The Role of Human Resources in Six Sigma Implementation

The human resources department is an integral part of any organization as it looks after the employees and their needs. Whenever we talk about harmony at a workplace, we must know that the credit goes to human resources. It’s these people who are constantly ensuring this peaceful environment sustains itself. Also, this particular team is very much responsible for running several internal operations.

However, the functions of HR needs an extension when a unique continuous improvement methodology needs extra support for its survival.  The continuous improvement methodology here is Six Sigma. And we would like to talk about how HR can help Six Sigma for a successful implementation in any organization.

Training

The first and foremost task of this department is to take care of the training procedures of Six Sigma. There are many ways to learn Six Sigma and the following are the two most common ways of training:

• There are multiple institutes or training organizations that provide Six Sigma training. And the HR team must perform due diligence to locate the best organizations out there. Get your employees enrolled in a quality Six Sigma program depending on their respective fields or projects.

• The alternative option is to recruit a Master Black Belt or Black Belt through an intense interview process. The responsibilities of the hired individual are to train and consult other employees to get through various Six Sigma projects.

Support

It is a human behavior to resist anything new and unfamiliar. However, it is important to devote time to learning this new methodology and its application in everyday tasks. Now, HR can help by ensuring that the Black Belts are providing appropriate support to the team for successful Six Sigma deployment. They should also measure the growth of each employee by having a consistent check on their progress.

Project Selection

When it comes to project selection, human resources can be of help by ensuring that the employees walk themselves through the prerequisites of the project. HR has a sharp eye for identifying talent, which allows them to support employees in selecting a project as per their competence. To measure the growth of a project, HR seeks out for employee’s potential in participating on the project and ensures that he/she complies with project rules.

Besides these, there is a huge amount of cost and time reduction involved in an intense recruitment procedure. The tools of Six Sigma allow the workforce to develop competency models and to have a retention process more effective than before.

The biggest challenge that talent management has to overcome is to establish a Six Sigma culture within the organization. It is a good practice to set standards as to what it will take to carry out a successful deployment of Six Sigma methodologies.