In an era when industrial jobs are being shipped out to emerging markets, it is rather interesting to consider countries like Germany. In Germany, labor costs are 60-80% higher and they are still holding their own employees, despite a 38-40 hour working week and 6 weeks paid vacation.
Japan have also maintained an impressive industrial profile. Within the same set of circumstances, they are remaining world beaters in making high-end tech products that are the envy of many nations.
What makes these countries different?
Make no mistake. There are many countries out there where workers go flat out to create great products and services. Singapore and other emerging markets come to mind, but there are reasons why I single out these nations for special mention.
Strong manufacturing base
Take the auto industry for example. Japan and German car manufacturers and their suppliers are able to produce high quality and affordable household brand names like Toyota, Mercedes and BMW on the back of high labor costs and ever increasing costs of living. In fact, Germany has maintained a strong manufacturing base representing 30% in turnover of goods produced in the EU.
Happy and highly skilled workforce
What is the secret behind these impressive figures? It comes as no surprise that a skillful and productive workforce is the key to posting impressive GDP growth.
A glimpse of the typical work habits of focused and motivated employees:
- effective communicators
- always focused on the end game
- use their time at work for just that – work.
In return, German organizations respect the fact that their employees have a life away from the workplace. They are more than willing to give them the necessary space and support when bringing up their families.
Enabling environment
The political class is also doing its bit to reinforce a high performance culture, best illustrated by its renowned vocational education system, which encourages apprenticeship programs run by companies. Under this arrangement, state-sponsored students get the opportunity to learn alongside industry professionals who in turn pay the interns for their services, and even offer full-time employment to these students upon graduation.
What does all this mean for my small business or team?
The German lesson provides a great paradigm for what qualities we should look out for when putting together a high performance team with a great working attitude. In my 20 years’ experience in various corporate leadership roles I have found certain traits to hold true for in businesses which bring out the best in their employees. They are:
Motivated employees love to fight with smart goals
A high-performing culture starts with making SMART objectives which help keep employees on track in terms of their deliverables. These performance objectives are also referred to as “key performance indicators” or “key result areas”.
The objectives therefore must be:
- Measureable, whereby processes are periodically tracked for comparison with project benchmarks.
- Task completion should be within budget
- Business processes must be carried out within agreed timelines.
There should also be periodic review mechanisms in order to keep improving the system and workflow in the organization’s functions; allow me to elaborate:
Task tracking has never been a big issue for organizations operating in countries with low labor costs. However, for small and medium sized businesses task tracking is absolutely crucial. I use software with live time tracking, which helps me monitor performance for just few dollars a month. It’s been a game changer in managing my labor costs.
High performing teams have transparent communication
There is nothing worse than waiting around to receive information before you can act. It is not uncommon to hear “I’m waiting for information” from a colleague in the workplace; they might as well tell you “I am not aware, and I am yet to do anything about it.”
Things do not have to be this way though. Picture, if you will, a situation where members of a small project team of 6-8 people use modern fast communication tools like Slack to keep each other updated on the project’s progress from different work stations (including remote ones for telecommuters) – this is the new trend in communication. Moneypenny has even gone one better by integrating these tools so that task or time changes automatically notify the relevant person.
Team communication in real time. Members have all the project’s relevant facts and figures constantly updated and flashing on their computer screens or other devices. That’s how they can easily accomplish sensitive time bound tasks. This was not the case 2 to 3 years ago.
Emails and guesstimates would be relegated to the back banner, and replaced by hard facts and figures delivered ASAP.
High performing businesses create their own business culture
It is no secret that businesses which do well value their employees and show it by encouraging their input, and continuously giving feedback. Do not get me wrong! It is not as if most bosses go out of their way to shut out or frustrate their juniors. Usually you will find that conflicts which lead to frustration arise from differences. There might be differences in opinion between colleagues on accomplishing company objectives and tasks. And at the end of the day it there comes the risk of losing great employees. Taking advantage of machine learning and employee churn prediction results in better culture organisation.
High performing organizations challenge the status quo
When goals are clearly spelt out and a culture of asking questions (challenging the status quo) is encouraged, employees are able to work in a relaxed atmosphere where they can put their best foot forward, confident in the knowledge that their efforts will be appreciated and supported.
The best analogy I can use on this is the 100m dash record, currently set at 9.58 seconds by Jamaica’s Usain Bolt. Records are there to be beaten, and your organization’s workflow or process can always be improved, no matter how wonderful you think it is.
High performing organizations clearly separate between private and business life
Many people confuse working hard with running themselves to the ground. The typical symptom of a workaholic and a burned-out is being unable to separate between their work life and their private life. A good organization should discourage this behavior at all costs. It should encourage a leave-your- work-at-work policy that ensures their employees do not burn out. Employees should be encouraged to spend their free time with their families. And pursuing their hobbies so as to be more complete as human beings.
Bottom line?
Encouraging employees to constantly challenge themselves, and equipping them with the necessary tools to manage their workload, are the true hallmarks of any successful HR policy. If you haven’t tried it, you need to start.