Most business owners and managers regularly review operational performance. Often though, the review is based on the past, relying on data from financial statements, weekly production reports, quality reports and safety incidents. This can be a bit like driving a car using the rear vision mirror. A more effective approach would be to review the…
Business owners and managers make decisions based on information that is available to them. When information is filtered or interpreted by others in an organisation, the facts behind that information become less visible. Examples of filtered information include: production data that is delayed or aggregated, paper-based forms that are too difficult to search and view,…
When business owners and managers promote safe work purely in terms of compliance they miss a golden opportunity. Promoting safe work as a compliance activity may cause staff to feel anxious about what the changes will mean for their work and how it aligns with the usual push for productivity. This can be resolved by…
We all recognise the importance of training. However, most business owners and senior managers don’t have the means to easily assess if training and licensing is up to date. Traditionally, keeping track of training plans and records is time-consuming and difficult to administer. It usually involves excel documents, paper records and filing. Consequently, training is hidden…
Information Technology is changing fast, and we need to think differently when applying it to the operations of a business. In the past, business owners would select an IT system to support a set of tasks within the business – CRM, HR, Production orders, Quality – you name it, someone had the software. The problem with this approach…
Compliance activities are often seen as ‘paperwork getting in the way of productivity’. This is a valid perspective, but it’s one that can put you at significant risk. Poor compliance can result in safety system failure, industrial relations ‘blowups’, loss of accreditations, stressed staff and the list goes on. We work to shift the paradigm to ‘productive…
Unlike big businesses, most privately-owned medium-sized businesses cannot afford full-time experts in HR and Safety. Despite this, they still have the same obligations. The solution is to embed expert knowledge into existing business processes. This sounds simple, but there are a number of tricks to getting it right. These are: 1) Get the right advice Consult with experts in HR and Safety that are happy to…
In the course of our day, problems inevitably turn up – such as quality failures, safety hazards, customer complaints, environmental impacts and so on. If we don’t get on top of these issues then pretty soon we are ‘fire-fighting’ – fires start just as quickly as we put them out. To move beyond fire-fighting, businesses need a clear process for dealing…
