7 Ways to Increase Retention Rates and Impress Your CFO at the Same Time (Blog)

Get your HR House in order and demonstrate credibility before engaging

Before you exercise those influence muscles, make sure you’ve used Yellowbelt tools to prove out improvements in your own processes. By now, you have your time to hire numbers down by 20 per cent, your revised onboarding plan is leading to increased retention within the first three months, and now it’s time to look strategically at other drivers outside of HR. Your ability to take a hard look at your own work, and make changes, will demonstrate solid leadership, capable of leading change elsewhere, through Greenbelt tools of leading change.

Designate one or more HR team members to act as data specialists

First things first: everyone needs to understand the impact and scope of the challenge at hand. “Turnover” is easily dismissed in parts of the organization. It is incumbent on HR to put it into terms so it is seen a real business issue with real impact on the bottom line. How do you do that? Put a number to it. Calculate the cost of turnover and you are guaranteed to catch the attention of your CFO. (You can find wide-ranging and free templates on the web with a quick search). From there have your HR Data Specialist understand head count, efficiency of team members where available, and whether any employees are temporarily located elsewhere (modified duties, cross-trained and working in another department, etc). These are necessary inputs to examine together with the larger team.

Establish regular, cross-departmental meetings including scheduling, payroll, operations, potentially engineering, and/or any others who are involved in capacity planning inputs.

By creating cross-functional teams to look at possible issues using value stream mapping and other process improvement tools, you’ll unleash the power of change management in a targeted, focused way. Continuous improvement isn’t about boiling the ocean – you’ll want to involve the right process owners at the right times to drive meaningful change. By empowering those doing the work to own the change, you’ll quickly see retention go up and recruitment costs go down.

Determine inputs and indicators and establish an agenda and action items for improvement

Get out in front of problems before they escalate. Lean tools like visual management and daily huddles drive two-way conversations and problem solving within a group using root cause analysis. By creating a process to identify problems and tools to affect change, like the popular A3 or 5 Whys analysis tools, you’ll empower measurable opportunities for meaningful change with solid, operational plans to address.

Think like a CFO. In turbulent times, prioritize cashflow.

Think of your department as a revenue driver, not a cost centre. And above all, be data driven. Build your dashboard and report out on the right KPIs consistently to drive continuous improvement. CME’s Greenbelt programs are designed to develop change agents within organizations and teach participants to think of their own areas like their own business and to own and inspire change, regardless of formal decision making or reporting authority.

Ensure there are no competing goals or KPIs between departments working towards increased capacity.

Setting both the right and realistic KPI’s will demonstrate improvements to the bottom line. Yellowbelt-Visual Management/Huddle Boards ensure each department is tracking KPI’s that are meaningful to their department and easily demonstrate where departmental goals may be in conflict.

Know your business, but more importantly, be curious.

As HR professionals, you likely have a good, whole view of an individual employee, as well as the understanding of what the business needs. Use that unique understanding to drive conversation and change. CME’s Greenbelt program includes a module dedicated to DISC assessment to help participants understand how they, and others, think and process information. Greenbelt provides HR with the necessary tools to harness and leverage a company’s most valuable financial asset, its’ people. There’s no more important line on the balance sheet and by driving change through data-driven conversations, you’ll earn your place in the C-suite.

NAVIGATING LEAN REQUIRES A ROADMAP

Looking to take these 9 simple steps to your own workplace? Leveraging Lean requires a roadmap. Companies that engage in Lean certification are more likely to succeed and thrive in challenging times than their counterparts.

CME’s core Lean programs offer a path to certification with multiple entry points, no matter where your organization is starting or wants to go on their Lean or engagement journeys. Designed for manufacturers by manufacturers, CME’s certified courses help manufacturers across the country to improve their operations, their competitiveness and their bottom line.

Benefits include:

Increased Employee Engagement
Improved Production Capacity
Increased Team Productivity
Reduced Lead Time
Reduced Cycle Times
More Efficient Business Processes
And much, much more.

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TAKING THE FIRST STEP

Our hands-on, learning by doing style training is conducted in-person at your facility and now is also available virtually, giving you the flexibility to access the training from anywhere.

An industry-specific approach means employees, whether learning face-to-face or online, are able to implement the lessons learned right away in their own organizations, driving change in real time. Planned breaks between modules reinforce the applied content and homework further allows participants to go back to their own facilities to implement and experience real change, putting employees in control of their own learning, creating better engagement and improving retention of key Lean principles.

Training groups provide peer support, similar to CME’s many networks and peer councils, which extends the learning well beyond the training itself, allowing for the participants to continue to connect, share and drive one another on their Lean journeys.

WHY CME?

From the first industrial boom in Canada, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) has been helping manufacturers grow. Nearly 150 years strong, we work with 2,500 leading manufacturers from coast to coast. Our business is manufacturing, just like yours, and we have our finger on the pulse of the sector. CME training programs are designed by manufacturers, for manufacturers.

CME works wherever you are – with regional chapters in every province, championed by local manufacturers just like you. Whether you’re looking for in-person, face-to-face facilitation or online, remote delivery – CME has you covered.

CME’s Lean Blackbelt certified facilitators have extensive manufacturing experience. We understand your constraints because we’ve lived them – and led transformational changes to embrace excellence ourselves. From productivity to leadership and more, CME is your training provider of choice. With more than 2,000 participants engaged in Lean training last year alone, CME supports hundreds of companies in their productivity and engagement journeys, from across the country. What’s more, graduates give CME training programs consistently outstanding reviews.

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