We have talked quite extensively about the importance of a good safety culture. It is essential to keep people safe at work and make sure everybody goes home healthy at the end of the day. However, the quality culture is just as important as the safety culture. There needs to be a healthy quality culture in order for the company to thrive.
It All Starts with Passion
Delivering the highest quality comes with a passion for the job. Whether you are a carpenter, banker, or quality manager, when you have a real passion for your job you will do the best you can. Hiring the right people can already prevent some quality problems. The employees form the culture and deliver the end product. Hiring people that don’t really care about the product or service you deliver can lead to some serious issues. Make sure you hire the right ones.
Trust your People
When you have hired the right people and trained them properly, it’s important to trust them. Too many companies have complete encyclopaedias full with procedures, work instructions, and detail step-by-step guides. The workforce simply have to follow these steps to get the products or services out the door. When these guides are too detailed, people won’t feel responsible for their job. They are caught in the processes and will always blame the system instead of looking at their own actions. Yes guidance is good, but try not to make it too rigid as people lose motivation and stop caring.
Feedback
Another great method to create a quality driven culture is feedback. Allow the employees to give feedback on the instruction the company has in place. The people performing the steps know exactly what is going on during the day-to-day operations. They have a feeling of the friction between the steps, so involve them as they hold a lot of valuable knowledge.
Within the same line of reasoning, give the employees feedback. When someone reported an NC, make sure you keep him/her involved and give active feedback. They will therefore feel engaged and see how the company uses his/her input to improve the organization. This will definitely engage the employees.
Platform
To support the culture, a proper quality Management Platform is a necessity. The easy access to the right information allows employees to conveniently interact with the management system. They can grab the right process right away without searching too long and create a NC or other issue by three simple clicks. Furthermore, they should be able to see the progress of the NC/Issue they filled in real time to keep them engaged. When you want to bring the quality culture to the next level, make sure a proper Quality Management Platform is in place.
Celebrate
Lastly, the most important point, celebrate goals. Make sure when quality goals are reached that you take a moment and celebrate them. Get lunch, grab a beer, or just get some cake to share around, but make sure you celebrate reaching goals. This way everybody can feel the excitement and become motivated to reach more goals.
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