Case Study Report

CHAPTER 13

Case Study 1

Training and Development

Now let us put all the pieces together by stepping through a complete BPI project that I completed for a major bank I call BB&Z. We have all read stories about how someone lost weight, climbed a difficult mountain, or ran a marathon. If you are like me, you find them inspiring because reading what others went through helps me realize that I can do things I might previously have thought were impossible. I chose this case because it introduces several new bends in the road and demonstrates how you can adapt the ten steps to any situation. As we move through the study, you can reference the previous chapters in this book for clarification or for additional details. Hopefully, this case study motivates you and jump-starts you on your own road to improving business processes.

BACKGROUND

Pam Borzak, senior vice president of human resources for BB&Z, called me for help with improving the business processes in her organization. As a result of that call, I spent the next year tackling each business process within her departments. Because Pam had responsibility for all the human resource functions, we decided to start her process inventory at the department level to decide which of the human resource departments we should start with first.

STEP 1: DEVELOP THE PROCESS INVENTORY

In  Chapter 2 , we built the business process inventory, created prioritization criteria, applied the criteria to each process, and created a process prioritization table that summarized the business processes. We did all that in one table to enable a process-by-process comparison, which then helped us decide where to start our improvement efforts.

I proceeded the same way in Pam’s case, only this time I built the process inventory at her department level and applied the prioritization criteria used in  Chapter 2  to the list of human resource departments. As you recall, the four main categories of prioritization criteria we used in  Chapter 2  are impact, implementation, current state, and value.

I used the same 1–3 scale from  Chapter 2  to keep the scoring simple and did not apply any weighting to the criteria.

Figure 13-1  shows the completed process prioritization table for Pam’s human resource organization. This table shows that we should initially focus on the business processes within training and development (T&D) because that department has the highest total score (20). The high score for T&D resulted from the bank’s ongoing acquisition of other financial institutions through mergers, forcing Pam’s organization to have to continually integrate new employees into the company. You can see that the merger and acquisition focus is the driving force behind all four categories. Looking at the categories across the T&D row in  Figure 13-1  leads to the following observations:

Many employees are affected by the T&D processes (Impact).

It will not take too long or require too much money to make the necessary changes, and the next cycle appears imminent because of an upcoming merger (Implementation).

The T&D processes have an average client satisfaction and pain level (Current State).

If new employees can quickly get immersed in the existing culture, the process will deliver a benefit to the bank (Benefit/Return).

Figure 13-1 BB&Z Process Prioritization Table: Human Resource Functions

Once we decided to start by focusing on training and development, I built the department’s process inventory by listing all the T&D business processes.  Figure 13-2  shows the process prioritization table I created for BB&Z’s T&D department. The figure shows the common business processes one might find in a training and development department, including:

Curriculum Development, which includes designing and developing curricula and courses

Forecasting/Scheduling, which involves estimating student demand and developing a class schedule to meet the demand

Enrollment, which allows students to enroll in a learning event

Delivery, which includes the facilitation of a class, either by an instructor or by alternative methods

Resource Management, which involves securing all materials, equipment, and facilitators required to deliver training

Evaluation, which assesses the impact of training

Budgeting, which tracks all spending

Based on the results of the process prioritization table in  Figure 13-2 , I normally would start with the delivery process because it has the highest score (24), but before moving to the next step, I reviewed the results of this exercise with Pam. I expressed concern that the score given to delivery may be because it is one of the only business processes, besides enrollment, that her clients experience. All other processes reflect the internal workings in the department, not visible to clients.

At this point, a bend in the road occurred in my work with Pam. I encouraged her to think about the lack of client interaction throughout the process, and she agreed not to rush in and start with the delivery process just yet but rather to take a fresh look at how her organization functioned and interfaced with the client. Pam agreed that her key goal was making sure that her organization delivered training that supported the company’s business objectives. As a result of our discussion, we decided to take a high-level look at the training and development process before getting into the details of any single business process.

Figure 13-2 BB&Z Process Prioritization Table: Training and Development Group

The change in direction meant that I had to adjust how we approached step 2, building the foundation. Any change you make along the way subsequently causes other changes down the line as you move through the roadmap, and these changes are perfectly acceptable. In Pam’s case, instead of developing a scope definition document on the delivery process, we created one for the entire training and development process.

The roadmap is a flexible and dynamic tool that provides overall direction on how to perform business process improvement work, and you can adapt it to changing circumstances.

STEP 2: ESTABLISH THE FOUNDATION

In  Chapter 3  we learned that in this step we create the scope definition document to establish the boundaries for the business process, so we can stay on track and avoid scope creep. At this point, you also form the project team, if necessary. Because we chose to look at the end-to-end training and development process, Pam elected to include on the team her training and development director, a delivery manager, an instructor, two instructional designers, one of her training specialists who helped with resource scheduling, and her business manager.

During the initial project team meeting, I walked the group through the roadmap in  Chapter 1  ( Figure 1-1 ) so they could see the steps we would go through and provide them with an opportunity to ask questions. Pam joined us for the first 15 minutes of the initial team meeting.

After reviewing the objectives of business process improvement, covered in  Chapter 1 , and answering the project team’s questions, we moved on to setting the foundation for our work. All team members had a copy of the blank scope definition document so they could see the information we would discuss. I kept track of the team’s conversation on an electronic dry-erase board so everyone could see the results of our conversation.  Figure 13-3  shows the completed scope definition document the team created for the training and development process.

A look at the scope definition document tells us a great deal. We can see where the project team decided to start and end the process by reading the Scope (boundaries) section. It starts when Pam’s organization works with the Finance department to establish T&D’s annual budget and ends when Pam’s management team reviews the annual summary of course evaluation results.

While reviewing the scope definition document with Pam after the first meeting, we made a few changes. Pam wanted to make it explicit that, going forward, business goals will drive where she invests her budget and she wanted to add another measurement of success related to return on investment. As a result, I added another sentence to the description stating that business goals drive training investments and a fifth measurement to show a linkage between the business goals and training.  Figure 13-4 shows the updated scope definition document with these two additions (updated Description and a new Measurement of success).

At the second project team meeting, I reviewed the formatted scope definition document with the team and highlighted the changes that Pam and I made to the Description and Measurements of success. Because this is the first time the team sees the document typed, it seems more formal, and you should feel comfortable making edits. At our meeting, the team expressed concern over how to measure the linkage of training to business goals. I urged them to wait and discuss the how when we moved to step 7 on the roadmap, which addresses establishing metrics. This kept the team from veering off course. As side questions emerge in the meetings, refer to the roadmap to show how you will address a question at a later time. This assures participants that you heard them and you will not overlook their concerns.

Once the project team felt comfortable with the scope definition document, we moved to step 3 and began drawing the process map.

Figure 13-3 BB&Z Preliminary Scope Definition Document

Figure 13-4 BB&Z Final Scope Definition Document

STEP 3: DRAW THE PROCESS MAP

As pointed out in  Chapter 4 , drawing the process map in step 3 gives the project team a tool to help them understand the end-to-end business process, shows them where handoffs occur between departments, and provides a background to apply the improvement techniques in step 6.

You may recall that, in this step, you decide whether to draw a standard or cross-functional process map, depending on how you plan to use the information, and select the level of detail for the map. You can draw a high-level map or a detailed process map.

In Pam’s case, I decided to draw a high-level process map for three reasons:

1.Her organization had limited shared understanding of the end-to-end business process.

2.The process had numerous subprocesses, making it complex.

3.This level of detail would provide Pam with an overall view of the entire process.

Deciding to start at a high level of detail leads to both positive and negative repercussions for the facilitator. On the one hand, this decision makes it easier to draw the process map because you do not need a detailed level of understanding and you can do so quickly. On the other hand, managing the project team becomes more difficult because part of the team almost always likes to delve into detail. Although you will hear various, reasonable-sounding explanations for the need to go deeper, recognize that the root of team members’ anxiety usually revolves around not seeing their own job reflected in the process map. Your challenge, as the facilitator, becomes keeping everyone grounded and feeling secure.

To draw Pam’s high-level process map, the team met for three hours every week for four weeks to create the two-page, high-level process map shown in  Figures 13-5  and  13-6 . Between meetings, I created and updated the process map using Microsoft Visio.

Figure 13-5 BB&Z Training and Development Process: Process Map (Part 1)

Figure 13-6 BB&Z Training and Development Process: Process Map (Part2)

Notice in these two figures that the process map spans two pages because it did not fit onto a single page; notice how I used the two types of connectors discussed in  Chapter 4  ( Figures 4-26  and  4-27 ). The connector symbols help readers understand how to follow the process map by telling them where to move next. I used the off-page connector in  Figure 13-5  to tell the reader to move to page 2, activity 8, after estimating the annual budget in activity 7. Also notice the off-page connector in  Figure 13-6  entering activity 8, which lets the reader know that this activity comes from a prior page in the process map. After moving to activity 8 on the second page of the process map, the on-page connector in  Figure 13-6  tells readers that, after activities 10 and 11, they move to delivery of the products and services in activity 18 on the same page of the map.

In reviewing  Figures 13-5  and  13-6 , we see that Pam’s process starts after she receives the budget guidelines and timeline from the finance department.  Figure 13-5  shows one way to draw a business process that starts with two activities occurring at the same time after an event enters the process. In Pam’s case, as soon as her team receives the budget guidelines and timeline from finance, the learning consultants collect input from their clients to cover their needs for the next year. Simultaneously, the business analyst gathers historical data from the prior year. In looking at the process map, it becomes apparent, by the addition of the Microsoft Excel icon, that Pam’s team uses a spreadsheet for many of the activities identified, as well as two databases: the demand database (a Microsoft Access database) and their system of record (an Oracle database).

Once finance approves the annual budget in activity 8, the instructional designers begin design work on courses, curriculum, and evaluation strategies. As the instructional designers design and develop the training products throughout the year, the evaluation specialists get involved and create the evaluation tools, and the delivery team identifies the resources required to facilitate the planned training.

Once the delivery team identifies the resources, the resource management team starts evaluating the available resources and secures any additional resources required. Once the resource management team secures the resources, communications can begin to tell employees of the upcoming training schedule. As students enroll and attend training, the evaluation specialists gather the performance data in preparation for the annual review meeting that occurs at the end of every year. Meanwhile, the enrollment specialist updates the system of record to reflect the employees’ completion of training.

Figures 13-5  and  13-6  include many symbols to denote the various tools used to accomplish each activity, and you can include a legend page to explain the meaning of the symbols used, as discussed in  Chapter 4 . The legend page can go at the beginning or end of the map.

In addition to updating the process map between meetings, I spent time documenting the conversation in the detail document, a portion of which is shown in  Figure 13-7 . Remember to document the conversation as you proceed so you do not lose track of the rich dialogue, and include examples when possible.

After drawing the high-level process map and capturing the narrative to accompany the map, the team moved to step 4. We added the process timing to the process map and identified the cost of the business process.

STEP 4: ESTIMATE TIME AND COST

In  Chapter 5 , we discussed process and cycle times and how to use this information to estimate what a process costs. Recall that:

Process time is the time required to complete a single activity in a process.

Cycle time is the time required to complete an entire process, from the first to the last step in a process. Sometimes you hear this called elapsed time.

In  Chapter 5 , I discussed how well estimating works for this step instead of using a formal data-gathering technique. However, when you work with such a high-level process map, as we did in Pam’s case, you will not find the estimate as accurate because you do not have enough detail on all the subprocesses. You should still perform this task, though, because it provides directional information. When you draw a high-level process map, go back and revisit the timing estimates when you move to individual business processes.

Figure 13-7 BB&Z Training and Development Process: Detail Document

During this step, I added process and cycle times to the process map for Pam’s high-level T&D process.  Figures 13-8  and  13-9  show the process and cycle times added to the training and development process map. As in  Chapter 4 , the white clock denotes process time, and the dark clock denotes cycle time.

After adding the process time to Pam’s training and development process map and asking the project team to identify annual volumes, I had the data necessary to complete a high-level estimate of the labor cost for the T&D process. In  Chapter 5 , you learned that calculating the labor cost of a business process entails four components.

PART 1: LIST PROCESS ACTIVITIES AND PROCESS TIME

After the project team completed the estimates for process and cycle time, I transferred the times shown on the process map to the next two tables. I completed this task after the project meeting, during which we identified process time, cycle time, and annual volume.  Figure 13-10  shows the process time estimates for the training and development process, and  Figure 13-11  shows the cycle time estimates.

Both tables include a range in some cases, depicted as the Low End and High End columns, because the team could not settle on a single number.

In these tables, I added a fourth column, Frequency, something I did not include in  Chapter 5 .I did this in Pam’s case because we cannot count every step in the high-level process map the same way. The training and development organization performs the steps in the annual budgeting portion of the process map only once a year, so we cannot count the time consumed by activities 1–8, 13–15, and 21 more than once. However, volume does drive the other activities on the process map. Notice that activity 12, identifying resource needs, has two frequencies because training and development estimates the resource requirements during the annual process and refines them as the instructional designers create the products and services throughout the year.

Figure 13-8 BB&Z Training and Development Process: Process Map with Time Estimates (Part 1)

Figure 13-9 BB&Z Training and Development Process: Process Map with Time Estimates (Part 2)

Figure 13-10 BB&Z Training and Development Process: Process Time Estimates

Since the activities in the process map have different frequencies, we have to reorganize the information from the process and cycle tables by frequency so we can calculate the labor costs.  Figure 13-12 shows a combined view of process and cycle time information organized by the frequency of each activity.

Pam wanted to know how long the annual components of the business process took in days or months, so I translated the hours consumed by the total annual activities in  Figure 13-12  (229.5 and 1,264.0 hours) into days and months using the formula shown in  Figure 13-13 .

Figure 13-11 BB&Z Training and Development Process: Cycle Time Estimates

After performing these calculations, we knew that the annual portion of Pam’s business process consumed 28 ½ days of process time, but it could take as long as five months of cycle time to complete.

Our next step included bringing in volume-related data.

PART 2: IDENTIFY ANNUAL VOLUME

Before we can calculate the volume and associated labor cost for the activities affected by volume, we must first separate the two volume categories (by course and by transaction) by the type of employees who do the work because these employees have different rates of pay. In  Chapter 5 , I used an intentionally simple process, the recognition bonus award process, and included only one compensation employee type, but in Pam’s case, five types of employees affect the volume calculation:

Figure 13-12 BB&Z Training and Development Process: Process and Cycle Time Estimates

Figure 13-13 Calculating Total Process and Cycle Times in Days or Months

1.Instructional designers

2.Evaluation specialists

3.Learning consultants

4.Instructors

5.Enrollment specialists

To incorporate these employee types into the calculation,  Figure 13-14  shows the employee type that delivers the training and development activities added to the table. Notice that this new table shows only the process time for volume-related activities since, moving forward, we only care about this information. The new concept you should notice in this table is that one employee type can perform different activities. For example, the evaluation specialist develops evaluation tools (11) and collects performance data (19).

Next, I had to merge activities performed by one employee type into a single row to get us ready to incorporate the volume component. In  Figure 13-15 , I added the 60 hours that the instructional designers spend designing each course (9) to the 120 hours they spend developing the course (10), giving the instructional designer a 180-hour total in  Figure 13-15 . From a labor perspective,  Figure 13-15  tells us that:

Instructional designers require 180 hours, on average, for every course they develop.

Figure 13-14 BB&Z Training and Development Process: Employee Type and Process Time Estimates for Volume-Related Activities

Figure 13-15 BB&Z Training and Development Process: Process Time Estimates by Employee Type

Evaluation specialists require 34 hours per course.

Instructors require 9.5 hours.

Learning consultants require 10 hours for this part of the process.

Enrollment specialists require 0.28 of an hour for every transaction.

Now that I knew how much time each instance of an activity took and who performed the work, I had to determine the annual labor required for each employee type. To perform this calculation, I had to identify the yearly volume.  Figure 13-16  shows the volume listed in the Annual Volume column, which shows that, every year, the training and development organization:

Designed and developed about 30 new courses.

Delivered 1,000 classes.

Had a total of 25,000 students attend classes.

Figure 13-16 BB&Z Training and Development Process: Labor and Labor Estimates

Notice that the annual volume for the learning consultant shows 130, instead of just 30, because this employee not only communicates the 30 new products and services developed, but also markets the ongoing calendar of almost 100 products and services.

The last column in  Figure 13-16  shows the Annual Labor calculation, which I derived by multiplying the process time by the annual volume that Pam’s team gave me, to arrive at the annual labor hours. So now we know that the instructional designers, for example, require 5,400 hours a year to perform their job.

Next, we had to determine how many employees the 5,400 hours equate to, using the full-time equivalent formula (FTE) discussed in  Chapter 5 .

PART 3: DETERMINE THE FTE FORMULA

The FTE number denotes the total number of hours that an employee can be paid for in a work year. So, if an employee works 40 hours in a week and we multiply that number by 52 weeks, we get 2,080 hours, a starting point for the FTE formula. However, I could not simply use 2,080 hours in the labor calculation because I had to deduct vacation, sick, and holiday hours available to an employee, as explained in  Chapter 5  ( Figure 5-8 ).

I used 1,880 as the labor calculation number to apply to the annual labor hours from  Figure 13-16 . You can see the formula I used to perform this calculation in  Figure 13-17 , using the instructional designer’s 5,400 hours as the example.

Figure 13-17 FTE Calculation

So now we know that Pam requires three instructional designers to handle the level of work in the training and development organization. I then went on and performed the same calculation on Pam’s other employee types, and the table in  Figure 13-18  shows the result of this calculation on the five employee types.

Figure 13-18 BB&Z Training and Development Process: Labor Process Time Estimates

At this point, we know that the training and development process requires about 13 employees to support the development and delivery of training. However, remember that we created this process map at a high level and I did not include the annual component of the process in the labor estimate. I also did not include other day-to-day tasks that Pam’s organization must perform to keep the business running. Because Pam wanted only a high-level estimate, we agreed to revisit the labor estimates after we completed the improvement phase.

The next step is normally to introduce the employee salaries into the mix.

PART 4: DETERMINE EMPLOYEE COSTS

In Pam’s case, we did not calculate the employee costs, even though we had the necessary information. I recommended we wait to perform the employee cost calculations until after we finished our work because creating the process map at such a high level would guarantee changes in the estimates.

To calculate the employee costs, follow the process outlined in  Chapter 5 . Start by identifying the pay rate for each employee type, and add an employee benefit rate (EB rate) to each salary. For example, we could say the instructional designers earn $80,000 a year, that Pam’s company uses a 30 percent EB rate, and that the designers dedicate 100 percent of their time to design and development activities.

These numbers show that each instructional designer costs Pam about $104,000 a year. Even though Pam wanted to move to the improvement phase, we had one additional step to complete.

STEP 5: VERIFY THE PROCESS MAP

Before moving to the improvement phase, we did a quick check-in with Pam’s managers to test whether we had captured the big pieces of work and used the right volume numbers. We completed this task at her weekly staff meeting and made minor changes to the volume numbers.

STEP 6: APPLY IMPROVEMENT TECHNIQUES

Chapter 6 covered how to use six techniques to improve a business process, including eliminating bureaucracy, evaluating value-added activities, eliminating duplication and redundancy, simplifying the process/reports/forms used, reducing cycle time, and applying automation tools.

I began this step by discussing what happens in activity 1 with the project team, to find places where we could reduce bureaucracy. As the conversation progressed to the value-added technique, we found few value-added activities. I asked why gathering client requests occurred only once a year. The more the team talked, the more they came to realize that activity 1 appeared to be the only activity in the entirebusiness process where the client interacted with the process. The team became more and more concerned about the limited interaction their clients had with the business process.

As we talked about their clients and what their clients wanted from the process, the project team began doubting whether they truly understood their client needs. Going back to the scope definition document the team completed earlier, they thought their clients cared about their employees’ ability to perform on the job, quick turnaround on training requests, and lower cost. But now the team questioned the validity of those needs and did not even agree on what a particular need meant. Failing to reach any satisfactory conclusions, we chose to stop and conduct a benchmark study to determine how best-in-class companies meet certain customer/client needs.

BENCHMARKING

In  Chapter 10  we touched on benchmarking, which consists of measuring a business process against a standard of excellence (either of an internal group in your company or of an external company well-known as best in class). Before you can benchmark a process against best-in-class companies, you first have to understand the crucial points in your own business process.  Figure 13-19  shows a visual depiction of how to approach a benchmarking exercise, with three distinct phases.

Now let us look at how I led Pam’s training and development organization in conducting a benchmark study and how to apply each of the three phases.

Phase 1: Customer/Client Interviews

In the first phase, the project team had to understand:

What Pam’s clients deemed important, to see whether they matched what the project team identified as client needs

How the clients recognize when their need is met

Whom the clients would identify as best in class for each of their needs

So I directed the project team to begin the benchmarking exercise by conducting 55 client interviews over a four-week period. We then validated the interview results by using a survey that we sent to 700 end users of training and their managers. We received 519 surveys back. As a result of gathering and analyzing the data, we determined that Pam’s clients wanted the following from their training investment:

Quality instructors

Training alternatives

The ability to customize courses

Employees applying the training on the job

During the interviews, we asked interviewees how they would know when a need was met. For example, how would they know if they had a quality instructor? What does quality mean? In asking how clients would measure a quality instructor, I found out that quality, in their eyes, meant they wanted instructors who had industry experience to teach classes. I now had a new gauge by which Pam could evaluate her instructor pool: How many of Pam’s instructors taught courses in which they possessed real-world experience? As it turned out, not many.

Figure 13-19 Benchmarking Phases

The final question in the interview asked clients to identify any companies they felt did an outstanding job at meeting a particular need. Could they identify a company that did a good job at having quality instructors, instructors who bring their real-life experience to their teaching? Their answers to this question helped me build a list of companies that we could benchmark against.

At the end of the first phase, we had a validated list of client needs for the training and development business process, we knew how Pam’s clients measured success, and we had a list of companies and internal groups that we could benchmark against to find out how they delivered against client needs.

Phase 2: Benchmarking

Now that we understood what Pam’s clients cared about, how they would measure success, and who they thought were best-in-class companies, it was time to move the project team to phase 2. Next, I asked the team members to focus on:

Writing the interview questions and creating a tool to collect the data.

Working with Pam’s internal productivity group to identify contacts at the companies that we wanted to benchmark and then scheduling appointments.

Reviewing benchmarking studies available in the market on education and training.

We created two sets of questions. One set focused on general information to ask every benchmark company, and the second addressed the list of client needs. We did not ask every benchmark company about all four client needs, but rather focused each interview on the single client need for which the company was identified as best in class. We asked certain companies about quality instructors, another group about training alternatives, others about course customization, and finally a fourth group about how they evaluated an employee’s performance on the job.

The first list of general questions, which we asked all companies, included items like:

How many employees do you have in your company?

How many employees do you have in your training and development organization?

How do you organize your training and development group (centralized, decentralized, or other)?

How do you organize your resources to support your client base (by business, geography, or other)?

How do you fund the training and development group (tuition, fully budgeted, other)?

What do you consider the top-priority goals for the training and development organization?

What do you consider the training and development group’s critical success factors (the key goals your organization must attain to compete in your market)?

What do you feel differentiates you from other companies in the training and development business (your primary strengths)?

For the second set of questions, we started the interview by providing each best-in-class company with a definition of the client need we wanted to discuss with them. For example, we started an interview on quality instructors by defining what we thought quality instructors should possess: industry expertise, technical competence, exceptional platform skills, and credibility.

We then asked five main questions to understand how the particular benchmark company met the client need, for example:

1.How are you organized to support __________?

2.What approach or process do you use to gain __________? How do you determine the best approach?

3.What process do you use to measure the effectiveness of __________?

4.What problems do you encounter?

5.What, if anything, would you change? Why?

Phase 3: Performance Goals

After the project team completed the benchmark interviews, I summarized the findings and translated them into performance goals, that is, what Pam’s organization cared about:

Instructor Expertise: Pam wants her organization to become known for having instructors with real-world experience, which suggests that she will:

Focus on acquiring instructors with industry and/or product expertise.

Build a core of instructors/developers and outsource delivery, if appropriate, to acquire the content expertise required.

Use the same resource, if possible, for the development and delivery of training.

Use team teaching/consulting to provide required content expertise.

Training Delivery Alternatives: A significant percentage of Pam’s training is instructor-led training, and she wants to move toward offering a wider range of formats and increase the use of technology.

Ability to Customize Courses: Pam wants to increase the modularity in her course design to enable quicker customization, to offer training for intact groups that uses examples and scenarios from her client’s business, and to deliver training at her client’s site.

On-the-Job Performance: Pam wants her organization to focus on measuring an employee’s ability to perform on the job, to offer refresher training in self-paced formats, and to give managers reinforcement tools to support their employees’ learning.

Conducting a benchmark study can take some time, so remember these keys to a successful benchmarking study:

Identify the right contacts in the right companies.

Discuss one critical success factor, or client need, per interview.

Recognize that internal benchmarking can be as effective as external benchmarking.

Include research study findings in your summary.

A NEW APPROACH

After reviewing the results of the benchmark study, we took another bend in the road. Pam and the project team did not see how their present process, even after it was improved, would get them to their desired end state. As we discussed the activities involved in the current process map, the team identified instances of bureaucracy, and they created a value-added analysis, but the importance of increasing the client interaction throughout the overall process became obvious. The process map showed that Pam’s team interacted with the client most often once a year during the two weeks when they collected annual needs. I helped the project team to recognize that the organization asks the wrong questions during the annual data collection process by focusing on volume instead of on business objectives and that they had not provided a means of addressing changing needs throughout the year. In reviewing the scope definition document created in step 2, I reminded the team of the process definition they wrote:

This process covers delivering products and services that enable employee learning to support the business objectives. In all cases, the business goals drive the learning investment.

I helped the project team think about how they would redesign the front end of the process to see whether they could simplify the process, how they might reduce the five-month cycle time, and how they could make the planning process more of an ongoing one instead of just an annual process. With the client identified as the central point of the process, we designed a totally new approach to planning for client needs that influenced a redesign of the activities that followed.

Pam’s case demonstrates the flexibility required when working on business process improvement. You saw one bend in the road in step 1 when we built the process inventory at the department level, which influenced a change in step 2 and the writing of the scope definition document. Now we had taken another twist because we are about to redesign BB&Z’s training and development business process from scratch to place the emphasis on the client.

As you perform process work, try not to put labels on the work other than business process improvement. Avoid the use of terms like quality improvement or reengineering because it does not matter what you call it or whether you switch between the two, as long as you focus on improving the process.

Over the next week, we developed a new process map, depicted in  Figure 13-20 , that placed the client at the center of the process. The project team devoted significant time to identifying the data flow throughout the process (i.e., having the right data at the right time) because of its importance in supporting a more integrated process in the future.  Figure 13-20  shows three new databases that support the process:

1.Client Profile: Holds information about training and development clients, their needs and preferences, and how training and development handled their needs, rejections, and acceptance.

2.Offering Profile: Holds solutions, performance goals, designs, learning objectives, and delivery requirements.

3.Process Performance Profile: Holds evaluation data and other general data on how the learning process performs.

Four major business processes began to surface, which moved Pam’s group away from the traditional view of training and development work:

1.Need/Solution Identification: This business process becomes the focal point for the client partnership and includes the identification of needs and solutions, proposal creation, return on investment, and client acceptance.

Figure 13-20 BB&Z New Learning Process

2.Business Direction and Measurement: This business process sets the foundation for the business of the training and development organization and includes the rules for running the business, measuring the overall performance of the learning process, and the development/coaching/reward of employees who work throughout the learning process.

3.Resource Development and Delivery: This process secures and develops resources (internal and external) to enable development and delivery of solutions. The process includes managing vendor relationships, assembling the multiple components, and overall applied research and technology.

4.Promotion and Communication: This process creates the promotional and/or communication strategy, and it reviews the results of the strategy. It includes managing the creation of the materials and the distribution of those materials.

In summary, the new learning process delivers the following improvements to the business process:

The new business process has ongoing client interaction, increasing the value-added activities of the process.

Performing data collection throughout the year minimizes the time required during the annual planning process, thus reducing cycle time.

The learning process expresses client needs as performance goals, which the training and development employees translate into measurable, observable learning objectives, increasing the value-added activities of the process.

The creation of three databases helps to streamline the information and organize the data around clients, offerings, and performance results.

The offering profile database provides a searchable tool that assists in eliminating duplication. Once the training and development employee translates a client’s performance needs into learning objectives, the objectives become the basis for reconciling common needs.

Streamlining the business process delivers a more adaptable process that can react more quickly to changing business needs.

Pam and the project team liked the new process and reviewed it with a few clients to gain their support. Once the team felt comfortable with the design, we moved to the next step on the roadmap, identifying internal controls, creating tools, and developing metrics.

STEP 7: CREATE INTERNAL CONTROLS, TOOLS, AND METRICS

In  Chapter 7 , we discussed how internal controls help to identify points in the business process where a mistake can occur and to explain how to prevent those errors; how tools can support and streamline the process, avoid errors, and assist with training new employees to perform their jobs easier; and how metrics show whether the process works as planned.

INTERNAL CONTROLS

I started this step by asking the project team to identify where something could go wrong in the new process. We then created internal controls to address each of those areas. Having a discussion about what can go wrong in a business process helps the organization to circumvent the potential problems.

TOOLS

The next part of step 7 involves developing the tools to support the process. Pam’s team had to develop several new items to support the learning process, including:

Creating three new Microsoft Access databases to store the client, offering, and performance data.

Creating standards for the documents used throughout the learning process, such as a design document and a business plan.

Establishing a process for obtaining and storing external research, competitive analysis information, and the company’s corporate charter.

Evaluating solutions to enable class registration and manage resources.

Creating job aids to help employees perform their jobs.

I asked the project team members to think about the various tools they had to create and how they would explain the new process to their clients and stakeholders. One job aid we created helped validate that only correct data entered the offering profile database. Because the learning process views the new offering database as a crucial tool to enable the matching of common needs, thus reducing duplication, this job aid provides examples of how to translate client needs into performance goals and performance goals into learning objectives.

I also suggested that a model would help people outside the department understand the new process because it included so many changes. The model I developed in  Figure 13-21 , working with the project team, illustrates the interaction throughout the learning process:

The business direction/measurement process acts as the foundation for the entire learning process, supporting Pam’s concept that business goals drive learning investments.

Client needs flow through the needs/solution identification business process, while the business direction/measurement process and the resource development and delivery processes support those client needs.

Ultimately, the promotion/communication process interacts with the clients to share details about the available products and services.

The horizontal arrows depict the employees in the learning process and show the interaction between client needs and the delivery of products and services.

The learning/information utility reflects the databases that hold information to make the entire process functional, and the model shows that all employees use the utility.

Figure 13-21 BB&Z Learning Process Model

Notice that the learning consultant’s job title changed in the new model to customer performance consultant to stress the importance of focusing on the clients’ businesses and helping them to achieve their goals.

I highly recommend that you spend time creating a visual representation of how your business process works because using a model helps explain a complex business process to people outside the day-to-day business better than a process map, which can seem overwhelming.

METRICS

In the scope definition document we created in step 2, Pam’s clients seemed to care about performance on the job and two efficiency-oriented metrics (quick turnaround and lower cost). With this information, we listed five measurements of success in the document:

On-the-job performance

Reduced development time

Cost reduction target

The ability to integrate new businesses

The linkage between training and business goals

After completing the benchmarking study, we learned that training and development’s clients also cared about quality instructors, alternative delivery methods, and course customization. Although Pam and the project team cared about every measurement of success, I encouraged them to recognize that the learning process had too many potential measurements to start. I suggested they limit their metrics for the first year to one metric for each of the following: effectiveness, efficiency, and adaptability. The project team agreed, and after discussing the measurements of success, we developed metrics for the following items:

Effectiveness: On-the-job performance (We felt that having quality instructors could help us to meet this measurement of success.)

Efficiency: Reduced development time (We thought that course customization and a new approach to modularity could help reduce the time required to develop courses.)

Adaptability: The ability to integrate new businesses

We then took each of Pam’s measurements of success and translated them into the metrics shown in  Figure 13-22 .

Figure 13-22 BB&Z Learning Process: Year 1 Metrics

Using the effectiveness measurement of on-the-job performance as an example, let me share how we approached this item. I suggested they start with instructor-led training, the most expensive type, to measure employees’ ability to perform on their jobs after they attended training.

In the training and development field, you typically hear about four levels of training evaluation, depending on what you want to measure: satisfaction, learning, application, or return on investment.

We decided to create an evaluation to measure employees’ application of what they learned on the job. Pam committed to focus on five high-volume courses throughout the first year. She chose to start with an evaluation of Beating the Competition, a course delivered to the company’s financial sales representatives that targets BB&Z’s biggest competitor. She felt that she could use the results of this evaluation to demonstrate a linkage between training and business goals.

The evaluation specialist developed a pre- and post-assessment for the course; then we established a process where the instructors would capture a student’s baseline at the beginning of the course by administering a brief survey. Three months later, the evaluation specialist would follow up with the students using a telephone survey to measure increases in their on-the-job performance. In addition to the assessment and survey, I suggested that the evaluation specialist track the sales figures of employees who attended the training.

Pam now had a newly designed business process that included increased client interaction, necessary internal controls, tools to support the process, and metrics to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and adaptability of the process.

With all this behind us, we can move to the next step and confirm that the process and tools will work as expected.

STEP 8: TEST AND REWORK

In  Chapter 8 , you learned to create a test plan to test the process and the tools before introducing the process changes across the entire organization. In this phase of the work, you think about the who, what, where, when, and how of testing.

Whom to involve in the testing

What items to test

Where to conduct the testing

When to perform the testing

How to conduct the testing

I use the same format of the test plan from  Chapter 8  ( Figure 8-2 ) for Pam’s process. For the learning process, examples of our test items included:

End-to-end business process (Microsoft PowerPoint process map; Microsoft Word detail document)

Customer profile database (Microsoft Access)

Offering profile database (Microsoft Access)

Process performance profile database (Microsoft Access)

Job aid covering the guidelines for entering data into the offering profile database (Adobe PDF file)

Sample report that summarizes annual performance results of the learning process (Microsoft Excel)

Class registration tool

Resource management tool

By testing the learning process, I discovered the need to make the following changes:

We had to do additional work on what constituted a match in the match-potential-solutions activity because it seemed too easy to credit a solution with addressing a performance goal.

We had to train the customer performance consultants on how to use the offering database.

We redefined the activity called synthesize/evaluate refinements because the process workers did not understand what this activity entailed.

We modified how we set up the resource management application.

We adapted the fields in the customer profile database to accommodate the customer performance consultants.

We modified the process performance database to meet what Pam hoped to gain from this data.

We changed the sample report that summarized the learning process’s performance.

At the end of the testing phase, the project team made all the necessary changes. The training and development employees involved in the testing noticed we had made substantial changes to the process. They understood the reasons why and expressed excitement about the upcoming implementation.

STEP 9: IMPLEMENT CHANGE

When I first started working with Pam, I created a project plan for the training and development business process improvement effort and continually adjusted the plan throughout the work, especially after deciding to redesign the process.

In  Chapter 9 , you learned that the implementation plan included phases and that a phase could include tracks. Three key tracks in the implementation phase include the:

1.Communication track: Developing a communication plan stating who has to know what when

2.Training track: Developing a training plan that tells who requires training on what

3.Change management track: The impact analysis that identifies whom to engage in the changes you want to introduce

COMMUNICATION TRACK

The project team had to think about what communication needed to occur to verify everyone received the appropriate information to prepare them for the change.  Figure 13-23  shows part of the learning process communication plan, in which I defined the audience, communication goals, key message points, the best communication vehicles to use, and the best timing to deliver the messages.

Figure 13-23  shows training and development employees and clients as the two main audiences that require communication about the process changes. A key challenge for training and development was to refocus the organization’s mindset so that everything employees do revolves around the client.

TRAINING TRACK

For the training plan, the project team had to think about what training needed to occur to ensure that all parties could perform their process responsibilities. They had to list the employees requiring training, identify what kind of training the employees required, and identify who owned the responsibility to conduct the training. They also had to decide where the project team would hold the training, along with when and what methods they would use to conduct the training.

Figure 13-23 BB&Z Learning Process: Communication Plan

Figure 13-24  shows part of the learning process training plan. The figure shows that I designed the training approach to have employees attend training on the basis of how they relate to the four new business processes. This segregation was intentional to reinforce the importance of the new design. It also shows that the customer performance consultant will receive additional training on the client and on the offering profile databases (discussed earlier).

CHANGE MANAGEMENT TRACK

The impact analysis for the new learning process captured the changes that had to occur to ensure the success of the new business process. In  Chapter 6 , as we built the new, improved process map, we created the impact analysis and identified the required changes.

Figure 13-24 BB&Z Learning Process: Training Plan

Once Pam addressed the items in the impact analysis and after I developed the training and communication plans, Pam felt ready to introduce the new learning process. She now had confidence that the project team had considered the important items and felt ready to move ahead with implementation. Pam felt strongly about the next step, continuous improvement, because she now recognized how quickly a process may have to change. So the team had one last task to complete.

STEP 10: DRIVE CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

During this step, Pam had another challenge she had to deal with: how to help the organization adopt a new mindset where they would always look for ways to improve the learning process. The continuous improvement cycle wheel in  Chapter 10  ( Figure 10-1 ) introduced some structure to this phase, and I led the project team in creating a plan to regularly evaluate, test, assess, and execute against improvements.

We developed a continuous improvement plan for each of the four business processes, and then developed the continuous improvement schedule to provide an overview of the timing for each of the business processes.

After the project team finished all the work, I included in the executive summary (1) the learning process model from  Figure 13-21 , (2) the process description summary shown in  Figure 13-25 , and (3) a process summary that included general assumptions, dependencies, job descriptions, and sizing algorithms.

At the end of our work, Pam Borzak had an organization that focused on the right areas. Her entire organization was client focused and regularly evaluated the effectiveness, efficiency, and adaptability of the learning process. I helped her develop recognition guidelines to reward employees for outstanding performance in support of the new business process.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Pam Borzak’s story at BB&Z demonstrates how to apply the ten steps to business process improvement and how to adjust the steps as you encounter obstacles or bends in the road. The ten steps are:

1.Develop the process inventory: How to build a process inventory and process prioritization table for either an entire department or the business processes within a department.

Figure 13-25 BB&Z Learning Process: Process Descriptions and Responsibilities

2.Establish the foundation: How to develop the scope definition document for a business process.

3.Draw the process map: How to decide the level of detail for building the process map and how to create a map that spans multiple pages.

4.Estimate time and cost: How to calculate process and cycle time, how to incorporate frequency into the calculations, and how to include different types of employees.

5.Verify the process map: Ways to validate the accuracy of the process map.

6.Apply improvement techniques: How to incorporate bench-marking into the improvement phase and how to know when to design an entirely new process.

7.Create internal controls, tools, and metrics: How to develop internal controls, sample tools, and metrics. A reminder of the importance of building a model to explain a complicated process.

8.Test and rework: How to test all the components of a business process.

9.Implement change: How to develop the communication, training, and impact analysis plans.

10.Drive continuous improvement: How to create a schedule to keep track of all the different business processes.

WHAT YOU HAVE ACHIEVED

In this chapter, you have achieved the following:

A grasp of how to adjust to bends in the road and adapt the ten steps

An understanding of how to build a model to further explain a complex business process

The ability to calculate employee costs when different types of employees are involved in the process

The knowledge that you can build the process inventory and prioritization table at either the department or the process level

An understanding of how to incorporate multiple frequencies in the cost analysis

Insight into how to conduct a benchmark study

Most important, the power to know that you can do it

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