Improvement of all the processes of HRM will be ideal implementation of TQM. Also TQM is a vast topic. First there should be QA, then QC of the processes of HRM, then the TQM concept can be followed. Another ideal implementation of TQM is implementation of Six Sigma and process improvement. This will decrease the defects upto 3.4/million. TQM will be implemented when there is continuous improvement.

The basic philosophy of TOM in a process is that, quality is required to be built up in every step so as to make the succeeding step, a customer of preceding step,and thereby ensuring final customer's ( end-user's ) satisfaction. When applied this concept to HRM, the quality should be inseparable part of every step of HRM, right from recruitment, placement to career planning, training & development , in order to convert the employee as an asset that contributes to the growth and development of the organization. In today's scenario, HRM is required to play a strategic role of building up Human Capital for creating competitive advantage for organizational sustainability & growth, and this is possible through application of concept of TQM in HRM.

Thank you for your answers!

I want to establish a policy and in details to prescribe the process flow of the HR functions and respective checklists. After doing so, I would like to identify possible gaps (or defects in the process) and implement process improvement techniques based on the QM principles, and propose guidelines on sustainable HR practices. Does this stand? What would be the best QC technique and toward what basis should I control the quality of the processes. When do I make sure that there is enough to be done?

You can develop the policies through the QMS 9001:2008 Standard guidelines. Afterwards you can do the root cause analysis of the processes. But first you be will needing the data, for that you can use the minitab software. Then note down the current mean of the process. Clear the gaps, measure again and note down the new one. If the change is positive then it means it is improvement. In HRM the cycle time of recruitment is very important. You can work on that. But you should keep in mind that you have to first divide the processes into small chunks and one by one improve them.

You have to mix.

1. Project Management

2. QMS 9001:2008 Policies and procedures

3. Six Sigma Tool and techniques

and then you have to maintain the standard upto 1 year in order to achieve the TQM and you must show that what was the organizational change. If you want your work more closely to be reviewed then drop me email any time on: [email protected]

The most important step is to measure all of the current processes in your HRM organization (e.g., number of applicants processed per week/month, time required to post a job application, time required to process completed job applications, time required to hire a new applicant, time required to complete orientation training for a new applicant, time required to process a promotion and/or award for an employee, number of employee complaints [against managers] filed and processed, time required to out-processs an employee [separation, layoff, retirement], time required to post an HR action in an employee's offical file, number of employees who review their official file, etc.).

Once you have put procedures in place to measure all of your HRM processes, the next step is to measure each HRM transaction and build a database of with each transaction and how long it takes to accomplish each one. After a short period of time, you will have enough data to perform basis analysis (average amount/time/number, maximum amount/time/number, minimum amount/time/number, etc.). The next step would be to compare/benchmark your HRM statistics with industry standards (if avalable) or with the leader in your area (again, if available).

If you do not have external numbers against which you can compare your measurements, you can then set goals for each key measurement and modify your internal processes in ways that will increase throughput and/or reduce time to help you meet your objectives.

Thank you for your comment. In fact I have been busy with other stuff, but I will post other questions that might come up during my observations this month.

thank you all for your valuable comments. I will keep you posted.

An interesting perspective I am trying to study relates customer's complaints to HR development. I mean, HR should use customers' feedback as a starting point to plan training and career development. Better focused on customers' needs and/or satisfaction employees can be an advantage not only in a TQM firm.

I also advice you to have a look at literature related to the effects of so called "expectation-disconfirmation" theory.