Ducks in a Row: Why Align Objectives and Resources?
by Miki Saxon
Ever head the old French proverb, ‘the more things change the more they stay the same’?
Ever since the advent of modern business, managers have faced the same conundrum, i.e., how do you accomplish your objectives when your resources (human or other) are continually reduced or the objectives are significantly expanded, but the staff isn’t.
Walmart is the most recent poster child for this approach and it is especially obvious in the fresh grocery section.
“Labor hours have been cut so thin, that they don’t have the people to do many activities,” said Burt P. Flickinger III, a retail consultant. “The fact that they don’t do some of these things every day, every shift, shows what a complete breakdown Walmart has in staffing and training.”
Walmart continually sends out detailed memos of work that needs to be done daily, such as discounting older meat and eggs, testing/filtering deli oil and watering plants, but adds a rider that practically guarantees managers inability to perform.
At the same time, the memo warns managers not to exceed the weekly hours assigned to their stores. It tells managers to examine whether they are assigning employees too many hours or overtime beyond what the company had budgeted.
Walmart’s employment numbers are misleading, too, since it would require an additional 200,000 workers to have kept pace with its square footage growth.
There are thousands of companies, large and small, consumer, enterprise and startup that play the same game; Walmart is just one of the most visible.
The basic point is simple and should be embedded in your cultural DNA.
When objectives change resources, human and otherwise, need to change (whether increase or decrease) with them.
Flickr image credit: USFWS Mountain-Prairie
