Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.Mark Twain
Various methods and strategies can be used to monitor and gather feedback on employee and industrial relations policies and procedures. Reviewing and gathering feedback should be part of the organisation's continuous improvement plan. This process can outline how the review and feedback will occur and when it will occur.
This topic will examine ways to obtain feedback from stakeholders on employee relations and industrial relations issues. You will explore the concept of continuous improvement and ways to contribute to the organisation's ongoing improvement process.
By the end of this topic, you will understand:
- how to identify issues in employee and industrial relations processes
- ways to contribute to continuous improvement
- best practice to record and maintain documentation.
Identifying issues in employee and industrial relations processes can potentially occur when policies or procedures change or when legislation changes. Gathering feedback on potential problems is an opportunity to ensure compliance with legislative requirements. Feedback also assists with any improvements in future employee relations and industrial policies, strategies and processes.
There are various ways that stakeholders can provide assistance to identify issues in employee relations and industrial relations processes.
- A review can highlight any improvements or actions needed to improve the employee and industrial relations processes, along with improvements to the employee and industrial relations policies and procedures.
- Another effective way of identifying issues in employee and industrial relations processes is to gain feedback. Before obtaining feedback, you must determine who you seek to gain feedback from.
- Health and safety representatives
- Line managers or team managers
- Chief executive officer
- Senior management
- Users of various employee relations and industrial relations processes
- Industrial relations/ human resources manager
Once you establish who the participants are, it is time to coordinate the survey design to ensure that the feedback collected is consistent with the intended survey participants.
The way you conduct the feedback survey will depend on the organisational requirements, the organisation's size and the location of the intended survey participants.
There are various ways that you can obtain feedback from your survey clients, including:
- staff meetings
- one-on-one meetings in person or on the phone
- Intranet
- video conferences or training
- newsletters
- classroom training
- conducting workshops
- hard copy surveys
- using external survey applications or software programs such as Survey Monkey
- employee surveys
- exit interviews
- tracking statistics (for example, incidents of industrial action, number of grievances, turnover figures).
Feedback will provide valuable insights on employee and industrial relations issues. You will use the information to evaluate what is working well and what aspects of the operations need to be adjusted or modified.
Once the various evaluations have been conducted, you suggest improvements to the relevant stakeholders to resolve the identified issues. You must include ways to improve the employee and industrial relations processes.
Further reading
Read 50 Employee Relations Examples You Should Be Documenting for information about common issues with employee relations.
Read Australia: IR reforms limited to casual employment to learn more about IR reforms.
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Continuous improvement processes aim for the organisation to identify issues and problems with employee and industrial relations processes. It allows opportunities to explore any concerns and examine how to rectify the issues and make positive changes.17
Watch the following short video on the reasons why continuous improvement is essential in the workplace.
You conduct reviews and evaluations of employee and industrial relations processes in line with the organisation's continuous improvement process. The continuous process is essential to the successful operation of all procedures and is usually based on the Kaizen or PDCA cycle. It is an integral part of an evaluation process to ensure quality and quality control.
Watch the following video for an explanation of KAIZEN.
The cycle Kaizen is defined as meaning change and continuous improvement and is derived from two Japanese characters:
- Kai, meaning "change."
- Zen means "continuous improvement."
The PDCA (or PDSA) Cycle is referred to as the lean working structure and is the system for executing Kaizen. The acronym stands for Plan, Do, Check and Act and is demonstrated in the diagram below.
The Kaizen approach to creating continuous improvement is based on the principle that small and ongoing positive changes can lead to significant improvements. In the continuous improvement process, consider any suggestions employees make and ensure their input is recognised and valued.
Employees can contribute to developing continuous improvement activities by participating in training. This training can focus on how to analyse current processes and make suggestions for improvement.
Other ways to contribute to continuous improvement may include:
- providing feedback on any process issues
- providing suggestions on how to improve processes
- getting involved in small team changes to processes
- taking time to explore problems and solutions
- testing ideas and solutions
- having fun at work to be able to inspire and produce new ideas
- nurturing and encouraging other team members.17
Some organisations offer various employee incentives and rewards to employees who contribute significantly to process improvements.
Contribution to the continuous improvement of employee relations and industrial relations processes can lead to a more effective way of dealing with any issues, leading to a happier and more productive workforce.
Watch the following short video where Steve Jobs talks about continuous improvement.
Further reading
Read Examples of Continuous Improvement in the Workplace to learn more about continuous improvement.
Read The Benefits of Continuous Improvement in the Workplace to understand the importance of continuous improvement.
As part of the continuous improvement process, recording and maintaining any related documentation is essential. Recording continuous improvement outcomes helps ensure that any processes and work performance are documented clearly and accurately. This allows the identification of issues with processes and any potential opportunities for future improvement.
Records need the following to be effective.
Records can be used to compare various outcomes and will create an accurate historical record that can be used to compare previous results. The various records, data and documents can be used to identify trends and opportunities for further improvement and highlight whether the process has problems and if any review of the process should be undertaken.
The documented standards are one of the most critical documents in continuous improvement. These standards describe how every process is performed and provides details of the exact steps for a particular task. The standards must be detailed enough that anyone should be able to review the procedure and do that task.
Ensuring that consistent record keeping and maintaining records align with organisational continuous improvement processes is essential. Ensuring that there is consistent record-keeping and maintenance of records and documentation related to continuous improvement provides the required material to measure the performance of the process.
Consistent forms or templates used to collect, and document performance data and results can help managers organise and plan discussions and meetings in a structured and logical manner.18
Further reading
Read How To Document Your Current Processes In 10 Easy Steps to learn more about documentation in continuous improvement.
Read Documenting and sharing improvements and lessons learnt to explore the best ways to document and share information.
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