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The Business Times
Nurturing a culture of productivity
What are some of the challenges faced by management and staff when initiating productivity measures within an organisation? What steps would you take to build a productivity culture that would bring benefits to your staff and company?
Paul Endacott
Managing Director - Singapore
Ambition A PRIMARY challenge for organisations is defining productivity as not just the amount of work produced in a given timeframe. It is the quality of those ideas combined with a strategy that allows individuals to make decisions in a timely manner when there may be resistance to change within a business. To build a productivity culture, initiatives must be driven from the top and be motivational with a focus on learning and development as well as employee empowerment. This will improve quality, customer satisfaction, morale, management succession and profitability. Eu Pui Sun
Managing Director
Senoko Energy Supply Pte Ltd PRODUCTIVITY measures need a 'buy-in' from management as well as staff. They have to be complemented by the spirit of innovation to curtail any inertia that comes with all new organisational practices. It is important to reward staff who think out of the box to improve workplace efficiency. At Senoko Energy Supply, we empower the staff to customise value-added and innovative energy solutions for clients. When staff members feel that they are being entrusted and empowered, it increases their motivation and their drive to deliver results. Low Lee Yong
CEO & Founder
MHC Asia Group BY nature most people are reluctant to move out of their comfort zone to embrace changes. In fact there are people who would even thrive on inefficiency and non-productivity to make themselves more indispensable at the workplace. This is a disease which will hinder progress and productivity which needs to be addressed and if necessary, amputated! It is important for businesses to aspire to produce, serve and achieve more with lesser resources by embracing technology effectively. Everyone should aim to automate routine processes and eliminate unnecessary paperwork by simplifying administrative procedures. In MHC, doctors used to spend 30 minutes to write a health screening report. With the right innovation, we can now generate well over a hundred reports in less than 30 minutes, allowing our doctors to have more quality time with the patients. Clement Goh
Managing Director
Equinix Singapore OVER the years, we have seen that productivity is increasingly key to a company's success. At Equinix Singapore, we have assembled a project taskforce, represented by members from each division, to create relevant strategies and campaigns that will increase productivity growth in their teams. We also provide our employees with many opportunities to increase skills through training and education sponsorships. Higher skills will help them excel at their jobs - completing tasks efficiency and effectively. However, the results are not immediate. Building a productivity culture is a long, reinforcing process. We also see many get buried under the pile of daily tasks and cannot find time out of their day to learn new productivity techniques. We hope more will realise that these small sacrifices can help them improve their performance at work in a great way. Robert Wilkes
Managing Director
Towers Watson Singapore TARGETED health strategies can help companies improve productivity. Companies with effective wellness programmes are more likely to have fewer lost days due to the workforce's disabilities and illness. Presenteeism, a state when an employee is physically at work but not fully productive due to health or stress-related conditions, is also lower. Additionally, Towers Watson research has identified other critical factors that play important roles in productivity and results. First, the employers can provide the support employees need to do their work efficiently and effectively. We call this 'enablement'. Employers can also create a work environment that supports employees' physical, social and emotional well-being. We refer to this as 'energy'. When an organisation builds a workplace that actively marries high levels of employee engagement with 'enablement' and 'energy', it opens the door wider to significant gains in productivity and performance. Michael Jenkins
Chief Executive
Roffey Park Asia-Pacific AGAINST a background of economic turbulence CEOs will need to rely on improving productivity at all levels in organisations if they are to deliver growth at a time when salaries are static, the cost of living is increasing and employees are already stretched to the limit. We believe the key to this lies with performance management. Our own management agenda research due to be published later this month finds that half of organisations are poor or very poor at dealing with underperformance, the highest proportion since we began asking this question in 2007. This is extremely worrying and I hear consistently that performance management continues to be the Achilles heel of Asian organisations. We have also found that while organisations appear to be executing the process of performance management - regular performance appraisals, setting clear job objectives - the majority nevertheless report that the process no more than 'adequate'. But adequate is not going to be good enough. Performance management needs to be more than a tick box exercise completed once a year and filed neatly in the cupboards. It needs to be more strategic, robust and an integral part of an organisation's culture. Only through doing this will productivity and therefore business growth targets be achieved. Toby Koh
Group Managing Director
Ademco Security Group Pte Ltd THE mindset of staff was the biggest challenge faced. We moved our business platform from legacy software to a corporate wide cloud-based real time solution. Everyone from our engineering team to customer service to sales are now on an integrated platform. Staff are connected at all times with their tablet laptops with mobile broadband. Information flows quickly on a live basis and staff are empowered with easy access to our knowledge database to enhance service delivery to our clients. This cloud system has enabled us to go paperless too, hence also helping us go green. We optimise our work flow and process for maximum efficiency and productivity with our cloud solution. Leveraging on technology and information is a key strategy to our success in increasing productivity. We have certainly benefited from the Productivity and Innovation Credit tax incentive programme by the government. I do hope that the PIC quantum will be increased from the current $400,000. Greg Moore
Managing Director
Huthwaite Asia-Pacific WE face issues related to sales productivity constantly, and what most organisations do to drive productivity is through the use of efficiency metrics. These metrics measure activities such as number of calls, opportunities in the pipeline, total value in the pipeline, forecast values and so on. While these metrics are essential in day-to-day decision making, perhaps, one of the biggest challenges is that while these efficiency measures tend to drive activity, they do not necessarily produce results. Effectiveness measures can be implemented to balance out the efficiency measures. The methods that increase efficiency are very different from the ones that increase effectiveness. Effectiveness metrics measure whether or not a progressive outcome resulted from a single activity, such as the outcome of a sales call. These effectiveness measures keep the organisation focused on working smarter, not just working harder and it only takes one or two of these effectiveness measures to increase productivity. Franck De Praetere
Regional Head (Singapore)
SWIFT Asia-Pacific SINGAPORE is a well established and respected financial centre inspiring many Asean countries. In many industries competitiveness and efficiency are intimately linked and the financial industry is no exception. Today, we see some spaces where a high level of automation is achieved, for example, bank to bank domestic and cross border payments. However many areas can still improve their level of automation in the processing of securities, trade and money markets transactions. As an industry owned organisation and register authority for ISO, SWIFT has been promoting and facilitating the adoption of international standards for the financial industry for more than 30 years. We believe that Singapore will remain a leader in helping the local financial industry increase straight through processing (STP) and set the right foundation for the Asean bloc. Richard Hong
Managing Director
Asiawide Print Holdings ASIAWIDE Print sees three-pronged challenges. Firstly, a high level of capital funding is needed for technological changes to occur. Secondly, extensive time and investments to train staff to improve on their skillset is essential. Thirdly, innovation progress in productivity must be promoted by the management in a consistent and holistic approach. Asiawide Print encourages its employees to see productivity growth as the key determinant that will boost their benefits too. Introduction of gain sharing schemes, annual productivity bonus, surplus medical benefits and additional salary increments are key ingredients towards creating a productivity culture. Philip Yuen
CEO
Deloitte Singapore DELOITTE'S culture imbibes productivity as our firm is built on the principles of integrity and quality. Regular training, efficiency projects to streamline and improve work processes for all employees, and a strict adherence to rigorous standards are fundamental to the delivery of professional, value-added services to our clients. Deloitte is also a catalyst for change and innovation - our 'Audit Innovation' programme for instance, fosters a culture of innovation by allowing individuals and groups to contribute ideas on efficiency and new services, and identify and explore opportunities in business and technology. David Baukol
President
Walton International Group WHEN a company's sales revenue is dependent on the calibre of the sales personnel and their product knowledge, regular training and skills upgrading is the key to ensuring that their productivity is always at its optimum. At Walton, we have developed a comprehensive set of in-house training materials for our sales consultants and managers to attain excellent sales performances. This empowers them to fulfil their personal sales targets, which will ultimately translate to growth for the company. Tan Hak Leh
Senior Vice-President and Chief Executive Officer
AIA Singapore AT AIA Singapore, our employees and AIA Financial Services Consultants form the fabric of our company and as such, talent development is paramount in building a culture of productivity and innovation. Training programmes are continually deployed to enrich staff and agents with knowledge and skills to perform their jobs well. A productive culture is also cultivated by ensuring that through our staff and agents' engagement programmes, each person within the organisation focuses on our commitment to deliver on the company's mission of protecting generations of Singaporean families. As one of the market leaders, AIA Singapore looks beyond meeting the minimum requirements to set the benchmark, raising the industry's overall standards and productivity levels to better serve our customers. Richard Huxley
Regional General Manager, Asia-Pacific
RS Components IMPROVING productivity and service levels for customers is a great challenge for our business. I believe we have achieved some good results in this area through staff engagement. We have done so by ensuring the right measures are in place to manage what we are doing and drive performance. Secondly, we have adopted a culture of continual improvement which has equipped all employees with capabilities to recommend better processes to drive service levels and high productivity. Alan Garvey
Managing Director, Asia and EMEA
ESI International TIGHTENED budgets, shortage of resources and the lack of a structured approach to measure the ability to transfer learning in the workplace, can hinder productivity in an era of transparency and recovery. Organisations should invest in customised methodologies, targeted and measurable learning programmes and competency models that would help develop their workforce to produce a greater return and higher quality output in the long run, even when overall resources and spending are reduced. It is also paramount to develop leadership and critical thinking capabilities in employees so that they can identify organisational priorities within a culture of individual accountability. Mark Billington
Regional Director
ICAEW South East Asia PRODUCTIVITY measures are often a euphemism for a re-assessment of the actions needed to remain successful; does the company have the right skills, the flexibility and willingness to respond to change, and the right technology? Reviewing employees' skills to ensure that the business has the best team to help ride out the storm is a good starting point. The successful implementation of such reviews and consequent actions need to be communicated to staff clearly and openly, highlighting the needs of the business as well as the benefits to the employees. The investments or savings identified should benefit the business in the longer term, but it is critical that finances are managed tightly, products are cost appropriately and the profitability of contracts is clear, to realise these gains. Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen
Vice-President & General Manager
Red Hat Asia-Pacific HUMAN capital is a company's most valuable asset. Red Hat believes that companies should invest in the expertise of their employees and provide them with the tools necessary to achieve maximum productivity. To achieve this, training and development are crucial to unlock the potential of each employee. However, some organisations choose to see training as a cost rather than an investment - and this is especially true in this uncertain economy. At Red Hat, we value our employees and continually invest in their career growth. Red Hat University, a dedicated resource, was formed to make training and development opportunities accessible and relevant to Red Hat employees. We have extensive development programmes in leadership, management, sales and technical arenas that have helped to impact productivity within the organisation. At the same time, we continually improve our development initiatives to address market and organisational opportunities. This is instrumental in helping our employees grow with the company, which in turn drives productivity across the whole organisation. Hernaikh Singh
Chief Executive Officer
Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SICCI) LARGER organisations generally have the capacity and capability to put in place measures to enhance productivity. The key challenge for them is changing mindsets. The staff may have been operating in a particular (less productive) manner and may take some convincing to change for the better. This can be achieved over time, helped by incorporating components in the incentive structure designed to enhance productivity. There is a greater challenge in enhancing productivity among small-medium enterprises. While they also face the challenge of a mindset change, this is often compounded by the fact that they do not have the investment capacity and/or the ability to dedicate staff to focus on productivity measures. For many, it is an issue of staying afloat, with more attention accorded to daily operations and an eye on the bottom line. However, they need to realise that these productivity measures may ultimately ensure their survival. A simple approach to building a productivity culture in the organisation is to reward employees who propose, with real tangible gains, measures to enhance productivity. The reward can be a percentage of the savings to the organisation arising from the suggestion. This will motivate employees to think out of the box. At the same time, the management could peg a portion of the employees' bonus to the company's productivity gains and not just its financial gains. John Ng Peng Wah
CEO
PowerSeraya ADJUSTMENTS to increase workplace productivity often present new challenges and demands for people, especially for those resistant to change and feel that any adjustments may alter their career or lifestyle if they have minimal control over workplace initiatives. Consequently, we need to recognise that productivity goes beyond systems and procedures. For example, while technology may keep PowerSeraya's plant operations running efficiently, it also involves having motivated and committed staff or champions to educate and encourage change and workplace improvements to ensure sustainable growth, which can lead to a better work-life balance for staff, among others. At PowerSeraya, we take a holistic approach towards productivity that cuts across various business aspects. It involves doing the right things, in the right way and right away to achieve maximum efficiency, effectiveness and value. This idea is owned and delivered by our 'R-Cube' Productivity Taskforce in PowerSeraya. To encourage continuous improvements, our project team comprising members of all departments lead and create discussions on productivity improvements. This is to facilitate staff involvement to give suggestions and undertake problem solving at a local level, thereby empowering them with greater ownership to effectively manage change and better appreciate the value of productivity. Deepali Chaturvedi
Head of SEA
Reed Specialist Recruitment PRODUCTIVITY can be enhanced in many ways - investing in capital, getting economies of scale, investing in innovation and technology, or adopting better business practices. A key challenge lies in getting employees to support the changes. During tough market conditions, organisations must know their talent and understand what skills and attributes employees need. Successful companies often have an active talent management process where they can continually map employee performance and development against their future business needs. Those who do so are better placed to survive than their less well managed rivals. To thrive in a challenging economic environment, organisations should regularly review their structure and analyse how best to deploy their people for maximum productivity. Patrick Liew
CEO
HSR Property Group PRODUCTIVITY improvement is embedded in our game-changing architecture, beginning with the corporate culture. We believe it is a systemic capability and dynamic process involving every member of the organisation and covering every area of the business. We encourage our people to go beyond their comfort zone and have a healthy paranoia that if we don't improve, we will be lunch for our competitors by tomorrow. To build such a 'cheaper, better and faster' culture, we seek to have the right talent for the right job. They must synergistically communicate, collaborate and co-create solutions to enhance productivity and the bottom line. We are committed to an ongoing process of innovations, leveraging on new ideas, initiatives, and technology to create radical breakthroughs. In the final analysis, we are mindful that what has brought us to the current level cannot bring us to the next level of growth. We need to constantly 'destroy' our business model and mindset and reinvent ourselves so as to achieve quantum leaps of and not just incremental improvements. Karin Clarke
Regional Director for Singapore and Malaysia
Randstad THE challenge for businesses in Singapore in 2012 will be to continue building a sustainable, highly-valued and highly-skilled economy as activity slows. Initiating productivity measures will often mean a change in workplace culture, in addition to new operating procedures and processes. Building a productive culture requires company-wide commitment. For managers, this could translate to creating a culture of workplace innovation, where employees are encouraged to think outside the square to problem solve. Employees often develop ideas for improving their own productivity if there is a culture that encourages such thinking, and the company provides the method for capturing these ideas and putting them into practice. Traditional modes of staff up-skilling and training, reward and recognition programmes to encourage performance or investing in technology to streamline processes can also help. Workplaces that develop a culture of innovation and value each employee's contribution will be the ones to retain top-tier talent and develop a more intelligent, productive workforce in the process. Philippe Huinck
Regional Managing Director, South and South-east Asia
International SOS COMPANIES that implement productivity measures need to understand that they are basically just process improvement tools, and not let their competitive advantage be eroded by over-reliance on such tools alone. At International SOS, we seek to increase productivity through training and use of technology. All our frontline employees at our 24-hour alarm centres are trained to deliver quality, timely healthcare and security advice to our customers effectively. Using a sophisticated case management system to facilitate cross-border work seamlessly, we have consolidated our records of 68,000 audited medical facilities worldwide into a single database which can be accessed at any of our 26 alarm centres worldwide. A combination of a trained workforce and technology enables us to respond faster and better to any of our customers in distress. However, we are mindful that technology should never be over-emphasised at the expense of our customers and patients, who are at the heart of what we do. We strive to maintain the human touch through meaningful interactions with the people we serve - a commitment that is enshrined in our philosophy. David Leong
Managing Director
PeopleWorldwide Consulting Pte Ltd PRODUCTIVITY gains can lift the quality of outputs to a level which can justify workers' higher salaries and the sustainability and competitiveness of companies. Productivity gains can be achieved through production assets (mechanisation and automation). In today's context, such productivity gains may have hit plateau for many highly automated operations and marginal gains are hard to achieve. The other path to higher productivity gains will be through knowledge assets. Understanding processes and value/supply chain in the workplace embedded in the knowledge repositories of the collective workforce is key to productivity gains. The deep knowledge in process management will allow for further optimisation in outputs through workplace efficiency and effectiveness. The productivity of knowledge has already become the key to productivity gains and in the improvement of competitive strength and economic achievement. The enlightened knowledge-intensive company must look to increase revenues, improve workplace efficiency, and reduce expenditures through tools and, most importantly, mindset shifts that can accelerate an employee's abilities and speed. This productivity culture must be an unrelenting pursuit to be imbued into the psychic of every employee of the company. Lim Tit Meng
Chief Executive
Science Centre PRODUCTIVITY can be raised through innovation. At the Science Centre, innovation is one of our core values. We foster a culture that supports open communication and sharing of ideas; encouraging new ways of doing things and promoting continuous learning. Time is allocated to each staff for innovation activities. They can go anywhere outside the office, as a team or as individuals, to rationalise and discuss ideas and then propose solutions that can improve on work output. Relevant assets and resources will be granted once the proposal is endorsed by management. We also encourage entrepreneurship from the bottom up. Last year we approved the setting up of a science show unit, giving staff dedicated time to develop new show concepts and upgrade showmanship. The unit even went on overseas study trips to learn best practices. Now the show unit not only performs creatively scripted shows locally but also does shows upon invitation and paid for in science festivals abroad. Our talented staff have become highly motivated and our brand name has been enhanced. The main challenge faced by entrusting staff to innovate is the risk of failure. We start any new initiative like conducting a science experiment - trial runs with preliminary results before official implementation, and allowing the experiment to evolve and expand as more results are obtained. If results show inconsistency even after trouble shooting, the project will be abandoned to cut cost. Lim Soon Hock
Managing Director
PLAN-B ICAG Pte Ltd IT is important that companies in Singapore adopt a quality focused mindset and invest in continuous improvement initiatives to sustain productivity. While I am mindful that a lot of effort has been put into promoting this in the past, more can be done to instill an enduring and strong quality centric culture in our businesses, especially among our employees. I would like to suggest increased funds be put aside so as to educate and incentivise more businesses to be more quality-centric. At the same time, while companies can put in place initiatives to improve quality, employees must also embrace a quality centric mindset. I look forward to the day when more of our employees take pride in their work. Raising productivity is more than just having the capabilities and capacity to offer products and services that are better, faster or cheaper. Without quality, productivity cannot be sustained. High productivity alone, without acceptable quality will not be enough to generate business growth. Yaj Malik
Area Vice-President, Asean
Citrix Systems THE beginning of a year is a good time for organisations to introduce new initiatives as people return to work, many with their own resolutions for the year. When it comes to efficiency measures, management should look at the most appropriate technology solutions that can address specific issues or bottlenecks. For example, companies can adopt a Bring-Your-Own programme to allow the use of personal devices in the workplace, creating a more conducive work environment for today's increasingly mobile workforce. By leveraging desktop virtualisation, organisations can enable employees to work remotely and securely from any device of their choice, while IT teams can focus on more strategic initiatives rather than be bogged down with working on upgrades, support issues and desktop maintenance. These ultimately ensure business continuity, increased efficiency and minimal lost productivity. Lynne Ng
Regional Director
Adecco SEA MEASURING productivity can be a challenge for many organisations for various reasons, one of these being that there needs to actually be a quantitative means to measure productivity that is both meaningful and that can be acted upon for improvement. It is also important to gain a thorough understanding of what needs to be measured. Is it output or is it customer satisfaction? It is advisable for there to be an upside to productivity enhancements for employees. If an organisation makes productivity improvements, then employees can stay focused on further improvements if there is a benefit to them and a win-win situation for both the organisation and its employees. Dora Hoan
Group CEO
Best World International Ltd IMPLEMENTING new measures to boost productivity can be a trying experience. Without a strong sense of trust between employees and the management, staff might be averse to changes and worry about the time and effort taken to implement these measures. This is detrimental to their morale and attitude. To increase productivity, companies need an efficient system in place to handle tasks - specifically, recurring ones - with ease. Clear communication between parties is imperative to minimise time wastage from preventable errors and amendments. Companies also need to devise a transparent system of measuring productivity to reward individuals who achieve tangible productivity growth. Andrea Ross
Managing Director (Singapore & Malaysia)
Robert Walters Singapore THE main challenge faced in any organisation in enhancing workplace productivity involves employee engagement. In the light of global economic uncertainty, companies are keen to keep operational costs lean and thus some redundancies may have been inevitable for certain organisations. With a leaner workforce, both management and employees may then have to take on larger job responsibilities which may lead to longer working hours and minimal salary increments. This could potentially lead to disengaged employees which could lead to talent attrition. To boost productivity, bosses should strive to keep their staff engaged. Ideally, they will recognise good work and reward employees accordingly. Open communication and sharing of ideas on improving work processes could potentially boost productivity when employees feel that they are valued. Any improved work process should effectively leverage on an employee's unique strengths and capabilities in order to achieve greater efficiency. Teng Yeow Heng Michael
Managing Director
Corporate Turnaround Centre Pte Ltd THERE are many productivity challenges the firm should manage internally. How well does the firm utilise new knowledge and technology; is the resource (human and capital) allocation optimising established goals; is the company maximising at an economy-of-scale level; are the employees highly motivated and loyal or is there labour unrest and high staff attrition rate; what about the processes, 6 sigma and statistical control process and finally, what is the overall quality of the company's management? And, if management sees productivity as a sine quo non, is there a commitment and sincerity to build a productivity culture? To build a productivity culture requires an interactive approach. Both top down and bottom up. Management has to drive it and the staff have to take ownership of it. The company has to establish systematic processes, key performance indicators and employee incentive programmes to ensure best productivity outcome Annie Yap
Managing Director
AYP Associates Pte Ltd INCREASING productivity requires systematic, careful planning and good implementation. A poorly planned scheme that focuses too much on efficiency, as opposed to taking into account other factors such as quality and customer satisfaction, can lower employee morale and paradoxically decrease productivity. Focusing on general cost-cutting and greater efficiency as opposed to strategically targeting key areas will likely not yield long-term gains, but instead discourage innovation and lead to employee dissatisfaction. Equally important is execution. Having identified problem areas, management should ensure that employees are committed to productivity measures and understand the key issues. Management must be willing to invest in automation, in workflow, and in proper training for employees to ensure that they are part of the solution as opposed to the problem. Care must be taken not to neglect employee welfare and ensure good employer-employee relations. Employees should have clear directions as to what is expected of them and have clear indications how they measure up to them and at the same time retain control of their performance and decision-making regarding their job.