HR team reduces recruitment and passport-management turnaround time through Lean Kaizen

Context and Challenges

A fast-growing professional services firm was experiencing pressure on its HR function as headcount and expatriate staff increased:

• Recruitment & selection involved many touchpoints—Executive Board, CEO, Department Managers, HR Manager, Recruiters and candidates—leading to long turnaround times and a low VA ratio of 7.59%.
• Current state mapping showed 714 hours of turnaround time with 39 steps, dominated by waiting for information, scheduling interviews, repeated validations and follow-ups.
• For passport management of expat employees, there were multiple handoffs between HR, PRO and coordinators; much of the time was spent in waiting, distractions and extra processing rather than true value-adding work.

Our Approach

Lean Kaizen projects were run on two critical HR processes—Recruitment & Selection, and Passport Management—using a structured methodology:

• Process Selection & Definition: High-impact HR processes were selected and aligned on objectives: improve VA ratio, reduce NVA and TAT.
• Gemba-Based Current State Mapping: Collected data through direct observation and mapped end-to-end workflows on wall charts, noting cycle time, waiting and turnaround by step and by person.
• MUDA & Pareto Analysis: Classified activities as VA/NVA, built Pareto charts of NVA to identify priority wastes such as waiting for documents, repeated validations and re-keying.
• ECRS & Future State Design: Used ECRS (Eliminate–Combine–Rearrange–Simplify) to challenge each high-NVA step and design leaner future state maps.
• Implementation & Standardisation: Converted ideas into an action plan, implemented changes, and then documented new SOPs, calendars and daily work standards to sustain results.

Key Strategies Implemented

Recruitment & Selection Process

• End-to-End Mapping & Role-Wise Time Analysis: Analysed cycle time and TAT by role (Executive Board, CEO, Department Manager, HR Manager, Recruiter, Candidate, HR Assistant) to see who was causing and suffering most delays.
• MUDA & ECRS on High-Waste Steps: Used NVA Pareto to highlight major wastes: document submission and validation, informing candidates of interview slots, screening profiles, feedback delays and multiple interview rounds.
• Future State Process with Fewer Steps: Redesigned the workflow, reducing steps from 39 to 27, and clarified who does what at each stage, cutting repeated checks and approvals.

Passport Management for Expat Employees

• Current State Mapping & Time Analysis: Documented each step in passport handling—from stamped-passport list, physical handover and reconciliation, to scanning, renaming files and locker storage. Calculated cycle time and NVA by person; for one key role, NVA time exceeded 6 hours, with most waste in waiting and distractions.
• MUDA & Pareto on NVA Activities: Pareto analysis showed that checking exit status, copying forms, emailing scanned documents, renaming files and unnecessary movements to the locker consumed the bulk of NVA time.
• ECRS-Based Improvements: Defined clearer responsibilities for exit status checking and communication.  Introduced Dropbox / shared folder access so employees could view passport/visa scans without individual email handling. Implemented 5S and relocation of the passport locker and management desk to reduce motion; created pathways and retrieval targets
• Future State & Daily Work Scheduling: Created a future state map with clearer flow, dedicated time in a daily work scheduler for passport tasks, and standardised file-naming and storage practices.

Results Achieved

Recruitment & Selection

• VA Ratio increased from 7.59% to about 9.6%, moving towards the 14.3% target.
• Turnaround Time reduced from 714 hours to around 527 hours (26% reduction).
• Number of process steps reduced from 39 to 27, reflecting elimination or consolidation of non-essential activities.

Passport Management

• VA Ratio improved from around 32% towards a 48% target, driven by cuts in waiting and extra processing.
• Non-value-adding time (waiting, distractions, extra processing and motion) was reduced significantly—up to 66–75% improvements noted in results summaries.
• Turnaround times for key roles dropped by 30–40%+, as shown in before–after comparisons.