What if organizations had health check-ups like people do?
While working in HR for different companies, I tried doing organization check-ups like health exams. I checked basic things, like a regular health center would. I did this regularly, not just when there were obvious problems.
I found many companies had very basic issues.
Things like unclear job duties or mistakes in rules. These were like having trouble walking or digesting food. Newer companies often had more of these problems. This shows that organizations are like people - younger ones aren't as stable as adults.
For example, one startup had grown to over 100 people after 8 years. The team got along well and leaders were enthusiastic. But the CEO felt something was wrong and wanted clearer evaluations.
When I looked closer, I found that people's roles weren't clear. Leaders were doing jobs that didn't match their titles. This made it hard to know who was responsible for what.
In good-sized companies, business and support roles should be separate. But in this company, many people were mixed up in controlling costs. It was like having referees play in a soccer game.
This happened because when a product leader left, their duties were divided badly. No one fixed this, and it became a problem. The CEO was afraid to change things, and even HR thought they were just for support.
The first step in checking an organization's health is understanding everyone's job.
You need to know what each person does, why, and what results they should produce. This should be very clear and basic.
In our bodies, eyes are for seeing and legs are for walking. Each part has a clear job. Companies need to define these roles clearly too. This is the most important job for the CEO and HR.
We should check the basic structure and systems of an organization.
Don't just look at how happy people are or how well the company is doing right now. We need to check the basic health.
We should look at three main areas: the structure (like surgery), the systems (like internal medicine), and the culture (like psychiatry). This helps keep everything balanced. In the next part, we'll look at how to do this in more detail.
