I was privileged to be part of a company which was accredited best practice under the Federal Governments inaugural Best Practice programme and from that, the criteria for achieving this in any business has not, and will not change.
Best Practice will only emanate from a project which has uncompromised support and commitment from all levels of an organisation and in particular the CEO and executive management team.
There are four (4) main criteria for Best Practice which I suggest every business gives careful consideration to and adopts as Australia enters an era of considerable marketplace challenges and economic volatility.
- Identification of both national and international benchmarks including key performance indicators for their respective industries
- Design and implementation of effective and workable consultative mechanisms prepared cohesively by management, employees and unions working together as a team
- Redesign of the organisation and specific jobs which will be conducted jointly by management, employees and union
- Provision of training to improve the effectiveness of management and employees in a team-oriented environment
Once this process has been adopted and has even been budgeted, qualified and quantified, you can the start addressing the ‘Critical Success Factors’ in support of your ‘World Best Practice’ commitment
Critical Success Factors for an effective ‘Strategic Plan in support of World Best Practice
- Develop a customer driven culture through recognition as a best practice organisation and through benchmarking of services, people, premises, equipment, and organisation development
- Incorporate a programme of employee development which results in highly skilled and flexible resources committed to progressively eliminate restrictive work practices and ultimately relating to the company as their own
- Ensure globally competitive operational standards of practice are incorporated in all aspects of the company through the involvement of all employees
- Ensure a culture and programme of continuous improvement is initiated through self managed work teams and the involvement of all employees
- Attain the highest quality/compliance certification which positions the company ahead of competition with an emphasis on being proactive not reactive
- Attain the highest standard of safety ensuring absolute conformance with legislative requirements and the moral obligation of providing a safe working environment for all of the employees all of the time
- Develop and implement an effective and sustainable communications policy which establishes mutual trust and respect between all employees and includes the removal of any perceived status barriers
These are just a few of the lessons I have learned over time which also include considerable time researching and visiting best practice companies around the world.
What I can attest to is these parameters took my company through an unprecedented growth surge, profit achievement and both national and international recognition.
