Talent Management Processes

Monty Python Staffing Processes

by Taleo Research

A sketch by Monty Python pokes fun at the absurd rules and procedures that can build up in an institution. A British Headmaster instructs his pupils:

“Move your clothes down on to the lower peg immediately after lunch before you write your letter home, if you're not getting your hair cut, unless you've got a younger brother who is going out this weekend as the guest of another boy…”

A young lad interrupts:

“Sir, my younger brother's going out with Dibble this weekend, sir, but I'm not having my hair cut today sir, so do I move my clothes down or...”

The Headmaster admonishes:

“I do wish you'd listen, Wymer, it's perfectly simple. If you're not getting your hair cut, you don't have to move your brother's clothes down to the lower peg, you simply collect his note before lunch after you've done your scripture prep when you've written your letter home before rest …”

and so, absurdly, on. Hats off to Monty Python—but satire aside—does this remind you of your staffing processes?

Staffing is a complex activity, with many business rules, checks and external influencing factors. A company's staffing function may span multiple hire-types, such as professional, college and union hires. Rules have to be applied within each hire-type – particularly relating to approval of budget and headcount – which creates a certain complexity in a staffing process. Normally, there are sound business reasons for the existence of individual steps in a staffing process. However, as in the crusty institution in the Monty Python scene, the reasons behind process steps can get lost, and processes may be followed for their own sake.

Convoluted Process
Consider this real world example: A company had a four-step approval process for adding to headcount involving two levels of management, compensation (HR), and finance. Each took several days to approve and forward the requisition, adding as many as 20 days to the process. Frustrated hiring managers circumvented the process by turning to contract workers…as many as 130 different contract staffing vendors! Oh, and there was no cost tracking. This out of control process was deeply in need of repair.

An examination of past approval or rejection statistics by approval step found that compensation was merely rubber-stamping requisitions, rejecting very few. The reengineered process took compensation out of the approval loop, and moved them merely to notification, with 72 hours to throw up a red flag. With the reengineered process, several days have been cut out of the time to approve. Because of the process changes, hiring managers are much happier, and so are less likely to circumvent the system. Use of contract staffing vendors goes through a streamlined, centralized budget approval process, and the company is now much better positioned to reap the benefits of a faster, smoother staffing process.

Technology 
When steps in the process multiply, the culprit is often an inadequate technology that has been put in place. Typically, the additional steps are workarounds such as manual spreadsheets, stand-alone databases, and the like, to fill in gaps in functionality. Reporting can be a particularly onerous activity involving circuitous and torturous steps and procedures.

When it comes time to upgrade the technology, steps that existed only to keep the obsolete technology creaking along may be so ingrained that they become part of the requirements of a new system. The great danger here is becoming stuck at this operational level, believing that these steps in the process are crucial and worth maintaining, when they really are artifacts of poor technology.

Business Objectives 
Staffing processes ought to align with clearly identified business goals and objectives. However, the process can take on a life of its own, and process steps may remain in place long after the point when they cease to fulfill the business goal. Companies often follow processes because “that’s how it’s always been done.” This cultural inertia is hard to shed. Yet it is important to put the business objectives before the processes, and periodically review whether processes need re-engineering, especially as the business environment changes. As you contemplate your company’s staffing process, make sure the procedures and methods don’t seem like a Monty Python skit.