Boosting white collar productivity.

In the course of my turnaround management work, I am routinely surprised at just how unproductive and down-right obstructionist the "administrative staff" can be. Boosting the productivity of this white collar work force is a central requirement for a turnaround's success and, more importantly, for sustaining the turnaround after the company's finances have been put in order.

Increasing the effectiveness and productivity of the white collar work force has two main paths. First, in most cases, the staffs size needs to be reduced, both to "cut out the dead wood" and also to allow those who cannot embrace the new business structure to leave. My recent experience in turning around a $10 million machining business was typical--nearly $1 million in cost was eliminated by encouraging some employees to retire and giving others the space they needed to figure out that they didn't fit in the new organization. Not only does such an organizational cleansing reduce cost and enhance productivity, but, after the initial shock wears off, it is nearly always a strong morale booster.

The second path to improved white collar productivity is to redesign the work these staffers do and the processes they use to get their work done. Sometimes called process reengineering, this task is difficult but worth the time and effort required. Following are key elements of the redesign effort.

Defining performance. Ask and answer the question, "What are the expected results from this work?" Typically, it has no right or wrong answer, only choices among a variety of possible answers, but choosing an answer and using it as the basis for job descriptions, objective and measurable performance standards, and compensation is the first step toward improved white collar productivity. Refining that answer over time is the key to continuous white collar productivity improvement.

Study the work. Just as methods engineers have performed time studies and other analyses on the shop floor for ages, productivity improvers also should study, restructure and improve the productivity of office work continuously. Benson Shapiro's classic 1992 Harvard Business review article "Staple Yourself to an Order" was a groundbreaking treatment of this subject. To make this exercise most effective, process improvers need to partner with the office workers themselves--they know better than anyone what the work actually should and should not entail, what the optimum result is, and the best way to get from here to there.

Educate, educate, educate. The key to enabling individuals who have long experience in a narrow functional specialty to take on the expanded, holistic jobs reengineering creates is to expand their base of knowledge. This only can happen through education and training, which can be facilitated by the right information technology.

Choose the right type of team. Process reengineering almost always requires organizing individuals into teams. While teams can be structured in many ways, only one way is best for each situation based on the nature of the work and the various characteristics, strengths and limitations of the different types of teams.

Empower the process team. Responsibility, accountability and resources all should be decentralized out of the management hierarchy and into the ground level team, thus allowing team members to draw their own conclusions, make their own decisions and take responsibility for their actions. In this context, senior managers should no longer supervise but facilitate by providing support and resources as needed rather than directing the "how" part of work itself. At bottom, this is what everyone means by empowerment, and it puts a premium on hiring and retaining top quality people and supporting them appropriately.

Increase time on task. How much time do your company's sales and customer support people actually spend selling one-on-one to customers, as opposed to hand-holding in the metalcasting shop during the new job start up process? Productivity requires that our key "knowledge workers" be freed from activities that do not allow them to focus on their primary functions. Doing so may be the single biggest step in improving white collar productivity.

Those activities that are identified as non-value-adding should be eliminated, period. For those activities that do add value but nonetheless sidetrack the knowledge worker from his or her primary task, at least two options exist. First, someone can be hired to provide the needed administrative support. Second, the required support function can be outsourced. Just as our customers are increasingly outsourcing their purchasing functions (and other tasks as well), so too can metalcasters outsource activities that are outside of their core competencies.

Whether in a turnaround situation or not, most metalcasting facilities have white collar staffs that are too large, too unproductive and too resistant to change and improvement. CEOs often do well by shaking things up, in an appropriate manner, as a way of taking their organizations' performance and white collar productivity to the next level.

Dan Marcus, TDC Consulting Inc., Amherst, Wisconsin