Creating a Good Org Manual, Part 2

In part one we talked about creating the job description for the position. Now it is time to create "key accountabilities" for that position.
Job descriptions often are a list of activities. Key accountabilities (KA) complement a job description by focusing on results.

The process of developing KAs for a position is best done as a group exercise involving all in the company who have a stake in the position being discussed.

Meeting invitees: If your company is doing KAs for the position of production manager (PM) invite the owner (to whom the PM reports); the estimator (who depends on the PM to help make his or her work successful); the best one or two project managers or lead carpenters the PM manages; your in-house designer or architect; and the office manager (who depends on the PM for clear and accurate info).

Facilitator's role: If it's you, the owner, don't bring your own agenda. Truly be a facilitator —  who gets more from others than they would have contributed on their own.

Steps to follow (Allow at least 2 hours for the process.):
With the group, put down on a flip chart all the activities that the PM position entails. Press everyone to put out there every single activity (by the way, doing so provides great input for doing the activity portion of the job description, addressed in last week's blog).

Pull from the activity list the results (something that can be measured) that the PM position is to accomplish. Winnow this list down to no more than seven items.

Attach a metric to each result. One cannot be held accountable for a result if the result is not measurable. Make the results realistic not optimistic.

Sort the KAs in order of importance to the company’s success.

Decide how much of the employee’s work time should be spent on each of the KAs, with the total adding up to 100%. If your third item, for example, turns out to be have a higher % of time being spent on it than other tasks, it should be moved to the first position in the list.

Congratulations, you have created the KA’s for a position!

Here's an example of what we created as a team when we ran our remodeling company for the position of production manager:

Production Manager Key Accountabilities
26% Meeting monthly and annual budget goals of 42% gross profit and monthly revenue goals of $253K. As measured by: monthly and year end reviews of financials by the Operations Manager

24%  Jobs completed on or under budget and on time or sooner. As measured by: job cost actual to estimates; Substantial Completion report completed as per schedule; and job tracking form reviewed at completion of each job and in a monthly and annual overall review by the Operations Manager

20%  Create raving fans. As measured by: client referrals or repeat business; end-of-job questionnaires with all "excellent" or "good" scores reviewed within 30 days of completion and tracked by Administration Manager on spreadsheet.

16% Stable, well trained, well-staffed production team. As measured by: 4 strong leads and 1 support in place by (when?); no slippage in job starts reviewed monthly; turnover measurement reviewed quarterly; strong annual performance reviews; bi-monthly production meeting. All reviewed by Operations Manager.

7%  All jobs are supplied with long lead items and manpower as needed. As measured by: Lead Carpenter reporting jobs reviewed monthly and at job completion by Operations Manager.

7%  Production department adherence to administrative policies, procedures, and systems. As measured by: monthly and job completion review with job completion forms by Top Team.

In next week's blog I'll talk about the next steps after you have the activities and the Key Accountabilities created. Remember, this is a process. It takes time. Anytime you accomplish anything in terms of contributing to completing the manual take satisfaction is having done so! —Paul Winans, a veteran remodeler, now works as a facilitator for Remodelers Advantage, and as a consultant to remodeling business owners. [email protected]