Lean HR

Lean principles have been used for years in the manufacturing world, and have started to make an impact in the office as well. These tools can provide the foundation to building a systematic approach to improving your HR practice and lowering costs.

In this book, practitioners will be guided through an overview of the basics of Lean, how to use the most common tools, and how to then leverage them to bring an element of process excellence to their HR department. With a few simple templates, some common sense, and a willingness to question the current state, great strides can be made in reducing costs and improving effectiveness in HR departments of any size!

Includes a simple overview of Lean philosophy and its evolution, an assortment of easy to use tools to help you find and analyze improvement projects, and a structured approach to reducing waste in your practice.

"Dwane Lay practices what he preaches. Lean HR is a lean book. It's chock fill of the wisdom of the trenches while guiding the reader to the most important tools and concepts. This is a field manual for optimizing the processes and outputs of your HR shop. Think of it as a guide for HR people who want to continue to work in the field." - John Sumser, Founder HR Examiner and HRx Analysts @johnsumser

"What if you could get rid of the processes and procedures that waste your time and make your job harder? What if you could think about the way you work in a new way, a way that makes you better and more effective at what you do? What if all this even saved time, resources, and money? And what if there were even elephant jokes? Dwane Lay's experience, sensibility and great sense of humor show you how to start and how to get there." - Heather Bussing, employment attorney @heatherbussing

"One thing HR isn't great at is taking the BS out of any process. HR people are famous for adding structure and process to just about anything, with the rationalization that it makes the target "more fair" or "easier to use". That's where Dwane Lay comes in. A classically trained Six Sigma ninja, Dwane turns "lean" concepts into easy to understand tools to help HR pros get to what's real - and what people will actually use. Highly recommended!" - Kris Dunn. Chief Human Resources Officer, Kinetix. Founder of blogs - The HR Capitalist and Fistful of Talent. @kris_dunn

"Dwane is the Lean HR guy. Period. If you’ve heard him speak at a conference you know this. If you haven’t, trust me. Dwane knows process improvement and HR. When I’m a CEO again, Dwane will be my COO." - China Gorman, CEO CMG Group @chinagorman

“Hunter S. Thompson, Bob Guccione, Andy Warhol and Dwane Lay were having lunch one day at a local diner… Dwane was regaling the group with his most recent transatlantic exploits when the subject of this book came up. He told them what I’ll tell you. Two words… life changing. That’s all folks… buy it, read it, live it, share it. Do yourself and humanity a favor. By the way, Bob picked up the check that morning. He’s that guy.” - William Tincup, SPHR, CEO, Tincup & Co. @williamtincup

Dwane Lay has spent over a decade as an HR practitioner, following an early career in operations, IT and quality. The background has given him a unique perspective on the processes that make up human resources, and the potential for improvements in efficiency and effectiveness. He is recognized as a leading authority on the application of Lean tools and techniques in Human Resources, as well as having a wealth of experience in applying business technology to improve HR processes. Dwane holds an MBA from Lindenwood University, as well as having earned a Six Sigma Black Belt and is a certified Senior Professional of Human Resources with HCRI. A well known presence on the HR social media landscape, he can be found on a variety of platforms, including Twitter (@DwaneLay), Facebook (facebook.com/dtlay) and LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/dwanelay). He also writes on human resources, process design and, occasionally, comic books and moves at www.LeanHRBlog.com