Partnership and Efficiency Improvements
Efficiency gains and improvements through employee participation and involvement include:
- Productivity improvement
- Higher levels of production: greater through-put
- Faster, more efficient order processing
- Higher levels of uptime
- Reduce excess costs
- Quality improves
- Better cost management
- Lower lead times
- Lower scrappage levels
- Lower stock levels
Sample evidence
- In medical electronics and imaging industry, companies with higher levels of participation had higher levels of efficiency, higher perceived quality and higher profitability. (Appelbaum (2000)
- Productivity improvements of up to 20% linked to high involvement and co-operative union relations. (Black and Lynch (1997)
- The gap between US and UK productivity was traced to differences in the level of employee involvement. (EEF (2001)
- Research in the UK found that organisations using employee participation and involvement arrangements were 24% more likely to experience higher labour productivity. (TUC (2001)
- 70% of companies in an Irish survey reported that productivity improved, while 65% reported an improvement in business performance, when using a partnership approach. (O'Dowd (2002)
- Swedish research showed that labour productivity in organisations making extensive use of continuous learning and task delegation was higher by 29-60%. (NUTEK (1999)
- A German survey found labour productivity increased by 8-30% in manufacturing companies using new work practices such as teamworking and continuous improvement. (Lay et al (1999)
- Auto-supply companies using high levels of employee involvement matched cost reductions because they produced greater volumes than companies with low levels of involvement. (Helper (1997)
