The use of productivity improvement tools falls into two key areas. The first relates to improving employee knowledge of technical areas. The second relates to the use of employees time (process/operations). In this post I’ll go into some of the details of these types of tools and where benefits can be achieved.
Each worker, no matter what industry they are in, needs to have access to specific knowledge in order to do their role effectively. In a software environment this may mean access to the Internet to gain details of specifications or products they are using. At a more complex level this may require using training DVDs/online training utilities as basic productivity improvement tools. A firm’s innovation strategy will often dictate what new technologies are being used within the firm so this in itself can also factor into what training or tool are being demanded by employees.
Even companies where technical skills do not need to be particularly deep, it will be essential to have effective chains of command and communication channels established within the company in order to improve productivity. This may simply involve providing e-mail and internal database access to all employees. This allows them to communicate effectively as well as gain information regarding company products and processes. One key element to this is your personnel department’s responsibility to make sure all policies and programs are well detailed (preferably on an intranet).
The second important focus for productivity improvement tools are the actual processes being used in-house. Many project management methodologies define operationally how work will be done on a day-to-day basis. For example, in software this involves how work is built, tested and released.
It is essential that standardized processes are used so that employees can quickly train up. Standardization also means that regular productivity improvement tools can be used rather than having to develop your own in-house products which will prove to be expensive to do.
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