The vast majority of employers depend upon their employees to be pre qualified in job skills at the time of their employment. Additional needed skills are obtained through "on the job training" Such employers may or may not obtain their entry level employees through vocational training programs. They do however expect that the employee be knowledgeable about the job at the time of hire.



Many of these enterprises also have a promote from within policy. Such policies are exemplary for their reward of loyal employees, it can lead to a situation where the employee is promoted to a position which require knowledge. In other words, the employee is promoted above the level of their knowledge and experience. Such circumstances can have disastrous consequences for both the employee and the employer.

Many large and well organized enterprises require that their employees receive additional training as promotions in position occur. In some organizations the additional training is provided by the institution itself and in other situations the requirements are for the completion of a degree or technical certification. Often these additional training requirements are repeated several times during the employee's career. This approach has the advantage that it insures that employees are not promoted above their level of skill and knowledge.

Many employers, especially those which have only a few employees, are completely unaware of the above practice. In actual fact they are delegating the task of knowledge about job content to their employee. This condition is potentially dangerous to the employer and the employee both.

There are several important managerial and job specific skills which most employers are unaware of. The first of these is related to production. The first fact is that all processing systems whether they be invoice processing, information processing or production itself can and should be looked as if they were hydraulic systems. Within the system being reviewed, a choke point or system constraint slows the flow of whatever is being processed. Where these situations occur, removing the constraint will improve the system throughput. Below is an example system. It is modeled on your local water supply.

The non-purified source of your public water supply is the the raw material for the water system. The water is next purified, The purification is the production process. The water then travels through the internal distribution system to the water tower. The water tower is the warehouse. The water then moves on demand through the external distribution system to its point of use at your house.

By using the above type of analysis, you can identify system constraints in the various internal systems of any enterprise. Once identified, these problems are often easily solved.

Other functions which are not taken advantage of by small to medium sized enterprises are work measurement standards, developing written methods and procedures, budgeting and purchasing through the use of periodic Requests for Quotation (RFQ). All of the above disciplines can work together to bring about reductions in costs and increases in productivity.

The principal reason that organizations do not take advantage of these disciplines, is that the employers are not aware that they exist.

One of the reasons for publishing this information is to correct that situation.