Promoting efficiency by standardizing and automating the recognition and awards (R&A) program process in Chevron Holdings Inc.

• Main Author: Salcedo, Gianne Lauren O.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Organizational change; Reengineering (Management)
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5737
• Institution: De La Salle University

The purpose of this action research was to improve and promote efficiencies in the recognition and awards (R&A) program process in Chevron Holdings Inc. also known as the Manila Shared Services Center (MSSC) by creating a standardized and automated process. The unstandardized implementation of the established R&A Program process created confusion to the stakeholders and misalignment between the different business units in the organization. The manual process resulted to numerous errors, longer processing time in the completion of R&A nominations and tasks, higher operational costs, delays in delivering the awards and demotivation of the members of the organization to recognize the efforts of their colleagues. The action research was conducted by the Manila R&A Committee members who collaboratively assessed several concepts and frameworks in order to select the most effective solution to improve and promote efficiencies in the R&A Program process. The concept of business process automation (BPA or business process reengineering or redesign) was implemented to promote process efficiency and increase productivity. The concept was applied to automate the R&A Program process workflow; was executed using SharePoint and InfoPath which utilized the existing technologies in the company; and helped eliminate errors, managed operational costs and reduced processing time in the completion and delivery of R&A nominations. The continuous improvement framework Lean Six Sigma (or Lean Sigma) using DMAIC methodology was applied in order to reduce waste and defects in the process. Each of the phases in the DMAIC methodology created a gated process for project control and the corresponding tools enabled the committee to carefully assess the right strategies for the action research. The DMAIC methodology is a data-driven quality strategy for improving processes which required open communication and collaborative efforts between the committee members. In this action research, Lewins Change Management Model was utilized because of its simplicity and it forms the basis of many current change management models. By implementing this change management framework, it guided the committee to manage and effectively implement the changes in the organization. With the implementation of the standardized and automated MSSC R&A Program process, the processing time to deliver R&A nomination was reduced by 65% for the shortest cycle time and 53% for the longest cycle time and the processing time to complete R&A tasks was reduced by 89%. This action research not only promoted efficiencies in the process but also enabled the members of the organization to recognize the efforts of their colleagues. Simplifying the process helped promote the culture of employee recognition in the organization which increased the R&A nominations delivered by 28% after the implementation of the action research.