Regularly reviewing your practices and processes results in continuous improvement of methods and outcomes, and improved productivity.

You and your people should regularly question, measure and make changes to processes to enable the business to deliver faster, and reduce costs without compromising product or service quality.

Improving your business practices

If you have good people in place using sound processes, you’re in a stronger position to drive up productivity, giving you a significant advantage over your competitors. You’ll be able to avoid passing on increases in the price of your inputs, allowing you to maintain or even build sales volume. You’ll be more competitive, and able to offer special pricing to gain market share or stimulate demand while maintaining margin and profit. 

If you focus on improving processes or systems so your people can be more productive, you can direct more of your effort toward exploring new opportunities and business development.

The challenge is to use these productivity gains to build market share without sacrificing profit, and to seek to improve every major resource in your business, from people, processes and management systems to plant and equipment, premises, suppliers and raw materials.

Further challenges for your business are to identify which productivity measures should be looked at regularly, which of these can be taken down to an individual employee level, and which should be managed on a company-wide basis.

Best practice tips for engaged, productive employees

  • Acknowledge and recognise your good employees are the backbone of your business. Consider all options for how to attract, keep and develop your top-performing staff.

  • Avoid cutting back on well-skilled employees simply to cut costs.

  • Communicate openly and transparently (where appropriate) about all decisions being taken in the business.

  • Deliver positive messages to employees whenever possible.

  • Determine how busy people really are and how that matches up with the work volumes the business needs to remain productive.

  • Engender respect, trust and loyalty among all your employees.

  • Get out of the office and visit the coalface. Find out for yourself who the productive members of your team are and identify those who are underperforming.

  • Give clear direction and management support.

  • Implement flexible working arrangements that work both for the business and your top-performing employees.

  • Include employees in decision-making where possible and seek their input.

  • Listen to what your team have to say – they speak daily to customers, suppliers, representatives and distributors.

  • Offer both financial (where possible) and non-financial incentives to keep top-performing employees.

  • Offer coaching, training, mentoring and support.

  • Provide continual feedback.

  • Show appreciation and recognise, praise and reward high-performing employees whenever possible, and publicly where possible.

  • Strive to make the workplace an enjoyable place.

  • Treat your people like they are important business partners and the custodians of your business culture.

Tips for good business practices

  • Ensure you have sound policies and efficient procedures that provide employees with guidelines for best practice.

  • Be informed about what is going on around you – anticipate problems before they attack your bottom line and get employee input and feedback.

  • Communicate openly, unambiguously and honestly. Tell your people what's happening, why it's happening, and how it affects them.

  • Communicate successes and wins with employees when they occur. This will demonstrate positive results and maintain enthusiasm and confidence.

  • Design and implement flexible working arrangements that work for both the business and your employees.

  • Discuss with your employee's new ways to overcome a lack of demand for your core services.

  • Engage employees and motivate managers, seeking their ideas and input to add value and do business better.

  • Identify how individuals can support each other to increase the team's effectiveness.

  • Involve your work teams in identifying when they're more productive and when they're less productive. Get them to identify which aspects of the workflow could be improved, changed or eliminated and why.