A quality function deployment approach to HR strategy formation and prioritization: Meeting client satisfaction in service organizations

Abstract

Client satisfaction itself is a criterion for assessing service organizations in public sector. To reach to
organizational objectives, HR strategy plays an important role. Clients usually faced with the human elements
of public entities. Therefore, a client driven approach to HR strategy formation would benefit both
organizations and clients. QFD is an effective client driven service development tool for inserting client
requirements to design process. A customized version of QFD has been utilized to apply client needs in the
process of HR strategy formation. Hence, the goal of this study was twofold: to prioritize the client needs and
to propose appropriate HR strategies to meet them. This paper examined the applicability of QFD technique in
HR strategy prioritization by using a two-stage methodology in which firstly, client needs were ranked and
then QFD team used House of Quality to correlate the client needs and HR strategies. Results show that craft
strategy scored the first (370.10). Between HR practices, high mobility scored the first important practice
(398.08). Also, clients ranked assurance (5.59) as the first important dimension of satisfaction. The method
used here is a demand oriented tool for public entities to improve their client satisfaction.