In my last post I described the creative tension within organizations born from extended hiring gaps in operations managers. Operations managers are any non-executive managers not solely responsible for supply chain and finance. It includes general, plant, operations, production, and logistics managers, and in some environments engineering and quality managers. These can be tactical positions with far-reaching contact, high staff-to-manager ratio, and direct oversight over value delivery, including the supply of product that generates revenue and satisfies customers. Gaps form when:
Vacancies last for longer periods of time, saddling senior managers with tactical functions, and forcing experienced employees to shoulder more responsibility and increasing feelings of burnout.
With promotion of an internal candidate, the gap is the learning curve for the people skills, and higher collaboration, engagement and networking responsibilities. Additionally, their previous position will need backfilled. (Unless you are one of those employers that has a recent promotion retain their previous responsibilities; we certainly hope not).
With hire of an external candidate, there is a gap represented by a broad-based learning curve and a whole lot of unknowns.
Throughout this process there are a myriad of issues that take longer to resolve and not only is there stifled progress, traction slips.
Along with the volatility of the labor market and the shake-ups occurring, these positions, which are by nature of what they manage (i.e., the revenue stream) high pressure positions, adds to the churn as experienced managers burn out, or look for a change in work environment, or circle. This pressure will continue as baby boomers retire, Gen Z permeates the workforce, and we navigate the transition to robotics and AI in operations. As designed production output per line increases, the increase in potential lost or delayed revenue also increases. Transitioning to robotics is a stressful time for manufacturers, and the execution of these large investments, and the culture change they trigger, is a further heavy burden on operations managers.
The current approach of most employers is to raise up an even bigger umbrella of responsibility for operations managers. To attract candidates in a tight labor market, next is to develop high-level, strategic job descriptions, with requirements of significant experience and higher salaries. This chum attracts individuals who esteem the role desirable, but leaves hiring managers guessing as to whether the candidate has the ability to manage the technical nature of the process and the people involved, give attention to tasks, adapt to the unique aspects of the business, and gain lost ground. In this churn and chum environment, the shark coming up to bite you can have many identities, including the issues growing within the plant from a critical opening going unfilled for long periods of time. To resolve them requires an SME, doer, systems thinker, project manager, analyst, problem solver, leader, visionary, social worker, engagement manager, counselor, mediator, and politician. The complexity can set up candidates for failure and with nothing vested, motivate them to quickly find another job.
How can manufacturing companies gain a vantage point in this environment? The answer is to limit the time the position is open! It might sound obvious to say this, but few businesses seek continuity in operations management. They probably have employee engagement and benefit programs whose purpose includes retaining and attracting talent; but there is no special case with operations managers.
This brings us to Lesson 2: Don't set out into the water of the churn and churn market. Do things now to be ready for the extraordinary demand growth in operations managers. This market will set up a reverse "musical chairs" where this time, there are more chairs, than there are participants. If this conjures up the idea of "What's the fun in that?", I think it is accurate. This will be particularly tough on small businesses with limited resources.
In my last blog, I identified four actions to prevent hiring gaps in operations managers: (1) focus on the needs of your current technical operations manager; (2) target training dollars to your most connected and networked employees; (3) design-align your organization for agility and efficient exchange of knowledge; and (4) elevate your processes and staffing models to increase retention and the employee experience, EX.
Another specific action to reduce hiring gaps in operations manager positions is to develop internal candidates. This is different than a succession plan. It involves nurturing, developing, and grooming high potential employees in front-line positions for elevated or s management roles (and requires you have presence to recognize this potential!). At one of my former employers, we developed a five-year development program for a machinist to become the shop foreman, retiring in that same timeframe. This plan included his orientation within the assets of the shop, other internal skills like understanding our customers and ERP use, and managerial effectiveness skills like six sigma black belt, ISO, systems thinking, employee engagement, etc. Northeast Ohio is a tight market for machinists, who receive cold, high dollar offers over social media and job boards. By developing an engaging, exciting and learning journey, our trainee isn't being lured by high dollar offers to other plants with more resources. This is a great story to tell about professional growth paths within the company and gets a high demand machinist to stay home and contribute while we develop an even better key manager.
Another great approach is to increase the candidate pool by decreasing the job requirements. Take the perspective of a must have list of skills related to the technology needs of the company. You can then filter candidates by their natural abilities and tendencies and capability to learn. Look for an SME candidate and then train them on the managerial effectiveness they need. Technical SME are by default going to be educated, intelligent, and teachable. They are either new to the market or have specialized their career learning. The managerial effectiveness or employee engagement is still a gap and learning curve, but the objective is to decrease the timeline by addressing the needs through two different paths. You fill the position quicker with a true SME, while you develop the managerial effectiveness through coaching and training.
In the same vein, split the requirements and functions into two or more positions, e.g., one for management and one for engagement. Engagement managers are starting to take hold in academia, and it is an interesting approach to a complex situation. Just as we have talent, excellence, safety and quality managers, we are reaching a point in business where the demands for leadership are requiring specialty in several areas. We will be ineffective, if we keep expecting an operations leader to manage production and order fulfillment, attend poorly run meetings for process and customer needs, operationalize robotics, supervise and develop employees, and distill and extract great ideas from the production group. This is only getting more complicated with the expectations of today's workers for attention and tailored engagement. As a side note, some organizations create engagement and share execution leadership through process governance like PMO (Project Management Office) or VDO (Value Delivery Office).
Lastly, protect your position in the candidate market, by playing the waiting game and creating interim leadership positions filled with fractional leadership. This facilitates the acquisition of knowledge without increasing headcount. By contracting short-term expert leadership, businesses maintain momentum and prevent dragging CEOs into site strategic or operational responsibilities and direction. More companies are creating interim leadership to bridge gaps while the recruiting projects and programs look for the ideal candidate. This approach gives the operations team the leadership resources they deserve and need, to be successful. PLS Management Consulting provides a fractional operations management service access it here (service).
To summarize the approach and options for operations managers:
Realize the special importance of these roles for value delivery. Operations managers ensure customers get quality product, and sales and revenue are realized in a cost-effective manner, while managing technically evolving critical investments with a diverse workforce.
Seek continuity in operations leadership. Do things now to prevent gaps in operations management.
View operations as a system of systems of value delivery, and elevate system behavior and new specialized roles.
Leverage opportunities and encourage contributions through employee development programs.
In our next blog, we will discuss a committed choice in operations management.
Lori G. Fisher
PLS Management Consulting
Purpose | Leap | Surge
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