If Quality is so Important – Let's talk about Your People

If you are a long-term reader of our blog you will know that one of the things that we continually talk about is your organisational values and how you reflect these in everyday operations, how you live those values. So, what has this got to do with Quality? Well, let me ask you how many times do you see Quality in an organisations value list? Their commitment to quality, they believe in Quality. They also extol their commitment to Quality in their Quality Policy for their ISO9001 Certification.

OK, so they feel quality is important, still don't see an issue, right? The thing is the quality that everyone is extolling is about their actual product or service, what about their people? Let me Explain a little more. 

Hiring and keeping only the Right Quality of People

When I ask about the how their quality systems and values work with an organisation's people, I tend to get either a blank stare or discussions about how they ensure that their people are aware of the quality requirements of there organisation.

What I'm actually asking is how do you make sure that the people you hire are of the right quality in terms of skills, attitude or behaviours that will fit your organisation and where you want to take it, how will they help grow your organisation, the other people?

How does your HR system screen out people who are not going to be a fit for your organisation at the application stage? For those already within the organisation how do your systems help them adjust and if need be, move on? How do you ensure that only the right Quality of Person is in your organisation?

Developing Your People

As an organisation how do you ensure that the quality of your people's skills are maintained and grown? Do you have a skills matrix and a development plan for your people? Do you train them for the job they have and their next job? Or will you only train them for that if they go there and so waste time and put them under undue stress while they 'get up to speed' in the new role? I'm keen to understand how that impacts the Quality of their work, of their colleague's work, of your product or service.

How much is the training and development budget? It's normally one of the smallest budgets of any department and always the 1^st one to get trimmed in 'hard times' exactly when you should be investing in people. If quality is important to you then the quality of the skills of your employees must be important, that means you have to support them in developing and maintaining those skills.

Quality Starts With People

Quality starts with people, the rights people! If you want to build a quality product or service you need quality processes that are developed, followed and updated when a better process or design is found. When you have an issue, when you have a batch of non-conforming product or a customer isn't getting the service, they should it falls back to one thing, your people. Everything in your organisation relies on your people. If you let people into your organisation that aren't aligned to your real values (not the platitudes that too many organisations put up on the wall or the handbook), if they are not trained on going for their current and future roles, if you don't screen out people who just will never deliver a quality experience for you employees or customers then guess what? You don't have Quality in your organisation, you have a veneer that everyone will see through and that leads to a whole other range of challenges.

If quality is really important to you then you need to start in only 1 place within the organisation, your people.

Get In Touch

If you need any support in developing or improving your meetings then click here to make an appointment and find out how we can help you Make Things, Better

You can also call John on 0211649739 to set up a meeting