Five Why Technique - Retention

Five Why Analysis - Low Hiring Numbers

Problem: Tech Future is not meeting the hiring quota required to maintain consistent work-force numbers in support of the company's mission.

Why?The company only received seven applications last month for twelve open positions.

Why?Potential qualified candidates are unaware of our job openings and qualifications. 5 of 7 candidates stated they heard about the position through word of mouth.

Why?The company does not have an established and consistent means of advertising and attracting quality candidates for open positions.

Why?There is no one individual in HR assigned this responsibility for accountability. To date, all efforts have been a collective and inconsistent team effort, with insufficient qualifications to accomplish the task.

Five Why Process Explained

When a problem is identified, simply ask yourself "Why does this problem exist?" Take the answer to the first Why and ask Why again. Continue this process until no further feasible answers for cause can be found (Fraser et al., 2015, p. 399). At this point, one should have an actionable item for correction. No focus should be placed on the number Five, as the title suggests, but instead continue to ask as many Whys as you can until you can ask no more, regardless if that number is greater than or less than five itself (Fraser et al., 2015, p. 399). Note, the example above only asked Why four times before coming to a root cause, no individual is assigned the responsibility for job postings and criteria leading to inconsistencies.

The Five Why analysis tool was first developed by the Toyota corporation where engineers were encouraged to ask Why five times in an effort to identify the root cause of an existing problem ("How the Man from Toyota's 'Five Whys' Could Help the Labour Party; Labour Is in Crisis and the Leadership Battle Could See It Fall Apart Completely. Asking Itself Five Simple Questions Could Enable It to Address the Root of the Problem," 2015). The Five Why analysis tool is the preferred choice when one wishes to drill down on the root cause of a single, simple indicator with a successive series of events that lead directly to the root cause. It should be noted that Five Why analysis results can be skewed by the inherent bias of the examiner, based on their experience and knowledge. To combat inherent bias, it is important to utilize small, diverse groups of individuals for a broader profile of responses when asking Why questions (Fraser et al., 2015, p. 399). As an added bonus, Five Why analysis can also be used in drilling down on identified problems found with other risk analysis techniques such as the restraining and driving forces found utilizing Force Field Analysis techniques (Fraser et al., 2015, p. 419).

Cause and Effect Analysis

Step 1: Define the Problem

The problem as we have meticulously reviewed can be summarized by the following statement: "There is no one individual in HR assigned this responsibility for accountability. To date, all efforts have been a collective and inconsistent team effort, with insufficient qualifications to accomplish the task."

Step 2: Identify the Major Causes

We've identified several possible reasons that could be contributing to Tech Future's employment level issues.

• Lack of leadership: Without a single authority figure in the lead responsible for employee retention, it can create disclarity on who is assigned to develop the hiring mechanisms and who engages in outreach.
• Lack of coordination: Since HR consists of a collective of workers, the rigidity of a hierarchy is mostly absent and in its place, HR professionals do not have the direction that is needed.
• Uncollective: Group cohesion is an essential part of the workplace, and when authority is decentralized, there can be a conflict of interests between ideas provided.
• Review: Some HR professionals may not be assigned to the role that they are not best suited for. There may be a disparity between the social, emotional, and intellectual capacity between the members of the HR professionals.
• Structure: All opportunities and positions should be redefined as they are needed.

Step 3: Identify the Subcauses of Risk

Using the details above, we can construct a diagram that outlines the issues:

Root Cause Analysis #1

Root Cause Analysis #2

Force Field Analysis:

Force field analysis is used to show factors that support the status quo which is the main issue we are facing and the factors that are potentially going to fix the issue (Fraser, 2015). The restraining factors are those that do not allow the status quo to change and the driving factors are those that are potentially going to change the status quo (Fraser, 2015).

At Tech Future the status quo or the issue we are facing is employment retention and hiring new employees. We have figured out our root issue is that we do not have a specific person in HR to perform the hiring process. When we do not have someone in charge of hiring we do not have proper advertisements being displayed on the internet, newspapers, or billboards etc. No one can come apply for a job that they do not know is available. Another issue that can occur when there is no one person or group of people specifically assigned to this task potential employees or newly hired employees do not have a point of contact to gather more information about their position. Many other factors play into this and that is what is displayed below in the force field analysis chart.

Driving forces Status Quo Restraining forces

Cost of living increasing Advancement opportunities Benefits New job opportunities Relocating Career change

Low hiring at Tech Future after Pandemic

Not enough staffing Not having a designated person, not having a group collaboration No job advertisement No proper training Inadequate benefits Lack of communication

Recommendations

Need recommendations part. Provide realistic recommendations Juanita and Tech Future can implement to improve retention or hiring, depending on the option your team selected.