How effective and important is Lean/Six Sigma implementation in Human Resource area in today’s scenario?

"I am a fan of many of the principles and methodologies that Six Sigma & Lean promote, however, it is widely acknowledged that they are not always effective in dealing with "softer" aspects of certain disciplines, services or industries. They can be excellent tools for dealing in absolutes that involve metrics and processes, such as manufacturing and production, however, having had experience in these applications within a service industry (health & social care) they can often fall short when factoring in "soft" skills, such a perception, intuition, judgement and general gut feelings. For instance, a nurse or social worker can follow process, but can quite often be faced with a situation that requires them to override due process in favour of using their best judgement. An excellent, knowledgeable and insightful process facilitator (green/black belt) can factor these in when building and developing processes, but they can often be missed.

I prefer to "cherry pick" some of the robust and applicable components and principles of Six Sigma/Lean and apply them appropriately when building a bespoke process for a service-style working practice or function. I may be wrong here (as a non-subject matter expert in HR) but my perception of HR is that a portion of the working practices fall into what I call "vocational" applications, i.e the HR advisers use best judgment, perception and intuition when dealing with certain HR issues. Process methodologies would be fine in guiding an advisor on how to procedurally deal with a grievance or disciplinary situation, but allot of the actual undertaking will require soft skills and these cannot be factored into a process per se.

In summary, Six Sigma/Lean principles are fab at guiding a person through a critical path and ensure a high degree of efficiency and compliance (i.e. process milestones, such as updating/populating documentation, liaising with other parties or agencies and communicating at the right time) but they may not integrate core "soft " skills and factors that are required to complete the task. However, with good process development and management, these can be factored in to provide robust working practices for your HR Department." – Hayley Jaffrey Global Subsea QMS Leader at GE Oil & Gas

"Appropriate use of both Lean and Six-Sigma will always be important (note the word appropriate).
Neither is the "silver-bullet" that will kill all evils, but applied in the right way, and at the right time, they have a strong part to play in optimizing business/service companies.

I use both, but only as tools in a wider tool set.....which is designed to look at people, and process as a unique entity for each client company I am engaged by.

One of the failings of both Lean and Six-Sigma is when they are just "text-book implemented", and rolled out as a "one-size fits all". I have engaged more than one client that has "Leaned" a bit too far, and a part of my recovery work has been resuscitation of stalled processes and stranded inventory." – Bob Doncom Technical Manager at Defence Maritime Engineering

"I Believe, HR involves in Bringing about a Cultural change in the mindset of Professionals and aligning them to the organizational goals.Lean and six sigma is Very Effective in addressing the underlying business goals without creating organizational resistance,Since all such initiatives are more data driven, customer centric, proactive and decisive. The Effective implementation of the Same in HR Bay would eventually lead to an organizational mindset in which people make decisions based on data, look for root causes of problems, define defects based on customer rather than internal requirements, seek to control variation, track leading indicators of problems to prevent them from happening." – Rabia Dhody Human Resources- South Asia at Motricity

"Being in HR with experience in manufacturing and distribution, not only do I think it's beneficial from a process improvement/cost containment/waste reduction standpoint, but also it allows us to be more effective business partners. It gives us conceptual knowledge that we can apply to different situations (or to different "businesses") that results in better understanding of operational issues." – Deborah A. Jankiewicz HR Generalist/Manager at Schneider National

"IMHO, Lean/6 Sigma is as important and effective as an organization's leadership want it to be. Most organization's have a "burning platform" or known challenges. LSS can help with these. However, I think LSS is vastly underutilized to help organizations craft a "compelling destination" for themselves. The focus on process improvement directed by Voice of the Customer, Voice of the Process, and Voice of the Business/Performers/Culture is a tremendous tool for making any organization or functional element Better-Faster-Cheaper.

My two-cents, decide what you want results wise, how you will measure it (what success looks like), and then work backwards from there to figure out what you have to do to obtain the results, generate the value, etc.

Don't forget the change management stuff either. You will be messing with people's roles, skills, where/how they work, etc. This is all VERY personal regardless of the business case for change. Communicate - Communicate - Communicate! – Jerry Linnins Senior Principal Consultant - Performance Improvement at Kaiser Permanente

Lean sigma is a critically important and elegantly simple answer to the question of operational efficiency improvement. It was developed to boil down some of the more complex truths about Six Sigma into usable daily activities. It simplifies the tools required and makes quality something which everyone in the organization can embrace. If you make the tools simple and focused enough, everyone will know how to apply them.
The other component which makes Lean Sigma so compelling is the need for quick and effective change. Our companies need to become more agile in how they adapt to the economic conditions. The days of massive lay offs, may be gone simply because if everyone laid off their employees, the demand for products would also drop dramatically. This makes it critical that we better manage both the supply and the demand sides of the economy. Our response must be evolutionary and Lean Sigma is the right approach for many companies." – Stephen Peele Managing Partner/Adjunct Professor

"Extremely important with the understanding of recession(market factor & external intermediaries) , Low productivity & high attrition rates in most of the sectors .
the right person should be more evaluated on the basis of security in terms of output(value,capability) and flatter organisation hierarchies would work better for a trend analysis due to more of volume in numbers of employees,value & re-plan conditioning.
Thus HR & Talent management organisations survival more due to the fresh candidates with a minimum education level in few industries . Thus evidently one can see if this was a approach earlier their would have been no buffer existence but due to less income , the security of performing has become a question of job security." – Pinaki.P.Ghosh  at United World - School of Business

"Human Resource areas or departments are on average an area where much waste and dollars are expended without too many results. This is a ripe area for applying lean and six sigma techniques to identify and eliminate waste and measure its value to the company.

Secondly, if a company is attempting to change the culture to lean and six sigma, HR being aware and utilizing these concepts augments the cultural change by hiring individuals with this mind set." – John D. Hartzler Chair at ASQ Austin Section 1414

"I think that any time you introduce a program like Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma you create an artificial culture that requires continuous attention to preserving the program with all its odd appendages (black belts, champions and so forth), which is not natural. People do not naturally think in those terms; it's forced and it sucks time and energy better spent creating new business products and services to stay ahead of the competition. I know that Motorola claims big savings by using it (and they designed the program), GE used it once upon a time, but many other companies have not seen the anticipated grand results they hoped for. It's gussied-up quality control, a variation on a theme by Deming, and I could never recommend it and especially not in HR or general management. Senior leadership would do better to ensure they have established a vision their people can believe in, products the market wants, the right people in the right positions, a culture that encourages and rewards innovation and so forth. And you can wear a regular belt to accomplish that." – Bob Ligget Owner, Corporate Pulse Consulting

- Thanks to all my Linkedin members for their valuable inputs.