Step change in productivity
30 August 2013
Award-winning
companies highlight the thinking behind a step change in
productivity
Everyone running an organisation in New Zealand faces the same challenge: how to get more output from the same (or less) resources. It’s our national productivity problem. Until we can crack it, we’ll be stuck with moderate performance levels across the breadth of our workforce and limited in our ability to generate higher returns.
But now there’s a body of evidence from the Equal Employment Opportunities Trust Diversity Awards that shows Kiwi companies tackling the root causes of low productivity. For four years running, one learning provider has supported Companies in the Finalists or Highly Commended section – and on 29 August 2013, it was behind this year’s winning entry in the Skills Highway category.
The Learning Wave was proud to share in the accolades collected by the Skills Highway Award winner, the Pacific Homecare Trust. With 92% of its employees having English as a second language, the Trust provides home-based healthcare services primarily to elderly and disabled clients throughout South Auckland. Since early 2011 the Trust has worked with The Learning Wave to lift the capability of its staff and improve their ability to do their jobs effectively which leads to a lift in workplace productivity. .
One of Pacific Homecare’s key business drivers is for 75% of its workforce to have a minimum Level 2 qualification by September 2013. It’s on track to have 100 Support Workers certified in Health, Disability and Aged Support (Foundation Skills) Level 2 by this deadline. During 2012, 55 workers completed The Learning Wave programme and 26 of these then completed their Level 2 qualification. The remaining 29 learners are currently midway through the qualification. These learners would not have been able to attempt or achieve Level 2 qualifications without the foundation learning from the literacy and numeracy programme.
A Pacific Homecare manager says, “We saw significant improvements in the pre and post literacy and numeracy results across the progressions and have achieved an 86% progression from the literacy programme to enrolment in a Level 2 or higher qualification. Qualifying our staff through this National Certificate means we are developing a more professional workforce to lead the way in our industry.”
This multi-layered approach to organisational change – by embedding a literacy and numeracy within industry-relevant training – is a feature of all four Learning Wave success stories within the EEO Trust Work & Life Awards over the last four years.
Four different companies, four
outstanding successes
The Learning Wave
first featured in the EEO Trust Work & Life Awards in 2009,
when its client Downer won the Skills Highway Award for
their Way2Work learning programme. Downer achieved
groundbreaking results lifting the literacy and numeracy
skills of over 1,000 employees, 71% of who had no
educational qualifications. The need for today’s workers
to control sophisticated machinery and manage serious risks
on site made this an achievement that directly translated to
productivity on site.
In 2011, it was the turn of another Learning Wave client. Highly Commended in the Skills Highway category, Stevenson Group won acclaim for its Stepping Up Together programme, which embedded literacy and numeracy skills in a series of learning modules aimed at lifting productivity by addressing the communication and problem solving skills needed at the frontline.
South Island Gold mining company Oceana Gold also won recognition as a 2012 finalist in the Skills Highway category. The company’s operator and supervisor skill development initiatives were designed and delivered by The Learning Wave. The Core skills programme and the First line Management level 3 programme were embedded with rich Literacy skill development and gave improvements across a broad range of fields including communication, health and safety reporting, IT skills and succession planning and a range productivity improvement projects.
These three companies are operating in the earthmoving and heavy machinery sector of the New Zealand economy. However, this year’s success with Pacific Homecare proves that workplace literacy is not just an issue for burly blokes in hard hats. Pacific Homecare mostly female and Pasifika workforce operates in the homes of its South Auckland clients, providing healthcare and practical support. Low levels of literacy and poor foundation skills, can be just as damaging to productivity and safe work practice here
So what are some of the performance-enhancing insights that have emerged over the last four years?
1. Technical
training is not enough
Downer, Stevenson,
Oceana Gold and Pacific Homecare might have looked at issues
such as low compliance with on-the-job instruction and
decided to equip employees with training in the particular
systems the company used. However, this would not have
addressed the root cause of poor compliance, which was low
levels of literacy compounded by poor communication skills.
To lift productivity on a broad front, an organisation needs
to engage learners where they really need help.
2. Teach practical literacy, not just how to pass the
test
A common trap in literacy programmes
is buying an off-the-shelf package. The problem is that this
is disconnected from the priorities of the learners and the
mission of the organisation. A smart tutor can get staff to
jump through the hoops of a standardised test, but real
learning only takes place when the learners fully engage
with the learning For this, they need customised materials
that relate to their role at work, make the learning
accessible to all levels and learning styles and for the
learners to know where they can apply these new skills
With this in mind, each of the four award-winning companies embedded literacy and numeracy exercises within specially created modules about leadership, safety at work, understanding paperwork and other relevant topics. In each case the learning was aligned to the organisation’s goals and relevant to the individual’s job. This approach not only avoids the stigma of ‘remedial reading’ but has also led to measurable gains in literacy across reading, writing and numeracy and has given learners the skills and confidence to apply their learning back on the job.
3. Reading, writing, and number are only the
beginning
Below-par productivity is
typically not a single failing. It’s a cluster of problems
that can include absenteeism, high staff turnover, poor
record-keeping, risky health and safety behaviours,
inability to learn new systems, and much more. It can be a
lack of willingness to suggest good ideas as well as a
failure to follow correct protocols.
All these symptoms have their roots in low educational attainment. When otherwise capable workers lack confidence in reading and writing, they may think of themselves as under-qualified. The result is a lack of engagement with operational requirements and an inability to progress.
Address the root cause, however, and the story is
reversed. Employees who feel supported to gain new skills
are then empowered to step up. In the case of Oceana Gold,
one worker in the programme produced a plan for a new road
to shorten the route that trucks took every day from the
mine. The productivity gains from this project alone
amounted to millions of dollars.
4. It
takes a village (or a company)
Pacific
Homecare, Stevenson, Oceana Gold and Downer all made
learning a company-wide priority. Their workforce learning
initiatives were aligned with organisational strategies and
had driven by the companies’ executive teams.
For this sort of initiative to be sustainable long term it needs to be owned by the senior team, and linked to key productivity drivers such as a decrease in the cost of rework or an increase in HS reporting.
When employees and executives at all levels receive the right tools, and understand their development is a priority, transformational change becomes a reality. In the case of Pacific Homecare, the literacy skills programme has lifted the capability of a group of largely unqualified workers and set them on the path to becoming skilled caregivers.
If this approach can work for caregivers in South
Auckland – or goldmine operators in Otago – it can work
for any company looking to take productivity to the next
level.
ends