Optimizing the number of personnel is one of the methods for reducing business costs. Optimizing workflows: from software to production

Today, attitudes towards working people are changing. The classics of political economy, of course, were not able to predict all the changes, but they were right about the fact that it is workers who create surplus value. No one has yet refuted this thesis, although not everyone acts on the basis of it. However, more and more employers are beginning to understand that people are just as important a resource as equipment, new technologies or high-quality cheap raw materials.
Nobody argues that it is necessary to increase business efficiency. The question is - at what cost? Reducing the number of employees in order to increase labor productivity or reduce personnel costs in our conditions is not entirely justified.

It should be understood: in order to compare our companies with foreign ones, it is necessary to bring the compared parameters into a comparable form; a number of indicators cannot be compared “directly”. For example, the amount of products produced per employee depends on how the size of the enterprise is formed. In Japan, 2 thousand tons of rolled steel are produced per employee, and in our country - only 247 tons. But in the staff of the Japanese metallurgical enterprise there are no non-core specialists - diesel locomotive drivers, repairmen (not to mention gardeners or leaders of singing circles).

In order to correctly compare labor productivity or productivity, the structure of the number of our enterprises should be brought to the “world standard”, first of all, non-core divisions should be removed. Of course, in our country the removal of social sphere objects from the structure of enterprises is perceived painfully. This is especially difficult for large city-forming enterprises, which for decades have borne a huge social burden, largely replacing the state in providing basic social guarantees for workers (including expenses for medicine, education, social protection, etc.) and maintaining the life of cities.

At metallurgical enterprises, personnel costs are not decisive: wages with accruals amount to a little more than 10% of all costs, and taking into account statistical observation data on labor costs (Form No. 1-RS) - 15–18% of production costs , that is, one and a half to two times the size of the wage fund. However, these costs are quite significant, especially given the priority requirement for these payments.

However, when comparing the share of wages in the cost of production of domestic and Western companies, one should also compare the general structure of production costs. In our country, for example, 480–500 kg of coke is used to produce 1 ton of pig iron, and in Germany, for comparison, it is 230–250 kg. The picture is the same for other cost components, including energy intensity. We cannot increase the share of wages not because trade unions are weak or owners do not want to share profits with the working class, but for the most part due to objective economic reasons.

In addition, over the past few years, the situation on the labor market has changed significantly: labor immigration is growing, the birth rate is falling, the number of people of working age is decreasing - pensioners are leaving, and there is often simply no one to replace them. At the same time, technical re-equipment is unfolding everywhere, enterprises are receiving new, much more complex equipment, that is, the requirements for workers are growing all the time. As the economy develops, the role of such factors as employer competition in the labor market is also increasing, and in the foreseeable future, competition for personnel will only intensify.

The modern encyclopedic dictionary defines the concept optimization as “...the process of finding the best (out of many possible) solution to a problem under given requirements and restrictions,” respectively process control optimization represents the definition of a way to achieve a goal while ensuring the best values of indicators characterizing this process.

Term optimization of the number of employees began to be widely used in the lexicon of managers in the 90s of the last century, when there was a decrease in production volumes and a deterioration in the financial situation of many large and medium-sized industrial enterprises (metallurgy, mechanical engineering, construction, transport, etc.). At that time, many enterprises in our country were on the verge of a complete shutdown, so they not only stopped hiring new workers, but also made layoffs; the main requirements were minimization of numbers staff and cost reduction on its content.

In a situation of protracted crisis, such demands were largely justified, since excessive staffing leads to unreasonable financial expenses. In addition, employees who are not fully loaded with work create a number of problems. Firstly, every idle person negatively affects the productivity of those who are busy with work - work discipline and work morale decline: why try if they pay “just like that”. Secondly, every “extra” employee begins to look for some kind of activity (or his manager tries to come up with some “useful” activity for him). That is, unloaded employees create unnecessary work for others. Among other things, in hazardous production areas, problems arise with ensuring safe conditions for “staying at work” for “hanging out” employees and trouble-free operation of the enterprise as a whole.

Today, in the context of a deteriorating demographic situation, an increasing shortage of highly qualified specialists, and serious changes in the work motivation of the new generation, reducing the problem optimization number to minimization, reduction states is wrong. Reducing the number of employees through layoffs (even due to the elimination of jobs that do not provide the required volume of work or do not contribute to increasing production efficiency) inevitably entails a lot of all kinds of costs, including lawsuits. This approach is considered a “hard” method of optimizing the number of employees; it has a number of negative consequences:

the threat of dismissal has an overwhelming effect on people and worsens the moral and psychological climate in the team;
it is psychologically very difficult to fire “your” employees; even justified layoffs worsen the manager’s image in the eyes of the remaining employees;
An enterprise that “throws out” workers worsens its external image as an employer in the labor market, and its partners begin to treat it with caution.

Taking this into account, in recent years, instead of the concept job cuts(staff) concept is widely used optimization of the number of employees. At the same time, preference is increasingly given "soft" methods such as:

encouraging early retirement of workers (often simultaneously with a reduction in the hiring of new employees);
encouraging the dismissal of persons who have reached retirement age by introducing special benefits for them;
transfer of employees to other business units (to auxiliary units, repair facilities, etc.);
encouraging the dismissal of certain categories of employees at their own request (with the payment of significant bonuses to them), etc.

Upskilling of workers and their redistribution within the enterprise are also sometimes considered as an option optimization numbers. But since it is quite difficult to calculate the effectiveness of training costs, talking about optimization in the full sense of the word is not always justified.

Particular attention should be paid to opposition (often hidden) to the process of headcount optimization on the part of heads of structural units, primarily line managers (foremen, heads of sections, bureaus, sectors, etc.). This is due to a number of reasons:

A manager may strive to accumulate “reserve” resources in case unforeseen tasks or difficulties arise.
The accumulation of “surplus personnel” may be a consequence of professional incompetence leader. In this case, he either tries to compensate for his incompetence by hiring additional specialists, or (without imagining the real state of affairs) follows the lead of his own subordinates, who strive to shift part of their responsibilities to newcomers.
The manager believes that his status and influence are determined by the number of employees who are subordinate to him.

Employees of personnel management services, for their part, also have the task optimization(the process of finding the best of many possible solutions) the number of employees and personnel costs are often reduced to its minimization.

We analyzed the available methods for calculating the number of personnel and the practice of their application in order to optimize the structure of the number. For large enterprises today the following are widely used: the method of direct dependence on the production program, the method of coefficient dependence on the production program, the method "process" number etc. There is no single universal approach that makes it possible to accurately analyze the personnel structure of an enterprise and select the most cost-effective option for its optimization. However, it is possible to identify typical stages of activities for calculating the number of personnel:

selection of a base period for data analysis and comparison;
dividing workers of the main production units (technological personnel) into groups depending on the production program;
grouping of working auxiliary units (repair and maintenance of equipment, transport support, etc.) depending on the production program of the technological personnel;
identification of groups of managers, specialists and employees depending on changes in the production program;
expert determination of the degree of dependence of each group on the production program;
calculation of the number of personnel by groups, taking into account changes in the production program and tasks determined by the financial and economic situation of the enterprise.

I would like to generalize the experience of solving the problem of optimizing the number of personnel at large metallurgical plants in Ukraine and Russia, as well as at enterprises in other industries. In solving this problem, the following main stages can be distinguished:

1. Diagnostics of the current state of the enterprise. To analyze the situation you need to determine:

level of production capacity utilization;
degree of equipment wear;
level of automation and mechanization of work (main, auxiliary, managerial);
efficiency of work organization (including repairs);
efficiency of using working time by departments and individual professions;
effectiveness of the existing organizational management structure.

In addition, the financial condition of the enterprise and the existing workforce structure should be assessed.

2. Research of local and regional labor markets. Their condition must be taken into account not only when planning the release of personnel, but also when reorganizing the adopted remuneration system. This is especially important for large city-forming enterprises.

3. Assessment of the development prospects of the enterprise. It is necessary to analyze in detail the long-term plans:

on the introduction of new and modernization of existing equipment;
on changes in capacity utilization;
on changing the level of automation and mechanization of production;
to improve the organization of production activities;
to improve the organizational structure of management (including conducting a study of the possibilities of a shop and non-shop structure, etc.).

It is also necessary to assess the financial reserves and human resources of the enterprise.

4. Assessing the extent of the required optimization of personnel numbers and opportunities for redistribution of labor within the enterprise.

5. Carrying out measures to optimize the number and reduce personnel costs. To do this you should:

identify the “personnel core” and groups of professions that are less critical for the enterprise (in order to develop various policies regarding these groups of personnel, including in matters of employment);
revise outdated norms and standards, replace norms established practically with scientifically based ones;
expand the scope of combining professions and service areas;
increase flexibility in the use of labor (by introducing forms of part-time employment, organizing work taking into account seasonality factors and changes in demand for products, improving the organization of multi-shift work);
ensure further improvement organization of production(eliminate repetitive technological operations, optimize the placement of workplaces, improve working conditions, etc.), labor organization(develop collective contracting systems) and organization of remuneration(to encourage senior managers to reduce costs, to develop provisions for remuneration of workers, taking into account seasonality factors, changes in demand for products, reconstruction of fixed assets, etc.);
make changes and additions to the collective agreement aimed at creating and developing social incentives to reduce the number of personnel (organizing additional payments for early retirement, developing a system of additional pension and medical coverage, developing a corporate culture - ceremonial farewell to retirement, support for veteran organizations, etc. .).

6. Assessment of the economic and social effectiveness of developed and implemented measures to optimize the number of employees. When implementing such a socially significant project, it is important to organize work on its information support. Industry trade unions should be involved in cooperation and the benefits of the proposed solutions should be widely publicized in corporate and external media. It is very important to prevent the emergence of various rumors and fears among employees.

The position of our enterprise in the market, the intensity of use of existing production facilities, the serious work being carried out on the reconstruction and modernization of equipment and the improvement of technology in the conditions of existing production require special treatment of employees. For us, direct decrease headcount: we do not set the task of simply reducing the number or reducing personnel costs, but are looking for ways to optimization.

We closely monitor the situation on the labor market in Zaporozhye: there is a market price for labor, so our salary offers must be competitive. In addition, today in the metallurgy industry as a whole there are serious problems with personnel, the main one of which is who will work at the enterprises? In changing market conditions, an employer can ensure the highly efficient operation of his company only by attracting and retaining a highly qualified and mobile workforce. But recently there have been negative trends in the labor market:

Insufficient level of training of specialists in higher and secondary specialized educational institutions (especially in relation to new technologies and equipment). The education system does not prepare workers for many specialties; often graduates who come to enterprises generally can not work - neither on new nor on old equipment. But the worst thing is that they do not want work!
A high degree of dissatisfaction among young people with difficult working conditions and work schedules (which is often not compensated by higher earnings and the possibility of providing pensions and social benefits). Young people don’t want to come to us, especially on a shift schedule, in workshops with difficult working conditions. Today's young people have different priorities and values: today it is not uncommon to receive explanatory notes where absenteeism is explained simply: “I was in a nightclub.” Why did people used to work in workshops with harmful working conditions? Many were held back by benefits, including early retirement (according to the first list). But now even an elderly person reacts poorly to the word “pension”, and for young people, especially, a pension is “not an argument”; they want to have fun here and now!
Problems with replacing retired specialists. To ensure high quality products and develop, the plant requires highly qualified personnel. It is important that the employee not only be trained (have a qualification of the sixth category), but also accumulate work experience in the corresponding category for 10–15 years. That is, we need workers who received the sixth grade in 1992–1997. But in 1992, we didn’t hire anyone to the plant. (Specialists in the Russian mining and metallurgical industry have calculated that if at the end of the 90s the share of highly qualified workers was 30%, today it does not exceed 3%!)
Low level of loyalty of employees to the enterprise and their work (search for additional income, including during working hours, negligence, refusal to perform additional duties, work overtime and on weekends, etc.).

In these conditions, the management of the Zaporizhstal plant, in agreement with the Supervisory Board of the joint-stock company, is pursuing a balanced personnel policy aimed at maintaining an optimal number of employees, ensuring production with a workforce in accordance with the requirements of technological processes. This policy was developed taking into account both the current need for personnel and the strategic development perspective of the enterprise; it provides for achieving a balance between the desire to optimize numbers and increase labor productivity.

To optimize the number of personnel at OJSC Zaporizhstal, we have identified the following main areas of activity:

minimizing the number of personnel - primarily in areas and production facilities with underutilized production capacities and operating at a loss (with low profitability, for whose products there is no demand);
provision of start-up, newly introduced and expanded facilities with personnel of the necessary qualifications (at the same time, a decrease in labor productivity throughout the enterprise is not allowed);
improving the quality of personnel by improving methods of selection, placement and development of people;
improving the staff motivation system, ensuring an optimal balance between the costs of remuneration and the provision of a social package (taking into account the degree of implementation of the tasks facing employees, legal requirements and the situation on the labor market).

Within the framework of these areas of activity, to prepare measures to minimize the number of personnel at the Zaporizhstal plant, a commission (working group) was created, headed by the Deputy Chairman of the Board - Technical Director. The commission includes specialists from all directorates and services of the plant. Similar working groups have been created in workshops, departments and laboratories under the chairmanship of the heads of structural divisions of the plant. Each of these groups provides the general commission with an analysis of the number of divisions and developed optimization options.

The Directorate for Marketing and Foreign Economic Activity (FEA), together with the economic planning department, provides the general commission with data on the expected production volumes of all types of products manufactured by the plant for the coming period (year): by assortment, nomenclature, etc.

The Production Directorate reports data on the number of main technological units required to ensure the fulfillment of the planned volumes of output. Based on these data, the standard number of workers and technologists (both main and auxiliary workshops) is calculated. Accordingly, the volumes and schedule of necessary repair work are determined, which makes it possible to calculate the number of repair and maintenance personnel.

The Technical Directorate prepares information on changes in the volumes and conditions of repair work, technological and routine maintenance, and changes in the energy complex. In addition, this directorate, together with the strategic development department, presents business plans for launching, newly commissioned and expanded facilities. The reality of the implementation of these projects is confirmed by the directorates for supply, marketing and foreign trade activities.

The Directorate for Financial and Economic Affairs prepares information on the expected financial and economic performance of the enterprise as a whole, proposals for areas of cost optimization, economic justification and proposals for the operation of unprofitable (unprofitable) areas and non-core activities.

The General Affairs Directorate presents prospects for the development of non-industrial facilities and the social sphere.

Based on all this information, as well as taking into account proposals for restructuring and reorganization of the plant, outsourcing, changing the operating mode, etc., the Directorate for Personnel and Social Affairs prepares assignments for the working groups of structural divisions to optimize the number of personnel. In addition, it determines limits for drawing up budgets for personnel costs for structural units. Proposals from working groups of structural divisions on the implementation of established limits are considered by the general commission.

As a result of the work carried out, the number of workers at the plant in the first quarter of 2007 compared to the corresponding period in 2005 decreased by 108 people, while in comparable periods the volumes of steel and finished steel production increased. In addition, in the first quarter of 2007 (compared to the same period in 2005), the number of staff at the plant at startup, newly commissioned and expanded facilities increased by 352 staff units, as well as for performing certain functions on its own, etc. It should be noted that that in our enterprise, in many cases, the organization of work provides for the performance of the functions of temporarily absent workers (due to illness, vacation, etc.) by department employees, and not by special personnel for replacement. Therefore, the actual number of reserves for replacement is lower than the calculated value by almost 2 thousand people.

As a result, the average salary level at the plant in April 2007 was 2582 UAH/month. (68% of employees receive salaries above 2000 UAH/month), which is 26.3% more than in April 2006 and 46% higher than in April 2005. At our enterprise, according to the collective agreement The first category tariff corresponds to the subsistence level.

Many enterprises today are characterized by a sharp polarization of workers by salary level. Often, due to the existence of a narrow group of people who receive more than 10–15 thousand UAH/month, good indicators of the average salary for the enterprise as a whole are demonstrated. But we are against sharp differentiation in wages, although, of course, wages should be fair. Salary should motivate the employee, but leveling is more likely to demotivate. When certain groups of employees are unreasonably singled out (and every manager quite rightly believes that his people are the most important), imbalances in the remuneration policy, tension, and unnecessary conflicts arise. But a metallurgical enterprise is quite homogeneous in terms of the composition of its employees, so the degree of differentiation in salary levels must be justified. In Japan, for example, the ratio of the salary of a cleaner to a director of an enterprise is one to ten.

Today, in terms of equipment utilization, we have reached the levels of 1990. The level of remuneration and social package that we offer to employees of various categories is quite attractive for our city. It is these factors that determine the level of wages of our workers - we have earned our wages, and, on the other hand, this is how much a steelmaker’s labor costs on the domestic labor market today.

In conclusion, I note that optimizing the number of personnel is an extremely traumatic intervention for an organization. Therefore, the voluntaristic approach of some managers: “Let’s try: let’s hire - if anything, we’ll cut...”, or: “Let’s cut back - let’s see if they can handle it, and if something happens, we’ll hire...” - can hardly be considered justified. Each specific management decision related to changes in the number of personnel must be extremely responsible; in a certain sense, it is irreversible for the organization. In fact, both employers and employees are most interested in maintaining calm and social peace in the enterprise, which creates conditions for sustainable business development.

I have already mentioned more than once in my articles that I work with a team of 9 people. A year ago, I used various instant messengers and social networks to communicate with them, and used Google Drive and Google Sheets to issue and control tasks.

Because Everyone has their own preferences; I had to correspond with someone on VK, with someone by mail, with someone on Skype or Viber. And it happened that the same person wrote to me both here and there. It is clear that it was extremely difficult to find the necessary information later.

The more people I started working with on a regular basis, the more confusion it led to. More and more personal folders and files appeared in Google Drive, to which I shared access, and when it was necessary to provide access to a specific file to a new employee, it turned into hell and took a lot of time to search for this very file.

In addition, I had 15-20 personal daily tasks in a paper notebook, which I also wanted to transfer to electronic form, so that all the work would be stored in one place and be easily accessible from anywhere - home, office, minibus, beach or cafe.

At some point, I just got tired of keeping track of all this, and I decided to optimize all this chaos.

It’s logical that I started optimizing work processes by googling different CRM systems. And after a short search, I settled on Bitrix 24. There were two obvious advantages of this system:

Everything I needed was here.
Bitrix 24 is free for 12 employees.

Bitrix 24 saved time by 13.3 times!

The first launch of Bitrix, of course, upset me. At first, the interface seems very unfriendly. A bunch of submenus, bookmarks and buttons. It took me a little over a week to get used to all this, and I gradually began adding employees there and transferring some tasks to the Bitrix 24 ecosystem.

Bitrix 24 in the browser version on desktop.

From the first days of working with the team in Bitrix, it became clear that it is very convenient and saves a lot of time. If previously it took 20 minutes to set a task and notify employees about it, now it took 1.5 minutes and just a few clicks.

Earlier

Evernote on desktop.

I heard a lot about this organizer, but I still never got around to testing its functionality. At the moment, I'm very glad that I finally got around to Evernote, because it really saves time and doesn't let me forget the ideas that pop into my head. With a couple of clicks, you can create a note and no longer be afraid that something will fly out of your head due to the large amount of information.

Evernote on your smartphone.

By the way, in the first two days of use I made 27 notes in Evernote :)

4 in 1!

But that's not all. After I managed to sort out the personal chaos, I began to look for ways to combine work with employees and personal tasks with Bitrix 24. The goal was to combine everything as much as possible in one place.

And damn it, I succeeded!

After googling, I found on the official website an application for Bitrix 24 for synchronizing Evernote. The application allows you to upload notes to Bitrix and create tasks based on them.

An extremely convenient and incredibly useful thing! Now it looks like this:

I generated ideas in a minibus, in the toilet, in a bar, or before bed.
I uploaded notes related to work issues into Bitrix and, based on them, distributed tasks for myself and my employees.
PROFFIT!!111

Work planning

Now that all your notes, reminders and ideas are in one place, you can easily plan your work for the day, week and even month.

Now you don’t have to be afraid that you will forget something, miss some event, or some counterparty will not pay the money and it will go unnoticed.

The only thing that remains to be synchronized with Bitrix 24 is the MyBusiness service, which I also use. But, as far as I know, MoeDelo is working on this issue (currently there is synchronization only with AmoCRM) and perhaps soon this last pain will be closed.

What happened?

As a result, we got this link:

Google Drive + Google Sheets + synchronization with Bitrix 24 – for employees.
Evernote + synchronization with Google Calendar + synchronization with Bitrix 24 using the Evernote application for Bitrix - for me.

Thus, all work tasks, ideas and reminders immediately appear in a single program - Bitrix 24, which is on the phone and accessible from anywhere in the world where there is Internet.

P.S.

The only downside is that the number of articles to read accumulates faster than you find time to read them :) But this is no longer Pocket’s fault.

I hope my experience in optimizing work processes using this hellish bundle of services and programs will help you save time, start planning your work day wisely and don’t forget about the little things, micro-tasks and interesting content!

And if anyone has anything to add, please write about it in the comments!

the threat of dismissal has an overwhelming effect on people and worsens the moral and psychological climate in the team;

it is psychologically very difficult to fire “your” employees; even justified layoffs worsen the manager’s image in the eyes of the remaining employees;

An enterprise that “throws out” workers worsens its external image as an employer in the labor market, and its partners begin to treat it with caution.

encouraging early retirement of workers (often simultaneously with a reduction in the hiring of new employees);

encouraging the dismissal of persons who have reached retirement age by introducing special benefits for them;

transfer of employees to other business units (to auxiliary units, repair facilities, etc.);

encouraging the dismissal of certain categories of employees at their own request (with the payment of significant bonuses to them), etc.

A manager may strive to accumulate “reserve” resources in case unforeseen tasks or difficulties arise.

The accumulation of “surplus personnel” may be a consequence of professional incompetence leader. In this case, he either tries to compensate for his incompetence by hiring additional specialists, or (without imagining the real state of affairs) follows the lead of his own subordinates, who strive to shift part of their responsibilities to newcomers.

The manager believes that his status and influence are determined by the number of employees who are subordinate to him.

selection of a base period for data analysis and comparison;

dividing workers of the main production units (technological personnel) into groups depending on the production program;

grouping of working auxiliary units (repair and maintenance of equipment, transport support, etc.) depending on the production program of the technological personnel;

identification of groups of managers, specialists and employees depending on changes in the production program;

expert determination of the degree of dependence of each group on the production program;

calculation of the number of personnel by groups, taking into account changes in the production program and tasks determined by the financial and economic situation of the enterprise.

1. Diagnostics of the current state of the enterprise. To analyze the situation you need to determine:

level of production capacity utilization;

degree of equipment wear;

level of automation and mechanization of work (main, auxiliary, managerial);

efficiency of work organization (including repairs);

efficiency of using working time by departments and individual professions;

effectiveness of the existing organizational management structure.

In addition, the financial condition of the enterprise and the existing workforce structure should be assessed.

3. Assessment of the development prospects of the enterprise. It is necessary to analyze in detail the long-term plans:

on the introduction of new and modernization of existing equipment;

on changes in capacity utilization;

on changing the level of automation and mechanization of production;

to improve the organization of production activities;

to improve the organizational structure of management (including conducting a study of the possibilities of a shop and non-shop structure, etc.).

It is also necessary to assess the financial reserves and human resources of the enterprise.

4. Assessing the extent of the required optimization of personnel numbers and opportunities for redistribution of labor within the enterprise.

5. Carrying out measures to optimize the number and reduce personnel costs. To do this you should:

identify the “personnel core” and groups of professions that are less critical for the enterprise (in order to develop various policies regarding these groups of personnel, including in matters of employment);

revise outdated norms and standards, replace norms established practically with scientifically based ones;

expand the scope of combining professions and service areas;

increase flexibility in the use of labor (by introducing forms of part-time employment, organizing work taking into account seasonality factors and changes in demand for products, improving the organization of multi-shift work);

ensure further improvement organization of production(eliminate repetitive technological operations, optimize the placement of workplaces, improve working conditions, etc.), labor organization(develop collective contracting systems) and organization of remuneration(to encourage senior managers to reduce costs, to develop provisions for remuneration of workers, taking into account seasonality factors, changes in demand for products, reconstruction of fixed assets, etc.);

make changes and additions to the collective agreement aimed at creating and developing social incentives to reduce the number of personnel (organizing additional payments for early retirement, developing a system of additional pension and medical coverage, developing a corporate culture - ceremonial farewell to retirement, support for veteran organizations, etc. .).

Insufficient level of training of specialists in higher and secondary specialized educational institutions (especially in relation to new technologies and equipment). The education system does not prepare workers for many specialties; often graduates who come to enterprises generally can not work - neither on new nor on old equipment. But the worst thing is that they do not want work!

A high degree of dissatisfaction among young people with difficult working conditions and work schedules (which is often not compensated by higher earnings and the possibility of providing pensions and social benefits). Young people don’t want to come to us, especially on a shift schedule, in workshops with difficult working conditions. Today's young people have different priorities and values: today it is not uncommon to receive explanatory notes where absenteeism is explained simply: “I was in a nightclub.” Why did people used to work in workshops with harmful working conditions? Many were held back by benefits, including early retirement (according to the first list). But now even an elderly person reacts poorly to the word “pension”, and for young people, especially, a pension is “not an argument”; they want to have fun here and now!

Problems with replacing retired specialists. To ensure high quality products and develop, the plant requires highly qualified personnel. It is important that the employee not only be trained (have a qualification of the sixth category), but also accumulate work experience in the corresponding category for 10–15 years. That is, we need workers who received the sixth grade in 1992–1997. But in 1992, we didn’t hire anyone to the plant. (Specialists in the Russian mining and metallurgical industry have calculated that if at the end of the 90s the share of highly qualified workers was 30%, today it does not exceed 3%!)

Low level of loyalty of employees to the enterprise and their work (search for additional income, including during working hours, negligence, refusal to perform additional duties, work overtime and on weekends, etc.).

To optimize the number of personnel at OJSC Zaporizhstal, we have identified the following main areas of activity:

minimizing the number of personnel - primarily in areas and production facilities with underutilized production capacities and operating at a loss (with low profitability, for whose products there is no demand);

provision of start-up, newly introduced and expanded facilities with personnel of the necessary qualifications (at the same time, a decrease in labor productivity throughout the enterprise is not allowed);

improving the quality of personnel by improving methods of selection, placement and development of people;

improving the staff motivation system, ensuring an optimal balance between the costs of remuneration and the provision of a social package (taking into account the degree of implementation of the tasks facing employees, legal requirements and the situation on the labor market).

The General Affairs Directorate presents prospects for the development of non-industrial facilities and the social sphere.

Article provided to our portal
editorial staff of the magazine

> Optimization of working time

Optimization of working time

Time is often an undervalued resource. How much it is spent and on what is often not clear. Of course, people are not robots and cannot work all the time and perform feats of labor. Small breaks during the working day are even welcome. But if the pauses are prolonged and working time is not used effectively. It’s worth thinking about it and taking decisive action. After all, the loss of time is directly related to the loss of money.

Disadvantages of work organization

The worst thing is if the work is not organized at all. Each employee performs a task that he considers important at the moment. At the same time, another employee can spend half a day without work, not even suspecting that his colleague has not even started the document he is waiting for. Managers themselves often contribute to wasted time. They set a task, five minutes later another, half an hour later they order to put these tasks aside and do other work. Therefore, a leader should start by organizing himself and his tasks. The job of a manager is to organize work processes and set priorities for tasks.

Disadvantages in the organization of work include a lack of resources. For example, the printer suddenly runs out of paper. And, oddly enough, it doesn’t exist at all. There is one telephone in the office and employees take turns using it. Employees waiting their turn prefer to do nothing.

Lack of recording of working hours, standards, time frames

Working time tracking already disciplines by its presence. Often employees enjoy the favor of the manager. Another trip “on business” gives the employee the opportunity to go to a hairdresser, a store and visit a friend. Even if the manager periodically conducts inspections, this is temporary. After a couple of weeks, you can again take care of your business during working hours. Therefore, it is important that working time recording and control be constant. Especially in cases where employees do not demonstrate high labor productivity and the company earns little.

It is rational to set time frames and deadlines for tasks. In most cases, for many types of work, this is acceptable. If an employee does not meet the allotted time, then you can always look at why and, if necessary, give more time next time.

If the tasks are simple and often repeated, then time standards can be set.

In projects, the work schedule is of great importance. If no one adheres to it, then the leader or project manager should think about the question “why is this so?”

Alternation of work and rest time

There are times when managers go too far. Employees work actively, on edge, all day long. As a result, productivity drops and tasks take longer to complete due to normal fatigue. Over time, fatigue can develop into chronic fatigue and a valuable shot can be considered lost. The manager should take a closer look at the employees and their personal rhythm. And also, if possible individually, set an appropriate work schedule.

It’s a good idea to consider pauses in the work process. Five to ten minutes of rest after every hour of work will not reduce productivity. After serious, intense projects, it’s quite possible to have a day of rest. Tired, psychologically and mentally exhausted employees will not produce the desired results.

Forced downtime

During the work process, downtime is still possible for objective reasons. Such pauses seriously affect the working mood and cool the ardor of workers. Therefore, it would be nice for the manager to fill these pauses. Naturally, with benefits for the company and the individual. Because in most cases, employees fill the pauses themselves, communicating on social networks, instant messaging programs, and entertainment sites. Therefore, even when the pause ends, the employee does not want to break away from such pastime.

The employee can fill forced pauses with personal development. For example, take a test. Or do an exercise to develop attention. Read a book on work, visit a professional website. The role of the manager here is high, because he can establish such a process himself and encourage those who do not waste time.

In the end, pauses can be filled with basic tidying up of desks, in the office and around the office.

In some cases, flexible schedules can be used to eliminate downtime. For example, it is known that the designer will finish the design and hand it over to the layout designer no earlier than lunch. Why does a layout designer come in the morning? Perhaps he will spend this time more usefully for himself and will only be grateful.

The optimal use of working time directly depends on the manager. Therefore, make the most of your capabilities, the tips given and look for your own ways to optimize your working time.

If you want to see what and how employees spend their working time, I’ll try the free one, which has a tool for estimating employee time expenditure. Register using the link and invite your employees to the program.

Oleg Lobanov General Director of the company "KorpusGroup", Moscow

What questions will you find answers to in this article?

How to painlessly reduce administrative and management personnel from 500 to 95 people
In what cases is the principle of the universal soldier effective?
How to organize the work of 40 branches at once by rationing operations

Our company has many areas of activity, and we pay special attention to process optimization. In this article I will talk about three ways to quickly identify and correct defects that lie on the surface. This is, firstly, the identification of working time reserves, secondly, the introduction of the universal soldier principle and, thirdly, the rationing of operations.

Method 1. Identification of working time reserves

Over the past three years, we have been implementing a process approach in the company. It allows you to describe all actions and their properties in order to ultimately make the control system look like a clear mathematical model. The work takes place in several stages.

1. Determination of the useful workload of each employee. First, each process is described “as is.” This alone allows you to see operations that take up employee time, but are not effective. For example, when we began to analyze the workload, we were surprised to find that the chief engineer was doing everything except managing the engineering service. He recalculated the cost of contracts for technical work, calculated the cost of new projects, etc. This work is quite within the capabilities of an ordinary engineer. The same can happen in any department of the company: marketing department, personnel service. By describing specific operations, you can assess the employee’s workload with repetitive processes, main or auxiliary. When describing any process, you need to take into account its algorithm, labor intensity and frequency. For example, our director is required to meet with the group’s clients A at least four times a year, and the more such clients, the higher the repeatability of this process. Moreover, you can see how this multiplier changes in different branches, which allows you to predict how long it will take to complete an operation in a particular branch.

2. Redistribution of unnecessary processes. Processes that do not correspond to the true goals of employees need to get rid of them. Let me give you an example of an incorrect distribution of responsibilities that we identified and eliminated at one of our enterprises. The cleaning facility managers, in addition to their main work, were involved in personnel selection, because the personnel officer also worked as an assistant director. By hiring an assistant and relieving the HR officer and managers of someone else’s workload, the director was able to make do with not ten managers, but six – without reducing productivity. In other words, by eliminating or optimizing support processes, we save man-hours. We have established a rule for ourselves: if you save 168 working hours per month, you can reduce your workplace without losing overall labor efficiency.

Let me give you another example. At one of our large enterprises, the administrative and management personnel (AUP) staff at the start of the project employed about 500 people. By restructuring their work, we were able to reduce the number to 95, which gave a high economic effect. Initially, the AUP staff was formed based on existing experience in organizing cleaning. There are many cleaning objects; accordingly, each administrator was responsible for several buildings, usually distributed without any logic. It was in this link that large-scale work was carried out. Having removed all unnecessary processes, we determined the optimal load for each administrator, taking into account the location of objects, the time to move between them and the amount of work.

3. Introduction of innovations. We try to ensure that all changes in the branches are implemented by the person who developed them: a business analyst goes to the site, assesses the current state of the processes and the qualifications of their performers, and draws up an action plan in relation to specific conditions. In addition, he conducts face-to-face training of performers in the approved standard and builds a system for subsequent remote training. The frequency of face-to-face inspections depends on the significance of the object and its problematic nature. On average, it takes two days to assess the situation, and one to prepare changes.

Method 2. The principle of the universal soldier

The essence of this optimization method is that the same person can perform different functions. It is important to correctly calculate the employee’s workload so that new functions do not become an unbearable burden for him.

Here's a good example. There are two cashiers working in the cafeteria, but one employee can do the job before and after lunch. Therefore, it makes sense to send a second cashier to the kitchen so that he can help with preparing dishes before lunch, and with cleaning afterward. This way you can reduce the number of cooks and cleaners without reducing the quality of service.

Expert opinion

Natalia Zaitseva

The principle of the universal soldier, which ensures the interchangeability of employees, is used by many companies to reduce the number of personnel. A striking example is the Rosinter Restaurants Holding company. The managers of this company know how to work both in the kitchen and in the hall. When this principle is introduced, some of the staff leave, not wanting to take on additional workload, and the rest work for two. Universal specialists are encouraged with bonuses and bonuses. As a result of this policy, in the second half of 2011, Rosinter's personnel costs in Moscow decreased by 11% compared to the first half of the year.

In my opinion, the effectiveness of this method is high only in times of crisis (as in the example given). Under normal conditions, it makes more sense to maintain employee specialization: either a good cook or a good administrator. At the same time, of course, there should be a personnel reserve system. One company I know uses the technique of voluntary-compulsory stimulation of managers and specialists so that they prepare successors: the employee will not go on vacation until he prepares a replacement, and while resting, he is obliged to turn off the phone so that his backup does not count on help. True, such incentives do not always work: some employees stop going on vacation so as not to prepare a replacement.

Method 3. Rationing operations

To find out the cost to the company of each process, you need to understand how much time it takes to complete each operation. I will show the process of standardization using the example of the work of a cleaning facility manager.

The facility manager regularly checks whether employees have returned to work, distributes them throughout the facility, makes notes in the personnel placement plan, draws up memos about absenteeism and additional payments for overtime, and transmits the timesheet to the human resources department. Each operation is repeated at different frequencies: some - 2 times a month, some - 22. Checking one cleaner at one facility takes half a minute, but if there are several facilities under control (and each has 5-10 cleaners), Accordingly, more time will be needed. It would seem like a minute operation, but simple arithmetic shows that this work involves quite a significant time investment. In 40 branches of the company, we introduced corporate standards and thanks to them we achieved the same work operations (be it installation or dismantling of a buffet line, peeling a kilogram of potatoes, wet cleaning of 100 square meters of flooring or one accounting entry) in the same time.

To standardize operations, we measure their duration during the working day. First you need to read the employee’s job description, then use a stopwatch to take measurements throughout the entire work shift; record the result in the protocol. Measurements are carried out by business analysts, they also analyze the data obtained (determine the total loss of working time, factors affecting the performance of work tasks and operations), and also assess the prospects for increasing labor productivity in the workplace. The conclusions are recorded in an analytical note. The time spent by employees who demonstrate the best results is taken as a basis for other employees. In addition, the workday scheme allows you to determine which process changes you should focus on in order to improve the organization of work in the enterprise as a whole.

For example, during one of these measurements it turned out that cleaners spend a lot of time walking to the utility room to get a mop, and during another - that the cook runs for equipment from one end of the workshop to the other. Such organizational shortcomings are usually easy to eliminate: you just need to place everything necessary for work at arm’s length and describe the new standards in corporate documents. In our case, the productivity of cleaners and cooks increased by 16% (see also: ).

How to get rid of the staff shortage by optimizing your workspace

At the automotive electrical equipment plant, there were not enough balancers in the assembly areas. When observing the work of the balancer, it turned out that he receives paste (a special material for balancing the motor armature during assembly) from the workshop warehouse four to five times per shift (thus, he loses 1.66 seconds per part). If the balancing paste is delivered to the workplace, this will reduce the periodic work time by 35 hours.

Analyzing the work of the unit assembly section at the same plant, it was revealed that the equipment was arranged not according to the technological chain, but according to the “where available” principle. The equipment was arranged sequentially - in accordance with the technological process. Now the part moved from machine to machine and was passed from hand to hand. There is no longer a need for a large amount of containers and a supply of parts, 90 sq. m have been freed up. m of area, the total production cycle time decreased from 420.11 sec. up to 331.86 sec. This increased the site's throughput by 20%. And most importantly, the operators, mostly women, stopped carrying heavy loads from one workplace to another.

Based on the article “ How to improve production efficiency »

Expert opinion

Natalia Zaitseva Professor, Head of the Department of “Management in Tourism and Hotel Enterprises”, Institute of Tourism and Hospitality, Moscow; Doctor of Economic Sciences

Timing of individual operations and compiling a so-called photograph of the working day helps to identify the ratio of productive and unproductive time spent, to understand which of the employees performs similar production operations over what period of time. The measurements can be taken by the employee himself. It is important not to make hasty conclusions, but to collect sufficient analytical material so that you can compare how much time it takes company employees to perform the same operations. It is often enough to simply implement a time measurement system in a company so that the share of direct losses and unproductive costs is reduced.

In addition to time, a number of other indicators can be taken into account. I will list them.

Service standards - production areas, amount of equipment, etc., which must be serviced by one employee. For example, in the hotel business this may be the norm for rooms that are cleaned by one maid, and in the restaurant business this may be the norm for tables assigned to one waiter.
Production standards are the amount of work in natural or cost terms that an employee must complete in a certain time. These standards include a sales plan for the day, week, month. It is important that the standards are achievable (it is recommended to set them in such a way that, with some additional effort, the probability of achieving them is at least 70–80%). For example, I once encountered a trading company in which the norm for individual sales was unreasonably high: not a single employee could achieve it. No matter what the managers did, no one ever reached the established targets in six months. In the end, the norm was revised.
Staffing standards are the number of employees required to perform a certain amount of work.
Area standards – the area of an employee’s workspace (workplace organization).
Norms of management (controllability) - the number of subordinates per manager (determined depending on the manager’s place in the hierarchy and the characteristics of the work performed). Thus, for top managers the recommended management norm is 4±1; for middle-level managers – 7±2, for line managers – 9±3. It happens that the norm is exceeded many times over: for example, 30–50 people are subordinate, but the work of the enterprise does not suffer. This situation usually occurs at the level of line management; much depends on the degree of participation of the manager in the management process itself.

All these standards must be reasonable and justified by certain calculations or measurements. I also note that this approach can be used for standardized and repetitive types of work. If the types of work are of different types, you should look for other options for determining time standards for assessing employee performance. For example, you can resort to the technique of summary reports. In one international audit company, this is customary for newcomers. During the probationary period, an employee is required to call his immediate supervisor every 20 minutes and report on what he has done during this time. Since the company hires quite qualified employees with extensive work experience, they often consider this form of reporting unacceptable for professionals. However, as a rule, by the end of the first month, everyone is convinced that labor productivity has increased compared to the results at the previous place of work. After all, you had to report for every 20 minutes!

Based on the analysis of data on the cost of staff working time, average time standards for individual operations are derived, taking into account the specifics of the company’s work or other features (technological process, service process, characteristics of clients, partners, etc.). Calculations show that, in general, the economic effect of using standardization at an enterprise, based on the principles of scientific organization of labor, can amount to 5–25% of personnel costs. However, the effectiveness of rationing will be different in each case. This depends not only on how exactly the system was developed and implemented, but also on what goals its implementation was pursued. In other words, rationing is necessary when, thanks to it, the goal of a management decision is achieved. If this goal can be achieved in other ways, using other technologies, rationing is not necessary. We should always take into account the effectiveness of the measures taken: what costs are expected (time, labor, information, material resources), how much they will cost and what result we will ultimately get.

Expert opinion

Irina Kandaurova General Director of HR studio “Time of People”, Moscow

In order to assess how effectively labor processes are set up and employees’ workplaces are organized, as well as to detect sources of lost working time, it is advisable to conduct so-called momentary observations in the department: after a certain time interval (usually 10–15 minutes), record the work performed by a group of workers (up to 20–15 minutes). 25 people) types of activities. This method can be used for employees performing similar jobs.

Thus, when conducting a study at one manufacturing enterprise, it was revealed that workplaces were organized irrationally. The workers placed trays with workpieces on low stools - they had to bend over, and this was tiring. They turned back for empty trays. The shop manager was advised to place cabinets with empty trays to the right of the worker (they decided to paint a special marking on the floor and equip the machines with high stands for the trays).

The standardization procedure is necessary for a company in several cases.

It is necessary to evaluate the workload of employees of a particular department (the results of which, for example, are low, but employees talk about high workload).
The head of the department needs to justify the number of employees in the department in connection with the growing volume of tasks.
The company's management intends to speed up customer service and wants to compare the speed of performing similar operations in their company and in competing companies. In this case, a set of measures is needed to study the speed of customer service, study the efficiency of organizing labor processes in the company, and find solutions that improve the work of employees.

In order to make management decisions regarding the processes of organizing work, distributing responsibilities, determining the list and procedure for approving documents, it is worth starting with an analysis of the structure of employees’ working time.

Let me give you an example of a company that sells packaging materials wholesale. Over the past year, there has been no increase in clients in the sales departments. The work of sales specialists is distributed by type of client: departments working with manufacturing companies, retail chains, construction companies, etc.

The company's managers decided to analyze the working time structure of employees in these departments. First, it was necessary to determine the list of operations to be performed. To form a preliminary list, we analyzed job descriptions, regulations, documents describing the business processes of departments, and then talked with executive employees and their managers. Next, a list of operations to be studied was agreed upon. For example, to apply for a loan, a sales employee must perform three operations: receive documents from the client, fill out loan authorization forms, and submit a package of documents to the secretary to obtain an executive visa.

The next step is a more detailed study of operational time. To begin with, it was divided into primary (when the subject of labor undergoes quantitative and qualitative changes) and auxiliary (spent by the performer to provide conditions for performing the main work). It became clear that a lot of time was spent on auxiliary operations. We came to the conclusion that there are reserves for increasing labor productivity: it is necessary to highlight the main functions of sales managers and free them from auxiliary functions. To do this, transfer auxiliary functions to technical employees serving sales, as well as automate the activities of the sales department. In monetary terms, the picture looks like this:

the cost of one sales manager per month is 70 thousand rubles;
the cost of work for one assistant manager of the sales department is 40 thousand rubles;
30% of a sales manager’s working time costs 21 thousand rubles.

In total, you can save 252 thousand rubles per year. If we consider that there are 5–8 managers in each department, and there are five departments, then the amount amounts to millions.

Based on the results obtained, the company's managers were able to make a decision to change the work processes in the organization, the organizational structure of the department, the functionality of employees, etc. Optimization came down to the introduction of a staff position for an assistant manager in the sales department. He was charged with the following:

registration of applications for the purchase of goods and their return;
clarification of information about the receipt of goods at the warehouse;
formation of a package of documents for the return of goods;
tracking in the information base the receipt of goods for ordered items;
collection of client documents;
clarifying information about delivery with the driver;
filling out a loan authorization;
filling out an application for samples;
sending and receiving reconciliation reports.

Reference

Oleg Lobanov Graduated from the Russian Economic Academy named after. G.V. Plekhanov with a degree in engineering. He began his career in the restaurant business as a student by managing his own small home-cooking restaurant. In 1991 he founded and headed the holding company KorpusGroup

CorpusGroup LLC

Field of activity: organization of corporate and industrial catering, operation of real estate, professional cleaning of territories and premises; dry cleaning of workwear

Territory: head office in Moscow, branches in more than 40 regions of Russia, including Vladivostok, St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Ufa, as well as in Kazakhstan and Ukraine

Number of staff: more than 11,000

Subscriber to the magazine "General Director": since 2012

Natalia Zaitseva Graduated from the Faculty of Engineering and Economics of the Moscow Institute of Technology (now the Russian State University of Tourism and Service) with a degree in economics and organization of consumer services. Since 2000 – freelance consultant for tourism and hotel businesses, timber processing, wholesale and retail trade; implemented projects on organizational design, business process optimization, and change management.

Institute of Tourism and Hospitality

Field of activity: education ( branch of the Russian State University of Tourism and Service)

Annual release: over 600 specialists

LLC "Time of People Consulting"»

Field of activity: development of remuneration systems; personnel standardization and assessment, personnel selection and training

Company growth rate: more than 30% annually