Joshua Yim

Founder and CEO

ACHIEVE Group

http://www.achievecareer.com/

Producing a better result

Here are three ways to increase the productivity of your organisation.

Productivity has been a nationwide buzzword in recent months, ever since recommendations to improve Singapore’s national productivity index were made by the Economic Strategies Committee.

It has been said that Singapore is not competitive enough in terms of productivity. So, this has been identified as a key area of growth.

Many suggestions have been put, but what is critical is how they are put into practice. Here is a three-pronged approach to tackle this issue.

Increasing employee engagement

By and large, Singaporean employees are not as engaged in their jobs as they ought to be. The natural consequence of this is low productivity. As employers, we need to look into how to engage our staff so they will be motivated to be more productive.

Start by opening a dialogue – find out about their concerns, understand their career aspirations, set work goals and assignment targets while encouraging them to take risks. Doing so will improve your employees’ morale and make them feel they are valued as individuals and not just a number in the employee head count.

This dialogue does not necessarily have to be conducted during your company’s appraisal period. It could be done over a meal or coffee because when done on a relaxed and personal basis, an employee will feel your concern for their wellbeing is genuine.

As the saying goes, people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.

And naturally, their performance and productivity will be enhanced. After all, everyone wants to be somebody in our supervisors’ eyes.

I know of a Chinese restaurant in which the employer is very innovative in the way he runs his business. You would hardly find a Chinese boss who is willing to share the profits with his workers. Yet that is what he does.

Whenever he starts a new outlet in a different location, 20% of the profits are given to the staff as an incentive to ensure the business does well. His employees are so engaged that whenever I visit his restaurant chain, my experience of the quality of service is exceptional.

Indeed, such profit-sharing exercises not only motivate employees, they also become great retention strategies.

Automating processes

Harness the wonders of technology to simplify processes, be it through IT initiatives or automation.

Eliminating unnecessary steps helps speed up processes and increases productivity. Your company may also be able to get government funding for many projects if you automate.

But regardless, process automation does not always have to be an expensive undertaking.

These days, for example, you’ll find more upmarket restaurants and even establishments in the heartlands using personal digital assistants to process customer orders, which are then electronically transmitted to the kitchen.

We can improve processes if we only direct our imaginations to challenge the status quo. As the saying goes, if you can imagine it, you can achieve it.

Getting creative

Another way to engage employees is to inspire them to be creative. Finding innovative alternatives to the way things are done can often lead to cost savings as it cuts wastage.

There was a Japanese firm that was trying to cut waste with its infrastructure costs.

The work team realised how silly it was to keep the production floor lights on because it only housed machines with no workers.

From then on, it switched off the lights and saved thousands of dollars in electrical bills.

With some innovative ideas and the willingness to revolutionise the way we think, we can increase productivity without a massive investment, while cutting wastage.