Talk the walk

Gemba in recruitment – innovation from iteration, pt 8

Gemba is Japanese for ‘the actual place’.

Coined by Toyota and closely linked to ‘genchi genbutsu’, a phrase I regularly throw at my children – ‘see for yourself!’

Clearly, Toyota doesn’t like arguing with people whose strong views are based on assumptions, although my issues relate mainly to a lack of chocolate in the snack cupboard.

Gemba is a powerful concept because it gives managers access to the actual work and challenges that are inherent to their projects, and therefore where they can find efficiency and improve productivity.

While linking the coal face to leadership in a way that influences strategy.

Although Toyota’s gemba is a car factory floor, it’s been commonly adopted across industries and relates to anywhere where the work is done and value created.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre applied gemba to reduce Hospital Acquired Infections, applying root cause analysis to patient rooms to identify the cause of these infections. It turned out to be poorly cleaned medical equipment.

Better cleaning meant fewer infections to treat.

Would the alternative have been to accept the infections and invest in better treatment?

Retail stores, construction sites, and even prisons – gemba is applicable in any working environment.

I’ve applied genchi genbutsu and gemba throughout my recruitment career, learning through the experiences of candidates and hiring processes.

In recruitment, there are many types of gemba.

The one that springs to mind is your hiring team – whether you are an agency, TA, HR or hiring lead.

This type of gemba is individualistic, and you can go have a chat with your team right now, listen to them, and find pragmatic areas for improvement.

However, I’m more interested in systemic improvement, for the purpose of this email, and there are a few types of gemba that we can all benefit from, two of which I’ve already mentioned.

Any aspect of a hiring system that creates an experience has a gemba.

By working with candidates and employers (hiring managers and in partnership with HR / TA), I’ve learnt many strategic, tactical and execution improvements from finding solutions to common problems.

The most helpful gemba in recent memory is my work with executive job seekers since the pandemic. Around 800 conversations with people I will rarely be able to help directly, but who have given me much insight into the common issues job seekers face outside of my hiring process.

It’s startling how much you can learn by talking to people in the ‘ecosystem’ who aren’t customers. It’s something I’d recommend any recruiter do and has the added benefit of helping others.

You may think out-of-sight, out-of-mind, job seekers aren’t at your coal face; however, they regularly interact with the coal face of the recruitment industry in unsuccessfully looking for work.

Their pain points are valuable areas of insight we can take advantage of, to create better experiences all around.

Go to your gemba and you will find areas you can improve.

What can you learn about the experiences your customers have of your hiring process?

For an employer, this will be every touchpoint in your recruitment process – from your adverts and ATS, to your interviews and interview confirmations, to your offer and rejection process, and everything else.

You may think you have an excellent process, but what do your customers think?

Have you tried applying through your own ATS as a dummy candidate? What did that feel like?

How about your own experiences with your recruitment process?

If you’re having a poor experience with your agency suppliers, what root cause analysis have you done to find out the real reasons?

Or are you stuck in a Region Beta paradox, where things aren’t quite bad enough to make a change, even though your experience is shoddy enough to complain about?

There’s a simple way to find out about which experiences can lead to improvement – talk to the people that have them.

And not just new starters delighted to be in a new role. What about those you rejected?

Or those that never applied… what if you could find out why, and apply that learning to make your process more attractive? (Answers to which I found in my exec job seeker calls)

I’d argue if you build your recruitment process from your gemba it will allow you a uniquely fit-for-purpose approach for your hiring process.

Invest in systems, technology, tools and processes based on the gemba, rather than what others may tell you that you need.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk to good consultants who can help you overcome the problems you don’t know you don’t know.

Just that you should expect their consultation to be built on your gemba, rather than the sale of a solution for the solution’s sake.

Not so easy if you aren’t an employer that has the agency to make change.

The next edition is on how Stockholm Syndrome and Region Beta paradox intersect to explain candidate behaviour.

Thanks for reading.

Regards,

Greg

p.s. While you are here, if you like the idea of improving how you recruit, lack capacity or need better candidates, and are curious how I can help, these are my services:

- commercial, operational and technical leadership recruitment (available for no more than two vacancies)

- manage part or all of your recruitment on an individually designed basis for one client

- recruitment coaching and mentoring (one place available at £200/hr + VAT)

- recruitment strategy setting

- outplacement support

Just hit reply to check if my approach is right for you.