Productivity’s Secret: Keep On Upgrading, Updating the Staff

A dramatic improvement in productivity could be the result of lessons learned from the downsizing most companies have been forced to undergo during the last few years. The key is for managers to realize that replacing employees should be an ongoing process, not just a response to economic conditions.

In my 30 years of managerial experience in the aerospace electronics industry, I found that most managers tried hard to avoid terminating employees. It made little difference if the termination was due to poor performance or a reduction in force. Part of the problem was the understandable desire to avoid delivering such bad news, and part was the time-consuming hassle inevitably involved with the human resources department, which often saw its job as protecting employees from managers rather than helping managers do what needed to be done.

One benefit of the severe downsizings of recent years is that both managers and human resources have, out of necessity, become much more used to the termination process. Now that work forces are beginning to increase again, companies have an opportunity to take advantage of this effect to do more readily what managers should have been doing for years--continually improving the quality of the work force by continually replacing the poorest performers.

In my book, “A Little Bit at a Time--Secrets of Productive Quality,” I define productive quality as the simultaneous achievement of high quality and high productivity. The key to productive quality is continually upgrading the work force. This means continually recruiting better performers independent of any need for downsizing. Companies that continually replace the poorest performers are much more likely to succeed than are those that feel terminations can cease now that things are returning to “normal.”

This won’t be a politically correct stance in many places, but it is the real secret of success. No one questions the need to upgrade and improve even a Super Bowl winner. Fans criticize winners who stand pat and fail to upgrade their teams over the off season. The same idea applies to companies competing in today’s tough marketplace. Companies that do not continually upgrade their work forces will lose.

The three steps to a work force capable of achieving productive quality are:

* Get and keep only the best people.

* Make clear what needs to be done.

* Let them do it.

But the last two steps won’t work if the first step hasn’t been done properly. No system will work if the people are not capable of making it work. This may seem obvious, but the idea has taken a back seat in many companies that are trying instead to design a management system that will guarantee success.

No management system can guarantee success in all organizations under all conditions. Organizations operate under different constraints in different environments, and no one management system will work for all. Each organization itself faces continual changes in operating constraints and environments; systems that were appropriate before may no longer apply. As in sports, the key is the players, not the system.

No system can be made to work well without good players. But any reasonable system, consistently applied, can be made to work well with good players. It’s much easier to find a system to fit talented players than to find players to fit a system. Talent is the unique commodity, and you must take it in whatever form it is available. Systems can be changed easily.

You get the best people by continually recruiting even when you don’t “need” people. You always need good people. You get the best team by continually replacing the bottom 10% of your work force. If you do this consistently, a little bit at a time, your work force will continually improve and you will have a company capable of achieving productive quality.

The recent experience in downsizing taught everyone how to replace employees. The key to success is to keep doing it permanently.