Part 1 of a 2 part series

Warning Signs:

• Rising labor costs as a percent of sales.
• High turnover of employees.
• Evidence of inadequate training.
• Employee/supervisor conflicts.
• Increase in employee absenteeism/tardiness.
• Confusion/duplication of effort.
• Signs that a process needs improvement:
• Falling profits with stable or growing sales, stable prices and costs
• Net sales to total assets out of line with industry averages.
• Unnecessary duplications.
• Unneeded income.
• Bottlenecks.
• Missing information.
• Missing resources.
• Poor morale.
• Rejects.
• Customer complaints.
• Absenteeism.

Steps to Improve: PRODUCTIVITY

• Evaluate staff productivity objectively.
• Reward employees with non-cash compensation.
• Reward your employees for bright ideas.
• Link bonuses to performance.
• Formula bonuses are less likely to become routine.
• Stamp out negative attitudes throughout the organization.
• Cross-train employees to handle multiple job duties.
• Invest in training your people in ways that will increase productivity.
• Daily direct input of time by time keepers increases billable time reported.
• Seize opportunities to upgrade your staff.
• Reshuffle under-performing staff to better suit their abilities.

Steps to Improve: OTHER

• Have written personnel policies.
• Pay twice a month or once a month, not weekly.
• Conduct exit interviews to confirm suspicions and uncover problems.
• Improve processes or re-engineer.