Black belts and its relevance to an organization
It’s good to
ensure that your organization deploys the Six Sigma method. However, the
easiest part is the decision-making process with the actual deployment becoming
a huge commitment. For instance, if an organization needs to ensure
that the Six Sigma method is followed to a ‘T’, it may have to make a few
sacrifices.
The company may
have to foot the bill to train its own people as Black Belts and Green Belts by
releasing them from their current duties. An alternative is to hire Black Belts
from different organizations and have them lead projects.
Both options have their advantages and
disadvantages and it is important that company leaders weigh all these pros and
cons before taking the final decision. When you decide to get your own
employees trained for the purpose, the investment is huge – both in terms of
money and productive hours lost. However, the return on that investment in
terms of moral and culture change may be even larger.
Another benefit of promoting your own employees is
that it improves the employee-employer relationship. Those you’ve short listed
for the Six Sigma training know they are trusted by the company and will want
to live up to this trust.
Now, let us take a
look at the other side of the coin. When you get in an external Black Belt who’s already completed Six Sigma training,
you save on huge initial investments. However, you do have to pay for hiring
costs to bring in external Black Belts. And you cannot get the Black Belt to
work from the word go. They need time and resources to become familiar with
your company’s processes. One other disadvantage with hiring Black Belts is
that their need to learn more about processes to initiate Six Sigma projects,
can lengthen project times and delay results.
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