IQA Human Factors Special Interest Group - A Successful Launch
The Institute of Quality Assurance has established another in its line of Special Interest Groups focusing on best practice across industries, focusing on 'human factors'. Launched on 9 June 2003 at IQA headquarters in London, Frank Steer Director General made the opening speech in which he stated the importance of underpinning the value of good people practices to further support the progression of quality management in the UK and in Europe.
Chairperson, Sue Cartwright defined the group's mission as the research and promotion of knowledge and expertise in those areas of best practice that will help organisations and their people to achieve higher levels of motivation, productivity and competitive advantage. Research suggests that these are the improvements that lead organisations to the levels of success required to meet the increasing challenges of accountability, diversity, employment law and social responsibility.
Sue stated that the group also has a higher vision and purpose. In the broadest terms - to strive to discover the truth in all things, to work towards the development of a global quality culture and to help in some way towards the cultural re-generation of our society. Sue comments 'this will provide us with a genuine focus for our ideas and activities that will, ultimately, drive us to inform and improve the working lives of people at the heart of organisations. The latter is our key message because we believe that this is how organisational cultures can be transformed to become successful, self-regulatory business excellence operations.' The group committee believe that satisfied and committed people make all the difference when it comes to achieving successful and sustainable growth, and that the main purpose of the group is to bring together all the tools, methods and experiences that will help to achieve this.
The main speakers of the day demonstrated what can be achieved by implementing and managing culture change successfully. General Manager, Paul Turner and Manager, Jill Thorpe lead the People Excellence team at the West Bromwich Building Society. The Society's vision and commitment to people and cultural excellence has achieved recognition across many awards including recent award winner status in the EFQM Midlands Excellence Awards and a place on the Sunday Times 'Best 100 UK Companies to work for' list.
A full report on the work of the Society is being published in the September 2003 issue of Quality World and a synopsis of Paul's presentation has been posted on the HFSIG website at www.iqa.org/hfsig. Paul and Jill will attend the next HFSIG Forum in November at Wolverhampton University and run a presentation and workshop.
Mike Gaskin FIQA presented an 'Introduction to Human Factors - Learning the Hard Way'. Mike's own experiences as a Quality Manager for Plessey in the early 80s led him to learn and understand the different cultural needs within an organisation and that good employee relations are good for business. Best practice skills such as consulting with staff, listening to what people have to say and 'empowering' people to get their best commitment have been professionally adapted and adopted by Mike to improve cohesion, job satisfaction and productivity.
Bernard Patmore, representative of Wolverhampton University School of Engineering and Built Environment (SEBE) and Executive Board Member of the Council of the Institute (FIQA), opened the Forum and fielded questions and ideas from members and delegates. It was agreed that the theme for the next forum should focus on people management best practice in the Private Sector and include delegate workshops to explore best management practice solutions to given scenarios. Delegates will experience how to deal with real people issues in a focus group situation. For full details please visit the events section on www.iqa.org/hfsig.
Ends
Date of issue: 30 June 2003