Page 29 - MetalForming December 2012

• Review your organizational struc- ture. Top organizations build their structures around the work that needs to get done and their business goals. Too often, departments and jobs remain unchanged and are arranged to support a time when business needs and operations were quite different. Evaluate whether or not your current structure makes sense for the business today, and 5 yr. from now.
• Create job descriptions that reflect current roles and responsibilities. Employees and supervisors need a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. Clear job descriptions help individuals better-understand the work that needs to be done. Your employees’ descriptions of their jobs should align closely with the recorded job descriptions.
• Streamline and update work processes. It’s important to review the frequently used processes in your organ- ization, and determine whether or not alternatives should be considered. Look
for areas where consistency can be implemented and redundancy of work reduced. For example, consider creating company templates for frequently used reports or letters and placing them in a central location, or instituting an enter- prise-resource-planning (ERP) structure to centralize information-technology applications across the business. ERP systems provide management with a comprehensive overview of the busi- ness and a way to efficiently share infor- mation and resources.
Employee Morale
Lastly, gauge how your employees are feeling. Boosting morale leads to increased organizational performance and decreases the chance that your top talent will leave.
Engage your employees in dialogue. Soliciting employee input and sugges- tions, via surveys, can proactively engage employees in problem solving. When conducted correctly, these sur- veys provide a unique source of infor-
mation to help managers focus on and prioritize action-plan items. Best-in- class organizations actively involve teams of employees in this process.
Strive to build high-performing teams. Their efforts are critical to the success of the organization. Facilitating targeted team-building activities can serve the dual purpose of reenergiz- ing your teams and creating specific action items that align team and orga- nizational goals.
Lead Change, Overcome Fear
One of the biggest barriers to change is fear—including fear of those leading the change. We find that providing lead- ers at all levels with tools for leading change in their organization increases self-confidence, improves morale and accelerates the successful implemen- tation of change efforts. MF
The author thanks Christine Fleis, a consultant with Plante Moran special- izing in talent and organizational devel- opment, for contributing to this article.
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