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Case Study
Case Study
Processes – Part 1 of 2
Niraj Goyal and Meghana Lama3
In this case study, a team strives to improve the recruiting process in a large, fast-moving consumer goods company.
Part 1 focuses on reducing the recruiting cycle time. Part 2 focuses on decreasing the effort required to fill a job
opening.
Rising attrition is a common problem across industries. Tight monthly, quarterly and annual objectives leave little
room for error when it comes to having the required manpower being available consistently. Unwanted attrition results
in two significant challenges for human resources (HR) teams. They must work to continuously:
1. Decrease cycle time to fill a job opening.
2. Decrease the effort required for a successful recruitment.
The case described here uses total quality management (TQM) to address these problems in a large, fast-moving
consumer goods company in India. (Note: The details of the process have been condensed and modified for the sake
of confidentiality and easy of storytelling.)
A two-day quality awareness program introduced the cross-functional project team members to TQM (including just-
in-time [JIT], total quality control [TQC] and total employee involvement [TEI]). Fortnightly meetings then started to
address the problem at hand through the seven steps of problem solving:
To measure the current state (problem = desired state – current state) of cycle time data, an overview of past
recruitments was pulled.
Average cycle time (A) 64 days
Standard deviation (σ) 52 days
A + 3σ 219 days
The team members agreed (after heated discussion) that they would be happy with the result if they could reduce the
current state of A + 3σ of 219 days to 45 days – an aggressive 80 percent reduction target.
Steps 2 and 3: Research the Causes/Generate
Countermeasure Ideas
In JIT problems, the process of improvement typically involves the following three steps:
1. Reduce waiting time (typically 50 percent to 70 percent of cycle time) between finish of one activity and start of the
next activity, and
2. Eliminate NVA activities – activities that add time to the process but no value.
Next the team turned to reducing NVA activities and rework. Looking at the activities in the existing process revealed
that not finding enough suitable candidates was a recurring problem. The effectiveness and breadth of the initial
candidate search was enhanced to avoid rework. This led to the elimination of seven out of the 29 steps in Table 3.
The now 22-step process is shown in Table 4.
Testing this idea was achieved by treating one recruitment as a special case and ensuring the minimum waiting time
through the process. Team members recorded how long each step took to complete.
The test recruitment took 18 days compared to 33 days originally. Two further recruitment test cases took six days
each.