Lean into the Workforce

Recently I attended some courses on Lean Six Sigma, continuous improvement methods that companies implement to cut costs and add value. This led me to believe that there are certain lean principles that can definitely help in your job search. In this blog I will share aspects that can transform your mindset and help you to continuously improve.

y=f(x)
If it has been a long time since your last math class or possibly you just hated it altogether, you may be rolling your eyes just about now. Before you stop reading, let me simplify this equation in a way that will make sense for improving your job search. y=f(x) can be translated to, “your output is a function of your input.” What this basically means is that you are going to get out of your job search what you put in. The only person who can really determine if you are giving it your all is you. Next time you conduct any job search activity, ask yourself, “am I putting forth my best effort?”

5 S’s (sort, straighten, shine, standardize and sustain)
A lot of people can get stressed out by clutter. Letting clutter build up around you, can seem like an infinite to-do list and get in the way of your job search. Those collectables, antiques, or other hobbies can start to build up into mountains all over your house and before you know it, you can’t get from your bedroom to your bathroom without stepping on something. You can see prime examples of people imprisoned by their clutter in the show “Hoarders.” If you take some time to sort and straighten (just two of the 5 S’s), you make your workflow smoother and easier which helps eliminate some obstacles from your job search.

7 Forms of Waste
The idea of waste is that of unproductive or non-value added processes. Lean identifies seven forms of waste, many of which could impact a job search. Inventory, the materials that you have let build up around you, is waste in the sense that it doesn’t add value to your job search goals.

Other examples of waste being a barrier to your job search could be the waste of motion and transportation by driving to the same employer daily just to hear that there are no new job leads every day, idle time sitting by the phone waiting for an employer to call you, and over-processing or over-production by placing items on your resume that are not relevant to the job for which you are applying.

Continuous improvement can be seen as a cost cutting measure or a way of adding value to an employer, but if you, the job seeker will lean into the workforce, this philosophy that can make you the best person you could ever imagine!

Diego Trevino is a Regional Facilitator for Workforce Solutions in the Houston – Galveston area. Before joining the regional team, he served as a greeter, employment counselor and staffing specialist. Earlier in his career he traveled to South Korea where he taught students English. He uses past teaching experiences and present workforce knowledge to conduct job skills seminars throughout the 13 county Gulf Coast Region.