More from less focuses on improving productivity by working smarter rather than harder. While streamlining processes and technology can help, focusing on improving human capital productivity is also critical. People are rarely working at full effectiveness due to lack of strategy clarity, proper delegation, differentiated rewards, and encouragement of teamwork. Hay Group's productivity tool helps leaders identify barriers holding teams back like unclear vision, improper standards, and excessive bureaucracy. Addressing these issues can significantly improve outcomes like higher sales, lower costs, and increased employee engagement.

1. More
from less
Working smarter to meet the
productivity challenge
In a world where everyone is looking for a bargain, simply providing value for money is not
enough. Customers now want more for less. But how can organisations achieve this when the
recession has already forced most costs out?
Case study The answer is to focus on increasing productivity Headlines such as these suggest there are some
– working smarter not harder. relatively easy fixes and significant benefits to
Improving performance be had in improving people’s productivity and
This is partly about streamlining processes,
in the retail sector technology and infrastructure. But, with labour
effectiveness.
We recently worked with a costs incurring such a huge expense for many Identifying the barriers to effective
retail client to help improve the companies and human ingenuity the main
performance
performance of the teams in a source of competitive advantage, focusing on the
large number of their stores. We productivity of human capital is also critical. Driving productivity through people is about
found that those teams with the giving them clarity about what matters, setting
In our experience, people rarely work at full
most effective leaders had: the right standads, delegating effectively,
effectiveness. In recent Hay Group research with
differentiating rewards, reducing bureaucracy
17 per cent lower staff turnover the FTSE 350:
and encouraging team working.
40 per cent lower absence ƒƒ 32 per cent of employees said they didn’t
Hay Group has developed a tool that helps
12 per cent higher growth understand the strategy well enough to
leaders identify with their teams which of these
in sales implement it
is holding them back. It measures the factors
operating savings up by ƒƒ 37 per cent said they expected to kick that we know, through research, get in the way
10 per cent significant decisions back upstairs of teams excelling in their jobs and are proven to
35 per cent lower stock base track back to organisation performance. And they
ƒƒ 44 per cent said they only collaborate if they
are things that a leader can put right fairly quickly.
48 per cent fewer price are forced to
markdowns.
ƒƒ 6 per cent said they plan to sabotage plans
For a store with an average behind the scenes.
monthly turnover of £2.3m this
equated to an annual financial
gain of £445,000.
©2010 Hay Group. All rights reserved

2. More from less
Productivity suffers when leaders Productivity improves when leaders ensure
don’t... people...
“ Hay Group’s
productivity survey
quickly got us
Clarity
Standards
Communicate the big picture, or
convey how team jobs connect to it
Set the right standards
Understand the vision, how their jobs connect,
work on and prioritise the right things
Know the standards of expectation, what’s
focused on what or emphasise continuous ‘good enough’ and what’s a waste of effort,
improvement and need to keep improving
underlying issues
were and their half Responsibility Delegate effectively or encourage Are given appropriate, accountable
autonomy and risk taking to do the autonomy to do their jobs, feeling
day improvement job effectively responsible for outcomes
process helped us Rewards Differentiate feedback or hard and Get direct, differentiated feedback and
”
take action. soft rewards based on performance are rewarded for the right behaviours,
/ merit performance over mediocrity
Flexibility Cut through red tape and processes Are innovative and creative in stream-lining
to make work easier or to encourage processes and ways of working to get the
new ideas job done better / faster
Team Resolve team issues, e.g. work load, Are proud to belong to a team, work well
commitment pride, collaboration and ‘getting on’ together, aren’t overworked and collaborate
with others
The potential returns
ƒƒ In a study by the Institute of Work on UK manufacturing, 20 per cent of the variance in productivity
was down to better management of people and this was seen as a better predictor of profitability
than strategy, technology or R&D.
ƒƒ Our research shows time and again, across sectors and countries, that removing the barriers to
effective performance at a team level typically triggers significant gains (see retail case study) in
productivity and effectiveness in terms of performance outcome measures.
An example of trends in profit and loss, climate improvement and
employee engagement in a global manufacturer
200 100
Employee engagement index %
150
Profit and loss ($ millions)
and climate improvement %
75
100
50
50
25
0
About Hay Group
Hay Group works with -50 0
leaders to transform strategy 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
into reality. We develop
Employee engagement index Leadership effectiveness index (Climate measure)
talent, organise people to be
Profit and loss
more effective and motivate
them to perform at their
best. Our focus is on making
change happen and helping
people and organisations For more information on how you can improve productivity within
realise their potential.
your organisation, contact your normal Hay Group consultant or
chris watkin t +44 (0)20 7856 7310 e chris.watkin@haygroup.com
©2010 Hay Group. All rights reserved