The WAC Files

Human Resources Management: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

What differentiates a good HR department from a not-so-good HR department? I asked Arlie Skory, Human Resources Specialist from Skory Employer Solutions, what she thought were the keys to a successful Human Resources Management Department in an organization.

Arlie suggested that developing the art of compromise was one of the most critical skills a Human Resource Manager  could develop. "As an HR professional, your responsibilities span many areas in the corporation. Representing management and employees naturally leads to situations where this skill comes into play." Employees need to make sure that their colleagues in other disciplines respect their point of view, but know that the best decision for an organization may involve a compromise between many disciplines for the best functioning organization.

"Businesses need a partner, not an iconoclast in the role of an "enforcer".  Be an advocate and advisor for your discipline, but remain a part of the team" said Arlie Skory.

I did a little more research on successful HR departments, and found some great insight in The HR Daily Advisor . In one of their blog posts they outlined nine skills they felt were essential skills an HR manager must have to be successful on the job.

Here is a summary of the Human Resource Manager's skills for success:

Organization - Human Resources management requires an orderly approach.

Multitasking - Priorities and business needs move fast and change fast. You must be able to handle it all, all at once.

Discretion and Business Ethics - Human Resources professionals are the conscience of the company, as well as the keepers of confidential information. As you serve the needs of top management, you also monitor officers’ approaches to employees to ensure proper ethics are observed.

Dual Focus - HR professionals need to consider the needs of both employees and management.

Employee Trust - Employees expect Human Resources professionals to advocate for their concerns, yet you must also enforce top management’s policies.

Fairness - Successful HR professionals demonstrate fairness. This means that communication is clear, that peoples’ voices are heard, that laws and policies are followed, and that privacy and respect is maintained.

Dedication to Continuous Improvement - HR professionals need to help managers coach and develop their employees. The goal is continued improvement and innovation as well as remediation.

Strategic Orientation - Forward-thinking HR professionals take a leadership role and influence management’s strategic path.

Team Orientation - HR managers must understand team dynamics and find ways to bring disparate personalities together and make the team work.

In my opinion good communication skills and being transparent in your interactions will build trust among employees and prove to be an important key to success in any department in the organization.

Now that we have discussed skills for success in an HR Department lets take a look at a few telltale signs of Bad HR department practices

• Gossiping - Since the HR department has access to employees' personal information, it is important to maintain an atmosphere of confidentiality and trust in the HR department. Gossiping about personal employee information will be the fastest way to break employee trust.
• Not creating clear policies - This is where an employee handbook comes 'handy'. Failure to provide clear policies for employees will create a lot of confusion and miscommunication between employer and employees.
• Playing Favorites - This speaks for itself. Once again employee trust will be broken and the HR Manager's role will be greatlay diminished.
• Too many rules - While it is good to have clear policies and procedures, the flip side is having too many rules which can make employees feel restricted.
• Shyness to obtain feedback: Unless management is prepared to receive and analyze employees' feed back, the end-result could be lower productivity and increasing disharmony.

Are you an HR Manager? What would you add as a key to success or failure for the HR Manager or the HR Department? To sign up for more HR news, articles or webinars please join our mailing list.

Selecting ERP software for midsized enterprises. Eight steps to create an ERP software implementation strategy.

Creating an ERP systems implementation strategy can be time consuming and expensive. The space for midmarket ERP offerings is crowded and very competitive. Differentiating between ERP systems is not easy because the differences tend to be in the ERP modules shared by most mid-market ERP solutions: BI, CRM, Financial management, HR, manufacturing operations and Supply Chain Management.

So how does a company go about creating their ERP strategy? Inside-ERP.com in their whitepaper, ‘Mid-Market ERP Solutions Buyers Guide’, outlines a checklist for businesses evaluating software Mid-market ERP solutions to accomplish their ERP strategy.

We have summarized this checklist for you, and added our thoughts to assist you in defining the ERP strategy for your business.

If you are in the process of evaluating ERP software for your business, we encourage you to download our free whitepaper on ‘Five Steps to Consider When Evaluating Accounting Software.’

The basic checklist to keep in mind when evaluating a mid-market ERP system comprises of eight steps:

1. Are the top business executives involved in the ERP implementation and selection project? Are they part of developing the ERP strategy for the business which means being involved in the research, planning phases of implementation and measuring results of ERP implementation?
2. Identify the person responsible for managing all the key people in the different departments who will be responsible for measuring the business benefits relevant to their department’s ERP modules? The IT department cannot be solely responsible for defining the factors that define a successful ERP implementation.
3. Define and prioritize the specific business problems you want to solve with ERP system? For instance, do you need to shorten product lead times or improve communications with your suppliers? Are there industry regulations your company must adhere to? What would the value of solving these issues mean for your business?
4. What features and functions do you want in a new ERP solution that will help increase users’ productivity and provide access to the business data users most need? What would the value be to your business to have this functionality?
5. Do you have quantifiable goals in place to measure the business benefits of your organization’s new ERP solution? A good starting point for these metrics are the KPIs — such as inventory accuracy, cost reductions and month-end closing processes — that your company is already tracking.
6. Does the prospective ERP solution vendor have a long-term technology road-map for the product? You want to make sure that the product is not old and out-of-date. Carefully evaluate your options and make sure you select an ERP system that has a good track record of being updated and staying current with the innovation in the ERP marketplace.
7. Which users across your organization will need to be trained on the new system? Do you have change agents involved in the ERP needs analysis process? Have you thought about the changes that will result throughout the organization as a result of the ERP implementation, and how to manage that change? Change agents will be crucial in promoting the business benefits of the ERP implementation throughout the organization.
8. Is the ERP package scalable and able to easily handle changes in your business as your company grows?

For more information on ERP implementation strategies subscribe to our blog. Check out the ERP systems on our website, or call us if you have more questions. Leave your comments on whether you found this post helpful and what steps you would add to this checklist.

Need a warehouse management strategy? 8 steps you should consider

We've seen great and not-so-great warehouse deployment projects in our lifetime, understandably as these are complex projects. And of course we have our own suggestions for how a manufacturing company, or a distributor, should go about it. But we wanted to get a broader view of this topic, and so we posted a warehouse strategy question on LinkedIn.

We heard from several industry veterans, who shared with us their recommendations.  Here's a summary of these responses:

(For more details on each, visit the LinkedIn answer section.)

• What is your budget? Your budget will help define the length and breadth of your strategy.
• What's in your warehouse?
• How long is your supply chain?
• What terms are you offering clients? Think through your shipping and RMA process.
• What's the unthinkable that you can think of? Always have a contingency plan in place.
• Consider WAAS as an option: WAAS (Warehouse As A Service). If you store taxed or dutied goods at a licensed warehouse you pay import duties only when it leaves the third party US facility.
• Why do you need a warehouse? Is it to cross dock, is it to create hubs and spokes, is it to centralize storage?
• Actual operational layout of the warehouse plus what system you are going to use to manage the warehousing process.

If you are currently evaluating warehouse management systems or would like to talk to someone to support your warehouse strategy, download our whitepaper: How to Choose a WMS System?

For other industry resources on warehousing strategy visit these websites below:

Supply Chain Brain

Logistics World

Modern Materials Handling

Supply Chain Digest

Download our whitepaper on warehouse management systems evaluation process now.

"Reducing operation costs " no longer the top priority per Gartner & SCDigest survey - Do you agree?

Gartner and SCDigest recently published their Supply Chain Study survey , covering a number of supply chain issues and trends.

The third annual survey shows for the first time that “reducing operating costs” is not the #1 imperative of supply chain initiatives. Granted, it's still #2, with the top spot taken by "improving efficiency and/or productivity", up from the fourth spot in 2009.

The survey predicts that the #1 driver for 2012 will be 'supporting company growth'.

John Westerveld, from the 21st Century Supply chain, in his blog article makes an interesting comment: The real question is whether this expectation from the survey is from the usual appreciation of business cycles that have long been through expansions and contractions? Or is it from a collective impression that things are in fact getting better?"

The study also highlights three barriers to achieving supply chain goals. (These responses are based on the percentage of people that selected their three most important barriers):

• Forecast accuracy/demand variability (59%)
• Supply chain network complexity (42%)
• Lack of internal cross functional collaboration and visibility (39%)

John Westerveld also highlights another research report, PRTM Global Supply Chain Trends Report 2010-2012 (free download with registration). Please check it out for further review.

Here is a chart highlighting the Supply Chain Application Adoption Phase for the survey respondents:

If indeed "supporting company growth" becomes the #1 priority in the upcoming 3 years, it would require urgent action by companies, to ensure that their end to end supply chain network is supported by integrated ERP and warehouse management systems.

In my MBA class, Organizational Change, we learned that change in one area of the organization will have an effect on all the other areas of the organization. This may not seem like such a big deal at first, or at least it didn't in our MBA class at the time, but you learn by experience that when management has to enforce change in the organization it can get quite stressful.

Before implementing a new ERP system or upgrading your  warehouse management system to better manage your supply chain issues, sit down for a planning session, take a good look at your organization as a whole. Make plans about how you will manage change in your organization, get the influencers on board with the plan and then everyone else is likely to follow. Have a contingency plan incase things don't go as forecasted.

It seems that Supply Chain complexity and Forecast accuracy (supply chain barriers addressed above) can be managed with good business management systems, however there is a certain measure of planning that needs to take place for creating cross functional collaboration and visibility within your organization.

What are some issues you see in your organization when it comes to the supply chain? Do you have any comments on the survey results for Supply Chain Barriers? Leave a comment.

If you are considering supply chain systems or ERP systems check out our warehouse management solutions, manufacturing solutions and download our whitepapers to help you with the software evaluation process.

Need software? 3 contrarian steps leading to the right solution

Let me first say upfront that I'm going to turn this process around, and present the solution from our perspective, which is the perspective of the software reseller. My reasons for doing this: to save you time and money.

WAC has been in business for over 20 years, so we've learned a few things along the way. And we've realized that there are really only three steps to helping a business find the right software for their organization:

1. Tell us what you need
2. We'll determine if we can help you
3. If yes, we'll work with you to deliver the solution

Why is this 3-step process so important? Let's examine each one in depth.

Tell us what you need. We'll ask you about the problems you are facing, the budget you're preparing to set aside, and your company's commitment to solve these problems. These three elements are crucial to the successful roll-out of our services.
 
What is a problem? For instance, your customers may be unhappy with your service, you can't track your inventory accurately, or maybe you just aren't making enough of a profit. You may not even know exactly what the problem is, but you do know that something needs to be done. Of course we can't solve all of your problems. But our goal as software consultants is to quickly determine if we have the right expertise to help you.

We'll determine if we can help you. Now think about this for a while, and you'll see how this works to your benefit. We know where our expertise lies, and we can demonstrate that expertise through our customer installations and references. We are not prepared to risk our reputation and track record by moving into areas that we are not fully prepared to support. This means that we are not going to get ourselves educated at your expense. When we work for you, you'll get the benefit of our expertise, and not any learning stages. But we'll help you anyway by referring you to a number of selected businesses and professionals better positioned to help you.

If yes, we'll work with you to develop the solution. This last steps brings us to the point where we now both know exactly the problem that needs to be fixed. This last step is to develop a solution, making sure it fits within your budget. Some problems are easier to solve than others, and the solution can be presented as a sample report, a written analysis, or a product demonstration. Sometimes, it even requires a discussion with one of  our clients or a site visit to see the software solution in action. Once we agree on the solution, the 'real' work can begin.

Why is this process so important?  
 
This process offers a logical progression of steps that allows us to do what we do best: research problems and find a solution that our clients will be thrilled with, on time and on budget. So if you're in the market for a software solution, give us a call.

Quality Management, Compliance - Options or Requirements?

Ask Mike Malone of J. R. Stephenson, and he will tell you that installing the uniPoint Continuous Improvement Suite was pure genius. The company discovered that they were spending $6,000 per month, or $72,000 per year in quality costs that they had no way to track before. "A small improvement in these areas helped us pay for the software many times over, and in a few months." said Mike Malone, who is Quality Manager at J.R. Stephenson

Success stories like this one are the reason why we are inviting you to join us for our upcoming webinar, 'How to Manage a Lean Quality Compliant Process', on July 14th at 2pm ET.

We have retained Jill Tersteeg, quality standard compliance expert from uniPoint Software, to share her expertise in quality and lean processes, and to discuss the business value organizations can derive from a quality compliance process.

Why should you attend? If you want to:

• Get away from tracking costs on spreadsheets
• Eliminate manual tracking of continuous improvement processes
• Learn how to change your quality department cost center into a measurable cost-savings center
• Discover the business value of quality management software
• Find out how hundreds of companies are using uniPoint software as a 'good manufacturing practices' or best practices tool for their organization. (Even if you are not considering a quality standard certification)
• Learn more about cost effectively controlling your internal processes, and leveraging a lean quality compliance process for your business.

then this webinar will give you the tools to gauge the applicability of these applications to your operations.

Webinar Details:

Title: How to Manage a Lean Quality Compliant Process

Date: Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT

Register for webinar now

Homework (well, you don't have to read this first, but if you do, you'll be glad you did!):'Five Guidelines to Adopt Basic Elements of Quality Control' Download whitepaper

 

WMS Software Checklist - don't start an upgrade without it!

Here's a great tool for you to use before you get started on an upgrade project for your warehouse management system (WMS). And certainly you should use it if you are planning an implementation from scratch.

The whole idea behind our wms checklist is to give you categories to ponder and to add to, based on your particular situation. 

Could you also use suggestions for how to divide up your planning schedule? Here's a five-step process that we have used with our clients, and it seems to help because it also allows companies to identify the right staff for each step:

Preplanning

This includes a review of your current system's capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses, as well as the initial list of what you want to do with your new system, but were unable to do with your old system (use our checklist for this stage!)

Intelligence gathering

Information is critical to sound decision-making. The more thorough you are in the information gathering process now for the various systems being considered, the greater the benefits in the long run. We published a guide to evaluating a WMS system, to help with the the WMS systems evaluation process, here's the link again.

Analysis

You'll need to carefully review the information you gathered, so that you can make a sound decision. Make sure to include actual system demonstrations, vists to businesses with the WMS solution already installed, and perhaps even a visit to the vendor's headquarters.

Implementation

Once a WMS solution has been chosen, implementation should begin. This may last weeks or months, and include data conversion, user training and other elements. Since we've done hundreds of implementations, this is something we've become really good at. And if we had only one recommendation, it's to allocate sufficient resources on your end to ensure a smooth and speedy process.

Post-implementation review

This step includes the ongoing monitoring and reviewing of the system. Is it performing as expected? What elements need to be modified, changed, or customized? What optional elements can be added to further enhance system performance?

When done, make sure to benchmark your new wms carefully and to compare it against the old system. Keep benchmarking in order to put employee incentives in place for instance, or to compare your results against industry averages, and to set targets for coming years.

We hope you find this list helpful. Start by downloading our WMS evaluation guide. For more immediate help with the evaluation process, please fill out our contact form for WAC Consulting Group or call us directly at 508-393-7731.

 

"How to manage a lean quality compliant process" Register now.

"Using the uniPoint Continuous Improvement Suite, we discovered that we were spending $6,000 per month, or $72,000 per year in quality costs that we had no way to track before. A small improvement in these areas helped us pay for the software many times over, and in a few months." - Mike Malone, Quality Manager, J.R. Stephenson

Success stories like this one are the reason why we are inviting you to join us for our upcoming webinar, 'How to Manage a Lean Quality Compliant Process', on June 16th at 2pm ET.

We have retained Dean Antonakes, president of uniPoint software and Jill  Tersteeg, quality standard compliance expert from uniPoint Software, to share their expertise in quality and lean processes, and to discuss the business value organizations can derive from a quality compliance process. 

If you are investigating best practices in your distribution or manufacturing processes, or are considering getting certified for a quality standard, we invite you to join us for this free webinar.

• Get away from tracking costs on spreadsheets
• Eliminate manual tracking of continuous improvement processes
• Learn how to change your quality department cost center into a measurable cost-savings center
• Discover the business value of quality management software
• Find out how hundreds of companies are using uniPoint software as a 'good manufacturing practices' or best practices tool for their organization. (Even if you are not considering a quality standard certification)

Register now to learn more about cost effectively controlling your internal processes, and leveraging a lean quality compliance process for your business.

Webinar Details:  

Title: How to Manage a Lean Quality Compliant Process

Date: Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT

Speaker: Dean Antonakes, president of uniPoint software nand quality standard compliance expert.

Register for webinar now

'Minimum requirements to qualify your quality system' Download whitepaper

View 5 minute demo of uniPoint software

Read more about uniPoint software

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

The HR compliance regulations you should be aware of

Government regulations in the HR arena are increasingly posing threats to midsized businesses. Unfortunately many of these businesses are not aware of the regulations they should be complying with. You definitely would not want to find out that you were non-compliant the hard way, i.e. through imposed fines, or an employee lawsuit. While the following is not a comprehensive list, use the list as a starting point to determine if you should explore an HRMS.

Mistakes can lead to penalties and fines from the government, as well as expose your company to risk of costly employee lawsuits. An HRMS will help you determine which employment laws apply to your company and track the necessary information to comply with record keeping requirements. Regular legislative and compliance updates from your HRMS vendor help keep your organization in compliance with changing tax and employment laws.

• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - Prohibits employers from discriminating against persons with disabilities.
• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, or nationality.
• Equal Employment Opportunity Act (EEO) - Sets reporting and record keeping requirements for employers to demonstrate compliance with EEO
• Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) - Requires employers to maintain records of employment and earnings.
• Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) - Requires documentation to track employee FMLA requests.
• Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) - Requires employers to maintain records for all workplace accidents, injuries, and illnesses.
• Equal Pay Act - Prohibits sexual discrimination in compensation.
• Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) - Prohibits age-based discrimination towards workers or applicants over the age of 40.
• Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) - Requires record keeping and reporting of timely payments for unemployment taxes.
• Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) - Mandates reporting and payment of payroll tax for Social Security and Medicare.

 

Most of the regulations above involve significant reporting requirements. An HRMS will help you determine which employment laws apply to your company and track the necessary information to comply with record keeping requirements. And it will reduce the cost of compliance and risks associated with increasingly complex and burdensome regulations, including the avoidance of fines, penalties, and costly litigation.

 

How can CRM software help deliver the 'wow factor' to your customers?

For many businesses, wowing customers has moved to the forefront of their strategic objectives, focusing primarily on customer service from order taking through delivery and support.  

Which is good, but is far from being all that needs to be done. 

Delivering excellent customer service must become an integral part of all customer interactions, regardless of the entry point.   Many tools can help you improve the customer service experience, but before you get started, define what you want and which tool is the right one for your business. In this case, it is critical to define technology's role before, during, and after the customer experience 

As you evaluate different technology ask yourself these questions, is the technology in alignment with the vision and mission of my company? Will it support the existing structure of my business?

There are three CRM initiative levels to consider - operational, analytical and strategic

Operational CRM focuses on improved customer service, customer data capturing, building your customer database and customer relationships.

Analytical CRM seeks to combine all the pieces together in the CRM system to provide a powerful resource for analysis. Integrating your CRM system with the ERP software can provide a solid infrastructure for customer knowledge and targeted marketing communications and offers.

Strategic CRM reflects a shift in focusing efforts on customer value, competitive differentiation, market segmentation and strategic brand positioning.

A strategic CRM system would offer you deeper insight into your customer and challenge some of your underlying assumptions. For example, just because a customer was profitable in the past doesn't mean they will be profitable in the future.

Which CRM level is right for you? Download our guide, "52 Questions You Must Ask When Evaluating CRM Software" and get started.