Stop, Start, Continue – A Guide for HR Transformers

We are officially in Spring and in this part of the Northern Hemisphere we have heard the sound of bleating lambs and seen the yellow blaze of cheery daffodils. It is also a traditional time to blow out the cobwebs, air the mattress and perhaps get round to doing an organisational spring-clean.

Over time every department picks up activities that were meant to be ‘temporary’, done as a ‘workaround’ or done as part of an agreement between people who left years ago. These tasks still get done but we overlook the original purpose and value to the organisation. This stops us from doing tasks that are more productive or useful.

Stop, Start, Continue Guide for HR Transformers

An exercise we find useful is a Stop, Start & Continue review.

- Simply list all the activities you do in a particular area, department or role.

- Decide which activities you will now STOP as they are no longer useful or add little value

- Determine which activities you just have to CONTINUE, as they keep the show on the road

- And then having created some spare capacity, ADD those activities that have been on the To Do list for much too long that you plan to START.

We have found this spring clean useful at an individual level, for a role e.g. HR Business Partner or for a function, e.g. Human Resources. In the context of HR Transformation, we often use this technique as a preliminary step before allocating HR activities to a part of the new organisation structure or in designing new roles. This exercise works well as a facilitated session with small groups. It sounds obvious but it is important to eliminate redundant activities before designing a new organisation.

Download our Stop, Start, Continue Worksheet below: