By Dr. Evangelia Fassoula

A path leading to business excellence is the integration of human resources management (HRM) processes with total quality management (TQM) principles. This concept has been presented and analyzed in literature in the scientific area of management and leadership. In fact, two of the most significant and well-known TQM Gurus, Dr. Edwards Deming, and Philip Crosby focus on the importance of human factor in their approaches for the successful implementation of total quality management, and they propose specific action plans and methodologies, addressing both HRM processes as well as behavioral and cultural issues.

However, in many organizations, TQM is perceived as a framework for continuous improvement of business processes, mostly addressing the technical and operational aspects of them and re-engineering them, by adopting customer-driven strategies, as well as methods for cost-effectiveness.

Integrating HRM processes with TQM principles means, in simple words, to inspire the vision of excellence to all people of the organization and to support them to make it reality in everything they do, no matter what their role is in the structure or how long they have been working there. Practically:

1. Criteria of excellence must be incorporated into all HRM processes:

• Planning of work positions and organizational structure
• Recruiting and onboarding of new employees
• Goal setting process
• Performance management
• Compensation and benefits planning
• Learning and people development.

1. A culture of authentic respect and care for customers must be developed throughout the whole organization. To achieve that, leaders should breathe it and make their teams breathe it too, by giving the example continuously.

1. A spirit of proactivity, teamwork and creativity must be reflected in everyday working life, beginning with things like maintaining a clean and nice work environment, following safety rules, and behaving kindly to each other.

HRM processes are the first to be addressed by TQM principles. People can lead to excellence.

Dr. Evangelia Fassoula is the Managing Director of EVERGROW SA, a company of ARTION GROUP.