Existing Process Recruitment Process at Curtin University Curtin University is an Australian University that offers wide range of academic

and research courses to national and international students. The university strives to provide the regional education within the vicinity of Western Australia through its various educational centers that are spread across the national borders including Esperance, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, and Margaret River etc. as well as in Sydney. The university is recognized worldwide for the practicality and the applied nature of the courses offered there. The teaching areas at Curtin University include Aboriginal studies, business studies, health sciences, humanities and Science and engineering. The study centers are managed by the professors, teachers and the faculty at the university. The recruitment and selection of the faculty members hold very important place for any university in terms of excellence, student career advancements etc. The following flow chart represents the current recruitment process applied widely at Curtin University.

Source: Curtin University Website Description

This above flowchart starts when there is a vacant position in the university which is advertised in the newspapers with the predefined criteria of the required candidate who must meet with the position requirements at the time of application. After when the applications are received, the HR department at Curtin University conduct the screening of the applications and jot down the list of candidates that are further to be called for the interviews. Referrals of the short listed candidates are then checked by the Human Resource Department and final candidates are notified of their selection. The HR department sends appointment letters to the selected candidates specifying further requirements and the related information like the job placement location, pay scale, and job follow up meetings etc. The time period required for the completion of the entire recruitment process involves two to three months or may be more depending on the job requirements and the university selection policies. Process Improvement This above mentioned process can be improved by communicating the recruitment policies via advertisements and the online sources like the university website for saving the time and resources. Moreover, strictly specifying the requirements for the vacant posts on the job advertisements and the online sources will help improve the recruitment process of the university in terms of less time required for hiring the right candidate. Limiting the requirements will decrease the number of applications for the vacancy to the number of candidates that will deem fit for the advertised job(s). Likewise, the university can also cut the advertising expenses by hiring the professors or faculty through internal recruitment process, agency services, online advertisements etc. These methods will improve the level of resources spent by the university at the time of vacancy announcement. Furthermore, these methods will also improve the recruitment process and the time spent at entire process. Similarly, the university can also improve their recruitment system by using the testing system which can be evaluated by the external evaluators and/or the computerized testing system. These tests will scrutinize the eligible and the capable people for the further recruitment process. Revised Flow Chart: Recruitment Process

Explanation: this revised process starts at the announcement of vacancy which is followed by the preparation and publishing of advertisements for different media by HR team. The resumes

are collected by HR team and the scrutinized candidates are invited for the external evaluation: tests systems by the organization. The candidates that pass out the external evaluation procedures are then called for the interview phase. Next to this stage is short listing the candidates for final selection. The referrals are then checked and appointment letters are issued with the follow up meetings. Analysis of Recent Business Improvement There are various business process improvement techniques employed by the organizations working in the various industries depending on their business scenarios. The recent article on the use of Six Sigma by the Xerox Company showed intriguing results to the other organizations and the people out there in the industry. Six Sigma strategies were first employed by Motorola Inc. but there lies dispute between Motorola and General Electric upon first employing these business improvement strategies. No matter which company employed it first, both the companies have earned and saved billions of dollars by using these theories all over their business units. The basic function of this concept is to understand all the business processes to improve the organizational capabilities by removing the bottle necks and process defects to provide better quality to the customers (Besterfield et al, 2006). By the application of this mighty concept, I have come to understand that the main focus of the company is growth in the worldwide industries. The company has now installed the lean Six Sigma strategies in its business units all over Europe. This transformation of structure has given the company operational excellence. The company has shifted its business process and the way of doing things by focusing more on customers, giving value to them, and thinking from the customers perspective by reducing the complex process and increased velocity. All this was made possible only with the help of Six Sigma concepts as well as by employing change at all the levels of the organization which was possible only with the help of process understanding and employee engagement. This process of lean thinking is the main entity behind their current success in the markets. This lean thinking will help the company wi.th acceleration, accuracy, responsiveness and simplicity.

References Besterfield, D. H, Besterfield, C., Besterfield, G., and Besterfield, M. (2006) Total Quality Management, 7 edition, India: Pearson Education Curtin University (2011) About Us, retrieved on July 26, 2011 from http://about.curtin.edu.au/ (2011) Recruitment Process, retrieved on July 26,2011 from http://hr.curtin.edu.au/recruitment_process.cfm Winsor, H. (2011) Extending Lean Six Sigma Across the Business - Interview with Mark Stewart from Xerox, retrieved on July 26, 2011 from http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/processmanagement/articles/interview-with-mark-stewart-from-xerox/

Appendix: Business Article

Extending Lean Six Sigma Across the Business - Interview with Mark Stewart from Xerox
Contributor: Helen Winsor Posted: 07/22/2011 12:00:00 AM EDT | 0 Rate this Article: (Be the First!) 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 Share this content:

Tags: Xerox | Mark Stewart | Lean | Six Sigma | Qwiksolver | Process Management
Top of Form

En
Bottom of Form

We have more tools to analyse problems than to make change happen, says Mark Stewart, Lean Six Sigma Deployment Leader at Xerox Europe. In this PEX Network interview, Stewart discusses the imperatives for rolling Lean culture out across the business and extending Lean Six Sigma beyond the normal boundaries of belts and projects.
PEX Network: As a company that has been deploying both Lean and Six Sigma for a number of years, why is Lean currently front of mind? And what value is it driving for the business?

M Stewart: Our first and foremost challenge is growth we need to grow more rapidly, defining and delivering industry leading products and services. We must transform our infrastructure into a world class platform for operational excellence. To meet these challenges we must go beyond training belts and conducting projects our future focus will be on transforming our business processes and our culture to achieve process excellence through 1) Focussing on our Customers 2) Creating Innovative Value 3) Thinking End to End 4) Reducing complexity and 5) Increasing Velocity. We feel that Change Management is required and not just improvement. For these reasons Lean is currently front of mind. Lean thinking helps us more with acceleration, speed, response and simplicity.

PEX Network: Its recognised that Lean needs to be tailored to fit with the organisational structure and culture. What approach have you taken to Lean deployment to fit with the 'Xerox' culture?

M Stewart: We recognise that after 8 years of Lean Six Sigma deployment globally, we have more tools to analyse problems than to make change happen. We also realise that after all this time and investment Lean Six Sigma has only really involved 25% of employees those that have been trained or are on projects to make LSS truly part of our culture we need to involve all employees and hence we have invented a simple form of Lean Six Sigma called QwikSolver TM that we are rolling out to all employees over the next 30 months. Xerox has had good success in the past with a problem solving process directed to all employees and we are bringing this back strongly. QwikSolver is more about Lean than Six Sigma and among its benefits is that it gives rapid results. INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT THIS TOPIC?
Learn Lean Leadership Techniques at PEX Benelux

Install Lean competency across your organisation through functional standard leadership, securing enterprise-wide compliance to bring about a culture of continuous improvement. Join PEX Network 26-28 October at Process Excellence Forum Benelux in Amsterdam.

PEX Network: Often companies that have driven Process Excellence for a number of year find it hard to sustain the gains. What has your experience of this been? And what advice would you have for those looking to capture that next one percent?

M Stewart: Xerox has bought in a new Lean Six Sigma Leader who has given us fresh ideas, built upon our current strengths and with our most senior leaders is putting even more emphasis on driving Lean Six Sigma truly as part of our culture and are firmly committed to fully leveraging its power to meet the many challenges we face today. My advice would be to refresh your approach with creative new ideas, continue to build upon the best that you have achieved and keep driving it hard from the top level. Never stop that or else it will die.
PEX Network: One of the things you have been focusing on in Xerox is engaging the entire business in Lean. Why do you think traditionally this is so difficult? And is 100% engagement actually realistic?

M Stewart: Traditionally, and when Xerox was first sold Lean Six Sigma, it was about Black Belts and Green Belts and projects for improvement, we now realise that there is a piece above this and below this. The piece above is pervasive use of LSS by senior management for delivering their strategies and tactics and below is to harness the power by getting all employees involved with Lean Six Sigma. We firmly believe 100% engagement is realistic.
PEX Network: On a personal level - what one piece of advice would you give to other lean Leaders if you were to start the journey all over again?

M Stewart: Strongly think and have plans for the Change Management to engage any employees at any level to make the initiative work, you must drive for behaviour change. Those who do this best will get the best results. Transcript based the podcast How to Create a Culture of Lean Process Improvement.