Calculate ROI and Get the Word Out!

22. Engaged Employees Will Help Solve and Manage Problems!
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. --Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

23. HR Approaches to 5 Common and Persistent Business Problems
Want More Ideas?
Got A Solution?
HR Approaches to 5 Common and Persistent Business Problems
Dr. Dale J. Dwyer
Dr. Sheri A Caldwell

24. Let’s Practice!