Alan Cotterell
Acotrel Risk Management Pty Ltd
Benalla, Australia
61-3-57626737
Please feel free to contact us at:
https://www.angelfire.com/biz2/AcotrelDirectory/index.html
https://www.angelfire.com/biz2/AcotrelDirectory/index.html
acotrel@cnl.com.au
A SUGGESTION:
There have been schemes proposed for 'Productivity Gain Sharing', which have been based on payment of cash bonuses to workers, determined from arbitrary productivity indicators.
It is suggested the payment of this type of bonus is undesirable for the following reasons:
a) impact of the bonus is essentially short term,
The new approach to quality management offers an opportunity to implement Productivity Gain Sharing in a much more effective manner, by linking a discount on shares to a Positive Performance Indicator as follows:
The usual implementation of ISO9000 quality management systems involves documentation of work practices as 'quality system procedures', development of quality policy, and mission and vision statements.
ISO9000 standards place a strong emphasis on 'continuous improvement', and the next phase may be implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM). This activity concentrates on improvement of work practices through worker participation.
The normal sequence of events of TQM is:
a) plan a quality improvement to a process and document the process 'warts and all',
(It can be seen that increasing the effectiveness of the quality management system, depends on achievement of a high level of employee involvement.)
Employee Share Ownership Programs (ESOP) offer an excellent opportunity to drive the 'continuous improvement' concept and achieve a higher level of business competitiveness.
It is suggested that public listed companies should sell shares to their employees at a discount rate dependent on measured increases in productivity.
Productivity of most organisations can be assessed by calculating the ratio of 'profit' to 'wages bill' (provided there has not been a greater than normal investment in plant in any one year). This calculation should take into account gains and losses due to the good or poor management of the organisation, and its major risk areas.
(The process of calculating the discount should be transparent to employees.)
The advantages of this approach are:
a) the 'continuous improvement' program is driven by self interest,
To the employee this approach should look like 'going to the races and riding the horse he/she has bet on'.
NOTHING ELSE MOTIVATES LIKE 'A PIECE OF THE ACTION'.
b) risk areas such as occupational health and safety, environment and security can be neglected by workers, to more easily achieve payment of the bonus.
b) brainstorm for possible solutions using a group activity, and implement changes to the process,
c) check that an improvement has actually been achieved (use statistics) and that other processes have not been adversely affected,
d) act to consolidate the changes by updating process documentation (such as quality system procedures).
b) employees gain a sense of ownership,
c) impact of rewards is long term,
d) the shares can be converted into cash and provide the 'cash bonus', if required,
e) employees can have an input at shareholders meetings, and influence organisation strategy and policy,
f) this approach would effectively implement participative Industrial Democracy, and change the industrial paradigm to one which encourages a positive and proactive attitude to risk management (safety).
