Steelcase, Inc. Case study
Summary
Steelcase, Inc. is the world’s leading manufacturer of office furniture. Following industry trends, Steelcase also provides furniture management systems through its subsidiary, FMC. Furniture management is a relatively new and potentially lucrative productivity service which helps clients increase productivity through effective planning of space and furniture. Field Operations Manager is a strategic role within FMC. FOMs interface between clients and Steelcase, troubleshooting issues and providing solutions. The FMC Vice President turned to Steelcase’s internal performance analysis and consulting group to help fix a number of symptomatic issues related to FOM performance.
Initial problem statement
Performance issues had been detected among the Field Operations Managers, who play a key role in the FMC profit structure. Noted were significant variances in communication and application of procedures to metrics, as well as problems with customers circumventing FOM’s, which was undermining their role and creating redundancy and confusion with their work. FMC turned to the Steelcase performance analysis and consulting group to identify and address the root cause of the performance issue.
Performance analysis tools, analysis, results
Steelcase’s performance analysis and consulting group consists of a manager, several consultants and two performance analysts. The consultants provide face-to-face, ongoing contact with internal customers, while analysis provide performance analysis support and human performance technology expertise. A performance analysis was conducted through a series of meetings with the VP and FOM leadership, in order to determine the desired performance. Once this was done, a gap analysis revealed factors separating FOM performance from exemplary performance of their job.
The results of the performance analysis results indicated deficiencies in FOM communication as well as in their ability to perform their core function: identify provider strengths and provide development.
Additionally, FOM’s were not clear on what their job requires, i.e. what it meant to be an exemplary performer.
Cause analysis tools, analysis and results
A cause analysis was completed using a carefully worded questionnaire for FOM’s seeking to identify factors affecting performance: result areas, competencies, best practices, barriers and enhancers for their job. Individually, the analysis revealed that FOM’s did not have a clear understanding of what was expected from them in terms of performance and Steelcase culture. On the environmental level, it was found that FOM’s do not possess the adequate tools, systems, processes and resources to accomplish their job. Lastly, it was confirmed that FOM’s were a highly skilled population, and so job training was not the issue at hand.
Critique
The fact that Steelcase has a dedicated performance team which relies on a research-driven, systematic approach was impressive and inspiring. The performance analyst’s approach to creating a questionnaire with minimal bias was critical to obtaining valid, and useful data.
Of particular interest in this case is the fact that the analysis was done from only the Steelcase perspective. There were performance questions which FOM clients (dealers) could have answered to better than anyone: What kind of service and relationship did they need and expect from FOM’s? How was dealership performance affected such that dealers found it necessary to circumvent FOM’s for service? As thorough as this analysis is, we believe the missing dealer perspective is valuable, if not critical, to effectively solving the performance problem as well as later evaluating the effectiveness of the solution.
Summary
Steelcase, Inc. is the world’s leading manufacturer of office furniture. Following industry trends, Steelcase also provides furniture management systems through its subsidiary, FMC. Furniture management is a relatively new and potentially lucrative productivity service which helps clients increase productivity through effective planning of space and furniture. Field Operations Manager is a strategic role within FMC. FOMs interface between clients and Steelcase, troubleshooting issues and providing solutions. The FMC Vice President turned to Steelcase’s internal performance analysis and consulting group to help fix a number of symptomatic issues related to FOM performance.
Initial problem statement
Performance issues had been detected among the Field Operations Managers, who play a key role in the FMC profit structure. Noted were significant variances in communication and application of procedures to metrics, as well as problems with customers circumventing FOM’s, which was undermining their role and creating redundancy and confusion with their work. FMC turned to the Steelcase performance analysis and consulting group to identify and address the root cause of the performance issue.
Performance analysis tools, analysis, results
Steelcase’s performance analysis and consulting group consists of a manager, several consultants and two performance analysts. The consultants provide face-to-face, ongoing contact with internal customers, while analysis provide performance analysis support and human performance technology expertise. A performance analysis was conducted through a series of meetings with the VP and FOM leadership, in order to determine the desired performance. Once this was done, a gap analysis revealed factors separating FOM performance from exemplary performance of their job.
The results of the performance analysis results indicated deficiencies in FOM communication as well as in their ability to perform their core function: identify provider strengths and provide development.
Additionally, FOM’s were not clear on what their job requires, i.e. what it meant to be an exemplary performer.
Cause analysis tools, analysis and results
A cause analysis was completed using a carefully worded questionnaire for FOM’s seeking to identify factors affecting performance: result areas, competencies, best practices, barriers and enhancers for their job. Individually, the analysis revealed that FOM’s did not have a clear understanding of what was expected from them in terms of performance and Steelcase culture. On the environmental level, it was found that FOM’s do not possess the adequate tools, systems, processes and resources to accomplish their job. Lastly, it was confirmed that FOM’s were a highly skilled population, and so job training was not the issue at hand.
Critique
The fact that Steelcase has a dedicated performance team which relies on a research-driven, systematic approach was impressive and inspiring. The performance analyst’s approach to creating a questionnaire with minimal bias was critical to obtaining valid, and useful data.
Of particular interest in this case is the fact that the analysis was done from only the Steelcase perspective. There were performance questions which FOM clients (dealers) could have answered to better than anyone: What kind of service and relationship did they need and expect from FOM’s? How was dealership performance affected such that dealers found it necessary to circumvent FOM’s for service? As thorough as this analysis is, we believe the missing dealer perspective is valuable, if not critical, to effectively solving the performance problem as well as later evaluating the effectiveness of the solution.