Importance of Hourly SME's in Organizational Culture

1. Importance of Hourly SME's in Organizational Culture 2013 VPPA-Region IX Conference

2. Importance of SME’s in Organizational Culture • Overview • What defines a company’s culture? • What does it look like? • What is an SME? • Why should you develop an SME program? • Culture Development • Employee Ownership • What should you expect from a program? • Technical expertise • Employee involvement and solution based thinking • Who should be involved in the SME program? • Hourly vs. Salary • How do you go about building a program? • Developing the infrastructure to ensure quality of instruction and jobsite application of the learning • Appropriate follow up/follow through (‘Inspect what you Expect’

3. Importance of SME’s in Organizational Culture • First things first…. • Define where your culture is today versus where do you want it to be • From the outside looking in, what would others say is the most important values to your company • Two different approaches depending on current culture status. • Already strong –focus on the program • Not there yet – focus on the benefits and build the culture with the development of the program • For the purposes of this discussion, we must assume to start with a supportive culture, then work from the inside out; both scenarios are workable • How will the development of a healthy SME program be a staple of the strength of your culture?

4. Importance of SME’s in Organizational Culture • What is a Subject Matter Expert? Someone who… • Been there the longest? • Been to the most outside training? • Is the best teacher? • Is the ‘go to’ person in your workplace during challenging circumstances? • Defined one way online as… “The Subject Matter Expert is that individual who exhibits the highest level of expertise in performing a specialized job, task, or skill within the organization.”

5. Importance of SME’s in Organizational Culture • The first questions to ask in evaluating your organizational culture is... • What is the most important asset in your company’s arsenal of valuable resources? • People, Equipment, Brand, Profit? • Where does the company invest financially? • How are employees valued in your organization? • Empowered, Delegated to, Accountable • What steps does the company take to continuously develops its human capital/knowledge base? • Most importantly…your culture is around when you are not…whether it is a good one or a bad one determines those results!

6. Importance of SME’s in Organizational Culture • Why Implement an SME Program? • What does a culture look like where the members of the team are not valued? • How do the members of the team see their role within the organization…do they feel their contribution is valued? • Changing workplace technology upgrades require an equal pace of training to be maintained • Economic downturn has created the need to preserve and grow the individuals’ value to the company • As a result of the workplace climate, ‘competitive employment’ (headhunters) have begun to poach high performers as leaders in other organizations • Defining career advancement pathways is the key to retaining the talent pool for Gen Y workforce

7. Importance of SME’s in Organizational Culture • What should you expect from an SME program? • Greater ownership of each employee in the greater goal of the organization • Goals that are not just monetary or numeric • Goals that provide for sustainability, cultural growth, enrichment, and “operational wisdom” • Opportunities for SME’s to play a role in project teams, training of peers, ownership of the process within your facility • Stewardship of the direction of the facility-true participants in the process of developing goals and direction for your plant • Experience + Education =Success • SME program provides structured path to ‘Success’

8. Importance of SME’s in Organizational Culture • Why should your company invest in SME’s? • High performance workforce vs. just working for a paycheck • Personal significance of the individuals that make up the team • Workgroup that understands the ‘why’ and not simply following orders and checking a box • Contractor management by individuals that understand the work; reducing contractor waste, underperforming contractors, and proper contractor guidance • Work load that may have been previously outsourced could soon be brought in-house

9. Importance of SME’s in Organizational Culture • What should you expect from a program? • Technical Expertise • Be mindful of defining levels of expertise (what is an ‘expert’ and what is an ‘expert in training’ • Create opportunities to utilize newly learned information and techniques • Employee engagement in planning and ownership of the processes in your facility • Well defined pathways for each designation of SME • Coursework/seminars should be vetted and curricula/syllabi should be verified • Base set of coursework with variations dependent on SME tracts or specializations

10. Importance of SME’s in Organizational Culture • Who should be involved in the SME program? • Hourly employees • Operational • Maintenance • Office Staff • Technical Experts • Union vs. Non-Union • Salary employees • Niche Specific • Task Specific

11. Importance of SME’s in Organizational Culture • How do you go about building an SME program? • What not to do? • Leave unstructured and open for interpretation • Can create inequality of mistreatment of the training opportunities within your team • Utilize SME’s as the only means for expertise • Stay current with industry standards • Penalize SME for involvement or ownership • Take proper care in nurturing the development of the experts

12. Importance of SME’s in Organizational Culture • How do you go about building the infrastructure of the SME Program? • Identify the specific SME areas • Identify potential sources for SME training • Onsite/OJT • Offsite courses (college or otherwise) • Training seminars • Company-provided training (in-house) • Vet your training resources for content validity and application to your worksite**

13. Importance of SME’s in Organizational Culture • Provide application after each ‘training session’ or at least semi-annually if OJT is the primary means of training • Research tasks • Project management • Contractor reviews • Safety Meeting presentation/teaching moments • Involvement in leadership planning meetings • Reviews of existing equipment or processes to evaluate for Best Management Practices • Bottom line…inspect what you expect • Just like any onsite expert, there is always more to learn and no expertise is ever a destination but a journey

14. Importance of SME’s in Organizational Culture • The Bottom Line… • An SME program isn’t about the $ bottom line $ • The program is designed to improve/support strong organizational culture through… • Employee ownership of the workplace and its processes • Lifelong learning as a means of continual improvement • Makes no difference what your title is today…You need to make your culture a ‘buyer’ of a good SME Program • Continual means to raise the bar of operational efficiency and employee knowledge • Knowledge is a very powerful tool to promote operational safety!!!

15. Importance of SME’s in Organizational Culture • Questions???