From Quality to Human Resources

[Jen Kirley]

@FRA 2 FDA , congratulations and good luck in your new role! I would love to see how you get on in your transition.

 

[Randy]

Been there, done that and, I'd rather have a rash. Good luck.

 

[RoxaneB]

Congrats on the new role.

It may not feel steeped in quality, but I work a fair bit with our H.R. business partners and, in my experience, there is are numerous quality-related opportunities in that field. You may find that the threads here are heavy in tech and manufacturing, yet that does not stop you from starting threads that are people-related - from analytics to processes, much of what the Cove offers could support on and learn from your new adventure.

Good luck!

 

[Miner]

Yes. HR business processes are usually the most Byzantine and waste filled processes. I once facilitated a workshop to reduce the cycle time for filling an open position. The current-state process was taking well over 3 months. When we documented all of the waste, we did an end-of-day report-out to the HR VP and their comment was "Great! It's working just like we wanted it to". It turns out the the effort was being driven from outside HR and HR wanted it to work slowly to keep headcount down.

 

[Ed Panek]

Yes. HR business processes are usually the most Byzantine and waste filled processes. I once facilitated a workshop to reduce the cycle time for filling an open position. The current-state process was taking well over 3 months. When we documented all of the waste, we did an end-of-day report-out to the HR VP and their comment was "Great! It's working just like we wanted it to". It turns out the the effort was being driven from outside HR and HR wanted it to work slowly to keep headcount down.

Keep things just on the precipice of not working. That's technically the most profitable way, or some think so.

 

[FRA 2 FDA]

I agree that there is a decent amount of crossover between roles or at least the concepts that are common to both roles. I'm hopeful that I'll still have time to come back and offer updates as well as keep learning!

 

[hogheavenfarm]

My experience has been that its common in smaller companies for HR and QA to be intermeshed, especially in the "training" areas, and with "accident and near miss" type programs. I have had to write company safety manuals, train new hires (for all departments), and lead meetings such as toolbox talks (TED Talks) and other things. Probably more towards safety than HR issues though. Part of my Management review meetings included reports of surveys of employee satisfaction, growth, and opportunity, as well as forensic reports after employees leave, things like turnover rates and such, and these fell into the quality area as well.

 

[FRA 2 FDA]

Well, it has been a few months so I thought I'd come back and tool around these old stomping grounds to see what's going on and to give you guys an update. I have settled into my new role and am learning a lot. I've learned that I don't really like benefits management but otherwise enjoy HR for the most part. My short career in quality did help prepare me in some ways. I always go back to governing documents, in this case handbooks and labor laws, and find myself interpreting the words and figuring out how to apply them to real life situations and how to best implement them in ways that are useful to our company but that keep us compliant. I do kind of miss only having two main sources of rules. In this world federal, state and other state lines cross and get messy and it's maddening or in many cases, there isn't a reliable place to get an answer. I can't just go to the one section in the ISO standard and know it's what I should follow.

The metric tracking part of quality served me well already. The VP asked the department heads to decide on important metrics, tie them to improvement actions and assign realistic goals. I did that plenty in QA land so it was no biggie for me.

Even management review came back to haunt... I mean help!.. me. The finance manager and I were tasked with putting together a Year End Review meeting for the company and I used my management review prepping experience to create my input. Piece of cake in comparison!!

I have been wishing for an Elsmar Cove for the HR world since I started this job. So many times, I've wanted badly to go to a group of seasoned professionals and ask for advice or guidance!! So many times I've wished I could just aimlessly read what my trusted industry "elders" were discussing and accidentally learn something incredible. Just yesterday I found something very close. It is also a community discussion forum for (HR) professionals, but it is a lot smaller so the wealth of knowledge is not as profound. The good news is, on only my second visit, I was able to offer a helpful response to another member's query. Starting off contributing!