There are only 4 jobs….and you are doing all….lucky you!!!

 I was reading article on actual job descriptions available to describe any job in the world      http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130502173937-15454-there-are-only-four-jobs-in-the-whole-world-are-you-in-the-right-one

It reminded the connectivity of the same with creating lean management culture in an organisation with focus on continues improvement.

In the absence of such continues improvement culture empowering the front life on the floor employee base……. Employees continue to be more inclined to be a “Producer”. While any flash of “improver” is adhoc and by chance. Doesn’t give employee feel himself in that space.

In the presence of continues improvement culture…..team not empower to embed matured “producer” role …..they also progress to add in “Improver” and “Builder” role rapidly into their job description.

What Payroll strategy/operation model good for your company...

I was preparing for a seminar in Singapore due on last May 2011.............but due to several reasons i couldn't make it.

The thoughts i gathered for the seminar with respect to payroll delivery model were something i wanted to share.

The specific aspect how a companies financial condition impact its payroll model............to outsource or in source .... remote processing or in country processing......... high touch or high tech or both........ERP or best of the bread ........ country focus or region focus or global focus......so on.

I always propagated model of semiglobalisation (slide 4) by Pankaj Gemhawat to analyse the same.

The delivery model is a mix of :

1. Aggregation
2. Arbitrage
3. Adaptability
But question is what drives this mix.
I looked at financial details available on public domain for some companies to chk if that indicate towards difference in their model. Below is some details.
It was very evident that...... revenue per employee and profit margin per employee are big drivers . Along with companies operation profit margin. Though these ratios are industry driven but it is rather the financial position than industry which drove the companies payroll strategy.

Accurate Payroll

Accurate payroll 

is not about 

absence of errors

.....but 

......presence of 

scalable & predictable process, 

robust technology and 

culture of continues improvement.

-Harish

Swadeshi Movement, SDP, Lean, CI etc

I was reading through the book "Gandhi CEO".....

With Vision of Freedom for India Gandhi started Swadeshi Movement as a execution strategy. Calling the Indians to use only the cloths made in India with Indian material was at core of this  strategy . The execution of this strategy dint stop at this high level calling. He clearly understood......though our mills were having capability to weave cloths for Indian demand........but didn't had capacity to spin the yarn . Though he got suggestions about accepting imported yarn.....but he rejected as it didn't align with neither vision nor strategy.
So was the call for Yarn prepared manually using Chraka.

Vision=Indian Freedom
Strategy= Swadeshi movement
Execution= Hand woven yarn-Khadi

In Lean we use SDP or Hoshin Kanri ..... to do the exact above and create  X matrix.

It is such a learning to see ..........if we are search of truth or true north......... we do end up in same mechanism of execution.

Broken Process.......what do you mean by that???!!!

We always stumble on this topic when want to re engineer or transform or improve or simply change the process.........

we stumble upon broken process. But how will you say process is broken?

7 kinds of broken designs which Seth mentions......clearly works well with broken payroll processes ( or to define any broken process).

"Not my job" is the best I like..........this kind of broken process creeps into very well designed processes in outsourcing. We create clear process map along with clearly defined roles & responsibility.......which turns out be clear definition of " what I am not supposed to do". This leads to " not my job" syndrome leading well designed process into a broken process.

I am not going to state the obvious ....but this talk is definitely worth listening and one will be able to relate it to lot of experience we face in process re-engineering effort.

Seth Godin at Gel 2006 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

Watch out for chnages in payroll policy landscape in coming years

Dan Pink on what motivates people to perform.

It is very clear what motivates employees in future. Whether it is current complicated structure of incentive or really motivation inducing intrinsic mechanisms.

Current payroll in infected by complicated incentives system . Resulting neither motivating employees nor allowing him to understand how much exactly he should expect in his bank account every month for next 12 months.

Current learning's by company during this recession time will make both employee and employer rethink what they want from their job. In turn changing complex nature of payroll for good........towards simpler zero to gross structure.

Customer Satisfaction: Car engine and vanilla Ice cream

This story is very true with Payroll. As much as the problem lay with territorial performances as much as it is with payroll efficiency . But, issues exhibits itself in payroll satisfaction. This becomes evident when we look at payroll process after receiving employee feedback. Look out for detailed root cause for better and sustainable model.My best bet is on asking at least 7 “Why?” to reach the root. remember the payroll rule "payroll is not a process but a symptom". General rule "Devil is in the Details"

A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors:
"This is the second time I have written you, and I don't blame you for not answering me, because I kind of sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of ice cream for dessert after dinner each night. But the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we've eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. It's also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem. You see, every time I buy vanilla ice cream, when I start back from the store my car won't start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know I'm serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds: 'What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?'"
The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an engineer to check it out anyway. The latter was surprised to be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn't start.
The engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, the man got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. The car started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start.
Now the engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this man's car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore, to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem. And toward this end he began to take notes: he jotted down all sorts of data, time of day, type of gas used, time to drive back and forth, etc.
In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of the store.
Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept in the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to find the flavor and get checked out.
Now the question for the engineer was why the car wouldn't start when it took less time. Once time became the problem -- not the vanilla ice cream -- the engineer quickly came up with the answer: vapor lock. It was happening every night, but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapor lock to dissipate.