Now you have survived the snow, are you better prepared for the next disaster?

Finally, do not let the analysis go on too long or you could become obsessed with failure. You and your team need to look forward with confidence to the next challenge.

More than a "thank you"

Some tips on employee recognition

It is commonly accepted that money alone will not retain valuable employees. People are motivated by a wide range of things, such as challenge, development opportunities, satisfying work, an appreciative boss and recognition of their worth. Without these, the best people will move to where they can find them.

It is very important to people that they feel valued and appreciated and the importance of imaginative and appropriate recognition should not be underestimated.
While a simple "thank you", spoken or written, will have a motivational effect on most people, provided it is timely and sincere, it is important to make any special recognition individual.

Take the trouble to find out what people would really value. Make use of opinion surveys to ask people what they would like as recognition or, in smaller, closer-knit teams, you could try asking people directly or asking their friends or partners.

How many bosses "treat" a subordinate to a meal out, when what that person would really appreciate is an early finish on a Friday to spend an evening with their family or a couple of theatre tickets or even a book by a favourite author.

Finding something really appropriate for the recipient is a double form of recognition. It is both a thank you and a sign that you are interested in them as a person, not merely in their performance at work.

Below are some more imaginative forms of recognition offered by large companies renowned as good places to work.

- free or subsidised onsite therapies and services (e.g.reflexology, massage, gym, health centre, hairdresser, dry cleaner)
- unpaid sabbaticals of up to six months
- interest-free loans
- "fun" budget for parties, excursions, team events etc.
- chill-out zone where workers can watch TV, play snooker or table-tennis, listen to music etc.

However, the best source of ideas will always be your own employees, because they are the ones who really know what motivates them.

Online Excellence Calculator

Do you want to see how your organisation might perform if assessed against the EFQM Excellence model?

There are many types of self assessment available to organisations wishing to use this widely used excellence framework.

By following this link you can experience just one method of assessing your organisation in a short 10 minute matrix based assessment.

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Newsletter - January 2010

Greetings!

I hope you have fully recovered from any problems the recent lengthy period of snow and ice might have caused. The severity of it caught many people by surprise, including the weather forecasters! The results may have prompted a few of us to ask ourselves whether we should have been better prepared for the unexpected, rather than simply accept that disruption to business as usual is inevitable. See the article below on business continuity planning and ask yourselves "Would you survive if disaster struck?" If you would like to know more about how ley hill solutions can help organisations be prepared for unexpected disasters, follow this link.

One of the things that always makes a difference in handling any challenging situation, disastrous or otherwise, is having a team of skilled, dedicated, committed and loyal people. Yet how many of us can, hand on heart, say that we always give our people the recognition they deserve and value? "More than a thank you" should give you some food for thought on this.

Our other features below include the first of a regular series on "quality gurus", those people who have become famous for their vision, innovation and leadership when it comes to delivering the very best in the eyes of the customer in the most effective and efficient way. All of them have not only transformed the organisations they have owned or worked for, but have also been an inspiration to others, very often across the world. We begin with Taiichi Ohno, who revolutionised Toyota's manufacturing process with, amongst other things, his "kanban" method of just-in-time re-stocking.

Would you survive if disaster struck?

Events such as the recent bad weather, swine flu pandemic and increasing threat of terrorism are causing people to examine the resilience of their business, especially small companies. Whilst big multi-nationals may well have dedicated expert teams dealing with contingency or business continuity planning, research by Populus shows that nearly half of small businesses have few to no plans in place to cope with flood or storm damage.

As weather patterns change due to global warming, this is an increasing concern for The British Insurance Brokers Association, who are putting pressure on the Government to do more to ensure small businesses, made more vulnerable by the economic downturn, are in a position to survive a major incident. Flood claims made in 2007 amounted to £3 billion and a more alarming statistic is that 80% of businesses affected by a major incident close down within 18 months.

Have you ever thought what would happen if -

your factory, warehouse or office was flooded?
the computer or telephone system went down for a couple of hours - or even days?
40% of your staff went down with a pandemic disease?
a major customer or supplier suffered a disaster?

Does your insurance cover major risks that could cripple your business or do you see insurance as a cost to be minimised and buy at the lowest level possible? And - even if you are confident you are effectively covered - how quickly could you get the business up and running again, with minimal loss of continuity for your customers?

These are questions that businesses ignore at their peril. Business Continuity Planning consists of various related activities necessary to ensure that key business functions can continue to operate following disruption. Two key aspects of this are contingency planning and crisis management. Here is an example of someone who got it right.

In 1999, United Airlines established a £2.1 million disaster recovery site for their world headquarters building housing their Operations Control Center and mainframe computer systems. Little did they know that they would be forced to use the site three days before it underwent final testing.

At 6am on 11 August 1999 a major fire broke out at the Operations Control Center and a disaster was declared shortly afterwards. Staff were evacuated and headed for the recovery site. This was truly going to be a test under fire.

At 6.30 am people arrived at the recovery site and although most of them had never been there before, overhead signs identified where the different groups were to sit. When they got there, they found that the workstations successfully connected to the new computer network and the Operations Control Center was back in business. The director of the Operations Control Center met the crisis manager with the unforgettable words: "It works! We are routing and dispatching aircraft."

At 7.00 am IT personnel completed the recovery to the site by switching the phone lines and computer message routing files from headquarters to the recovery site.

At 8.00 am the Federal Aviation Administration had a conference call with all the airlines. When United were asked if they would fly at all that day, they advised that they would be flying a full schedule. There was complete silence for a few moments before someone eventually asked how they had managed it.

Out of 2,500 dailyworldwide flights, United cancelled only one flight and had only five delays as a result of the fire. Without the recovery site, the fire could have shut down United Airlines for as much as three weeks at a loss of over £400 million. The incident also taught United a very valuable lesson - the impact of any disaster will always be bigger than you have planned for.

But being prepared for a disaster is what business continuity planning is all about and you do not need to be in a multi-million pound company or have a small fortune to spend on your recovery plan to benefit from it. Follow this link to our website to see how we can help you get going on this.

To Pareto or not to Pareto?

You may well have heard of the Pareto Principle - sometimes referred to as the 80/20 Principle - e.g. 80% of wealth is owned by 20% of the population;80% of business comes from 20% of customers. Recognition of this principle encourages people to focus on the vital few - those 20% of things that will produce 80% of the results. And this is very good as principles go. However, it does not mean that the smaller things should be ignored altogether. Sayings like "look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves" come from the wisdom of life experience.

David Allen, time management guru and author of "Getting Things Done", believes the economic crisis was created because too many people focused too much on their priorities. He says that focusing on priorities may be commendable, but what about the many little things that went unattended which, in retrospect, were critical and yet did not get the right attention at the right time.

Focusing on your mission, key goals and vital few things that will achieve them is fine - in fact it is often exactly what we at ley hill solutions encourage our clients to do because it is necessary to overcome inertia and resistance in order to obtain competitive advantage. But this needs to be underpinned by preparing effectively for the pressures it will put on resources and by paying attention to those things that support the infrastructure and ensure sustainability.

Very often, focusing on the 20% will move you forward, but what will then get in the way of really top performance will lie embedded in the 80% that is being ignored. Just because some things are not as important as others, does not mean that you should just let the lesser things take care of themselves.

David Allen does not suggest that you throw strategy to the winds or give equal weight to all the options of where you could put your focus. Rather, he recommends that you strive to maintain a view of the whole picture, leaving nothing - little or big - uncaptured, unclarified or unorganised, then constantly question what you think is the most important thing to be doing. Sometimes your highest priority may be to just get some unimportant things done.

Quality Guru Series

1. Taiichi Ohno

Toyota began life as a loom-maker, but the founder's son, recognising the huge potential of the motor vehicle, sold the patent for one of the loom designs and started the Toyota Motor Corporation in 1929. The company did very well until Japan's defeat in the Second World War destroyed its economy and Toyota was forced to make pots and pans alongside its trucks in order to survive.

Then in 1950, Taiichi Ohno, whose career began on the factory floor of the original loom company, visited Ford's River Rouge Plant in Detroit and the rest, as they say, is history.

Ohno admired Ford's mass production techniques, but found they had inefficiencies that he was sure could be overcome. He went back to Toyota and created the Toyota Production System, built around the elimination of waste (muda) and more economic use of warehouse space. His "kanban" ("signboard") just-in-time system involved moving little cards around the factory that signalled what particular parts to restock and when.

This allowed Toyota to build cars efficiently, profitably and to a very high standard, leading to rapid expansion and global domination. The company grew so fast that the town it was based in was renamed Toyota in 1959 and then later became a city.

The Toyota Production System itself has been copied throughout the world in a huge range of industries and is required study for the majority of business students. The "Kanban" cards have, of course, been replaced in many instances with electronic systems and barcode readers, but the principles are still the same.

Ohno was happy to share his methodology. Eventually becoming a Vice President of Toyota, he went on to publish books about the Toyota Production System and often spoke in public about it. In later years, he would describe it in terms of the American supermarket, with customers choosing products from the shelves. Only the chosen products would be replaced i.e. it is a pull rather than a push system. It is the demand for the product that dictates how much restocking takes place, so goods do not sit idle on shelves or in factory bins. There is no waste, but the product is always there when needed.

So, from his humble beginnings as a loom factory worker, Ohno went on to create probably the most famous production system in manufacturing history.

ley hill solutions aims to be one of Europe's most innovative consultancy organisations specialising in the tools and methods to improve the way your business works and performs. We use internationally recognised standards and frameworks such as ISO9001 and the EFQM Excellence Model to develop solutions that are right for your business.

Please contact us at ley hill solutions if we can be of any assistance.

Sincerely,

Graham Hull
ley hill solutions limited

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