The Job

Hey there! Been quite long since I last posted. Due to the planning cycle at my office, I have been kept really busy and overloaded. I haven't finished the book I promised to review, soo in this opportunity, I thought I will share a little bit about my job, and the section I am currently working.

Well, I worked as an Organization Development (OD) analyst/ officer. I know, it is an abstract title. I did not know what that word means a year ago. In the office, I belong to HR division, but OD mostly talks about the system rather than the people in an organization. In some companies, though, OD doesn't always belong to HR, it can be a part of corporate function, like corporate planning function, etc.

So what does an OD do? well, I will tell you based on the ideal theory I got during my in-class-training.

1. Business Process Mapping
There are hundreds of definition of what Business Process Management is, but I'm going to give you a simple one. It is actually mapping out workflow process, as effective, efficient & as adaptive as the company wants. Every company has a business process, whether it is documented or not. For example in my company, as a leasing company our major business process is: Sales - Credit - Service - Collection. Business process comes down from company's strategy, vision & mission, and WBAWI (What Business Are We In).
As an OD, we need to map out business process in each function (it's called minor business process), measure its effectiveness and improve them, to be more efficient & effective than before. In fact, having an adaptive business process can be a huge competitive advantage for a company.

2. Competency Management
After we map out a clear business process, we can know what core competencies the company need. To survive, an organization needs to have capable people and therefore we need to determine what are the core competency that the people in the organization need to master. Then, we can recruit the right people in the right place.

3. Organization Management
Along with competency management, OD has to create the organization structure, the positions equipped with clear job descriptions, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and the position rank in the company (Job Value). KPI determines how a position holder's performance will be evaluated. Job Value determines the position's rank among any other positions, whether that position can be assigned to a bachelor degree fresh graduates, or an experienced professional, and job value also determines the starting salary and the top-stop salary for the position holders.

4. Productivity Management
Last but not least, OD needs to plan the resources needed to do all the jobs designed above. First, we need to determine how many people is enough to hold each position. We can do it by determining productivity standard, measuring the workload in the positions, and analyzing the target for each position, and also, the long part: discussing it with the users (authorized positions, usually the head of the position).
Regularly, OD has to review, analyze & improve people productivity. Because the business is getting tougher, the company wants to be more efficient, but the salary has to increase, so the resources need to be more productive. Annually, we have to do "manpower planning", a process to plan the number of people needed in the organization. A number that is enough to achieve the sales target, but also enough to make the company profit. And this is the hardest part, that consumes most of my life in these months. Often, OD get stucked between the operation target that needs as many people as needed to achieve the target, while the finance function demands the number to be "as small as possible" to fit in the profitability report. And it happens every year.

God, it is Sunday and I am writing about my job to you all. A good reminder before Monday, I guess.

Cheer up, Monday People!