When looking at how operations management is evolving, it seems that some of the more innovative companies follow an organisational design akin to the Netflix model of \u201chighly aligned, loosely coupled\u201d i.e. that all employees have a very clear understanding of what the company wants to achieve and how they can help the organisation to achieve it (highly aligned), but that the organisation gives them the space they need to create and innovate (loosely coupled). They \u201clook up\u201d often, both in terms of making sure that the work that they are doing is in keeping with the companies vision set by the top but also in terms of not being too distracted by the day to day, looking around and trying new things. The success of this approach is very dependent on the people that you employ in your organisation however.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Once you\u2019ve created the right environment for people to flourish, designed the system to help the employee – not hinder, you need to really look after the people that are fantastic and remove the people that aren\u2019t.\u00a0\u00a0One of the best ways to go about achieving this is to ensure that your recruitment strategy is extremely thorough.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Organisations like Netflix and Spotify take hiring new members of staff very seriously.\u00a0It\u2019s quite common for them to have multiple stages to their recruitment process, encouraging staff members to interact with the potential candidate to determine whether they\u2019d be the \u2018right fit\u2019, numerous tests to be passed whether it\u2019s a live coding challenge or team scenario solving, written assessments, multiple interviews, profiling and assessment centres.\u00a0\u00a0As hard as you try to ensure the right people join, you never\u00a0really\u00a0<\/em>know until you know, through lived experience.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Recently, there have been a few fun \u2018recruitment hacks\u2019 doing the rounds on Twitter and Linked In – for example, in a job interview, does the person leave their coffee cup on the table, or take it with them? Leave it, and you don\u2019t care about others, you\u2019re not focused on detail and you obviously think a tad too highly of yourself. Hire the person that takes their cup away, who asks where they could wash it up, they\u2019re the sort of person you want working for you! I\u2019m confident that I\u2019m a \u2018take my coffee cup with me\u2019 kind of girl but another example was where a boss concocted a \u2018whilst you\u2019re here, can you help us move the office furniture a moment?\u2019 ruse. How would I react in that scenario? I think I\u2019d probably attempt to chip in but I would definitely be pulling the \u2018what on actual earth?!\u2019 face. (My face is often my enemy, simply unable to hide what I am thinking). I probably wouldn\u2019t be receiving a positive phonecall immediately afterwards.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n