Workplace productivity driver 7 - Measure what matters

To improve any aspect of a business, it is critical to develop measures which help decide whether our strategy implementation is taking us in the right direction.

The New Zealand dairy industry has identified measurement metrics in relation to labour productivity as one important aspect to achieving sustainable productivity growth.

Currently, human resource and labour productivity measures are not well-developed within the industry, however it is very positive to see a number of our 'good employers' actively embracing this challenge.

Several of the profiled employers have embraced measuring human resource performance. Five of these belong to employer groups and three have used an external auditing body to appraise their HR performance.

Measuring what matters helps you understand the things that make the biggest difference.

This includes:
• Measuring performance against a range of goals, rather than just focusing on financial performance
• Identifying key performance indicators and regularly measuring them throughout the year
• Making sure all employees know what the key performance indicators are
• Measuring employee morale and feedback
• Benchmarking your business against industry best practice

Employer groups have adopted minimum standards:
“The employer group helps encourages employers to upskill themselves and to develop an effective HR strategy for their business.”

“The Amuri Dairy Farm Employers Group has 28 employers belonging to it and each must complete two compulsory days of training per year and be assessed by an independent assessor.”

Some have engaged an external audit process:
“A QFENZ¹ report indicates that staff do understand their job and how it contributes to the goals of the business.”

“With policy and procedures complete, it was time to 'raise the benchmark' and make sure we were running 'the best operation' we could. We invited QFENZ¹ to audit our HR systems - a QFENZ¹ representative came and interviewed us, reviewed our policies and procedures and then spoke to each staff member individually, it was positive for us that our staff were feeding back that they found the systems worked well and that they were in tune with our business focus.”

¹ (QFENZ – Quality Farm Employers New Zealand was an independent audit business. This service is no longer available.)