How to Work Smarter: Redesigning the Organization and the Work
Highly effective and efficient organizations have developed creative ways to rethink and redesign work when faced with change. We believe re-evaluating and aligning the organization, the processes, and the capabilities of the workforce can add great value in managing change and achieving the business strategy. Overlooking this step can produce many pitfalls.
A push for change can come from many directions, among them:
- A newly emerging competitive landscape
- A need to improve productivity and/or quality
- A need to better align production or service delivery with customer demands
- A need to take full advantage of new technology
Faced with these pressures, executives must assess tradeoffs among investments in labor costs, technology, processes, and markets. Whether the organizational changes being considered are company-wide, division-wide, or limited to a single department, we believe Workplace Analytics is a critical component for developing a successful operational blueprint. As new work processes are designed and accompanied by supporting technology, it is essential to assess the new workforce configuration of activities, responsibilities, capabilities, time allocations, and performance standards. Only when contrasting these with current job definitions and requirements will the effort and costs necessary to execute the new strategy become clear.
The impact of work redesign doesn’t stop at those key issues, however. As jobs are redefined, it becomes necessary to assess the ability of the incumbent workforce to meet the new job requirements and to determine the extent to which re-training or replacement will be the best choice. Changes in compensation levels may impact the financial case for the new strategy.
Finally, changes in the job and the required talent pool may require changes in career paths to provide the opportunity structure needed to retain vital talent.
These changes then impact the company’s recruitment and selection processes which lead to a re-evaluation of the organization’s Human Capital Supply Chain.
Ultimately, redesigning work entails a cascade of new actions throughout the company and our approach to Workplace Analytics provides you the rational guidance and framework for implementing effective work and organizational change.