Efficiency and Effectiveness – What it is, and what it isn’t.

Richard Mills CEO    General Discussion     busniess, companies, efficiency, Employee Scheduling, Intellicate, job cuts, Schedule24 Workflow Management, scheduled work hours, shift, shift pattern, staff, work, workforce

A 2007 whitepaper about neglected management skills in the workplace, highlighted the lack of coordination, communication and control of staff in businesses operating extended or 24 hours working.  It was written at the height of “boom time” during which team leaders and line supervisors were unwittingly transformed from people to process managers, and management teams continued to pursue the fads and fashion surrounding talent management and 360-deg performance driven reward and retention programs.  However, basic workplace skills continued to be neglected. Three years on and things are somewhat different. The “piranha” is upon us and pundits are extolling “tough times” will be around for a long time to come.

Certainly most of us are aware expectations have been firmly pushed into the ”more demand for efficiencies in the workplace” debate. So what is efficiency? Well on its own nothing much. The ultimate state of efficiency is where no energy is expended. So closing everything down is about as efficient as it can get, but that doesn’t really help. We will however hear about efficiency ad nauseam and it will become synonymous with cost-cutting, which in turn will become welded to job cuts. For business to be both efficient and effective may well involve job cuts, but carrying out job cuts does not make a business efficient and effective. Often businesses continue just as inefficient and ineffective as before – just smaller.

Efficiency can only have meaning when associated with our effectiveness to achieve something – a business or management goal for example. It may be worth bearing in mind you can be effective yet inefficient, and efficient yet ineffective. Efficiency and effectiveness are siblings of reason. You need both.  A much over-used phrase of late is the statement ”We will do whatever it takes”.  A hallmark of someone who has bypassed the faculty of thought if ever there was one.

Efficiency measures the amount of time and cost required to achieve a goal; and effectiveness measures whether that goal has been reached. The best outcome is to achieve a given goal in less time and cost than by alternatives means. The hardest task for the drive for  more efficiency is not reducing cost, that is easy – anybody can do that. Defining goals  and recognizing at what point they have been reached is much harder.

Leaving aside whether goals are defined and agreement when they are reached, another  relationship exists that many will try to bend in the name of efficiency but only succeed to break . The cast-iron relationship forged  between staff-cost, staff-count, and staff-hours is complex and the consequences often underestimated. Without the means to manage all three contexts simultaneously few ever get it right.

Intellicate Announces New “Phased Return to Work” (PRtW) Service

admin    General Discussion, Intellicate Solutions, Phased Return to Work     benefit, businesses, employee, HR, Intellicate, phased, Phased Return to Work, phased return work, prtw, services, solutions, work, workforce

Acclaimed workforce solutions provider helps businesses and employees achieve a smooth transition after a period of absence.

As budget-conscious companies look for creative ways to reduce employee turnover, cut back on training costs, and boost team morale, phased return to work (PRtW) has become a quickly growing trend. Billed as a progressive workplace benefit, PRtW is designed to smooth the transition after an employee has been out of the office for an extended period of time due to illness or injury.
With PRtW, the employee resumes his or her work schedule in increments. With approval from a supervisor, HR department, and/or physician, work hours are gradually increased over a pre-defined time frame.

In March of 2010, Intellicate added a PRtW service to their repertoire of workplace management services. As a leading provider of top-notch workforce solutions, the London-based company specializes in effective schedule management. Their flagship product, Schedule24 Professional, helps employers achieve maximum efficiency in staff allocation and management. With PRtW, Intellicate expands their offerings to accommodate this new development in workforce optimization.

Benefits of PRtW
A growing number of organizations, HR professionals, and medical providers are recognizing the long list of benefits that can be achieved by PRtW. When an employee resumes his or her workload gradually, he or she is less likely to suffer a relapse or enter a state of “burnout”, resulting in enhanced efficiency and productivity.

In a time of heightened awareness of labor rights and a surge of lawsuits, implementing PRtW helps to reduce the frequency of litigious employees and workplace discrimination claims. Phased return to work also ensures a higher level of accountability and knowledge for all parties involved.

“HR chiefs believe the note will inevitably lead to disputes between employers and staff,” says Tim Mills COO of Intellicate “Our PRtW services at phasedreturntowork.com significantly reduce the probability of conflicts.”

How Intellicate Can Help
By adding PRtW services to their offerings, Intellicate has allocated the resources and expertise to help small and mid-sized businesses manage all aspects of the process:

• Customizing a flexible but clearly defined PRtW program for each company
• Counseling employers on how to offer PRtW without compromising their existing operational policies or goals
• Balancing employee capabilities with organizational needs to minimize risk
• Creating detailed written PRtW plans for re-entry after a period of sick leave

As proven leaders in workforce scheduling strategies, Intellicate works with companies to create effective phased schedules designed to benefit the interests of all parties. Their expert HR outsourcing team provides insights and guidance along the way. “Dame Carol Black, the health expert who advocated this revolutionary approach, warned the fit-note won’t work without more detail,” Mills notes. “We’re providing the employer and employee with the kind of detail they can action together in the workplace”.

About Intellicate
With partners in Australia and the United States, Intellicate provides software and services to clients around the world. Schedule24 Professional is a registered trademark of Intellicate. Learn more about their world-class workforce solutions at www.intellicate.com.