ResMed

Return for involving employees at ResMed

Despite the well-documented benefits of empowering employees, managers rarely involve their employees in decision-making as much as they would like. Read about the extraordinary outcome when Head of Manufacturing Andrew Cameron, decided to listen to his staff at Voice Project client ResMed.

Mirjana Sandoval and Louise Parkes

Consulting with staff and involving them in decision-making can help overcome resistance to change, increase staff commitment and trust in management, and increase productivity. Despite the benefits, consulting and research team Voice Project at Macquarie University have found that employees consistently rate involvement as one of the aspects of their organisation they are least satisfied with. Involving staff can be a big challenge for some managers who are used to directing rather than listening. It requires taking on a supportive role and giving up a little authority, and will almost always take more time than making autonomous decisions. So when 'involvement' was identified as an opportunity for improvement at client ResMed Australia, we asked Andrew Cameron, Head of Manufacturing - Patient Interface Unit ,what happened when he took on this challenge.

ResMed Australia has been conducting staff climate surveys by Voice Project for a number of years. The surveys ask employees about their level of engagement, how they rate ResMed's bottom-line results, and feedback on a broad range of management and HR practices. Conducted globally, Cameron's main objective for their most recent survey was to ensure they selected areas their manufacturing group could focus on, and to link their actions to these focus areas. Cameron presented their group's results to his 200 employees face-to-face, already opening up opportunity for two-way communication. Together they all agreed that the key priority areas were to increase employees' involvement in decision-making and improve communication and cooperation with the broader organisation. The employees wanted to know about future projects in advance, what actions were being taken when issues were raised, and greater exposure to management. Cameron publicly committed to listening to and acting on what his employees had to say.

Involving employees in decision-making

Cameron asked each employee to come up with one suggestion to improve their job that could be implemented within a year. The aim was to "aid in efficiencies, but make it an easier and more enjoyable workplace to work". He acknowledged "you are empowered to make a difference, you are here all day, everyday - you're the ones that are probably best equipped to make a decision... so let's hear from you". Encouraging employees to make suggestions and changes to their daily work processes, as Cameron did, means that staff are involved at the appropriate level - where they can be empowered to act on their own ideas. He was confident that suggestions and decisions would be in line with organisational goals. He communicates the organisation vision and direction every 6 to 8 weeks, so employees have the structure and information needed for decision-making.

Staff's ideas were listed up on the wall, with the name of the employee who had made the suggestion listed beside their idea. Within 2 weeks all 200 employees had put forward an idea. Some ideas were simple - for example, moving paperwork from one side of the campus to the other by allocating a post bag. Every single idea was given attention, and Cameron let employees know what and when something would be done about their suggestions. A team of employees evaluated the ideas weekly, including the employee who suggested the idea that was being evaluated; ensuring decisions were being communicated back to the employees. This showed employees their ideas were valued and taken seriously.

"Within 3 months we had actually implemented the whole 200 ideas. It was mind-blowing. We won the COO Continuous Improvement Award of the month for not only recognising 200 ideas, but realising these 200 ideas". Cameron continues to refer to the achievement as a group effort - acknowledging employees for their part in the improvements. The enthusiasm generated amongst staff resulted in improvement ideas being suggested daily. In 6 months their unit achieved savings equivalent to 20,000 man-hours. "It wasn't so much the money that was motivating, it was about making it an easier and more improved place to work with efficiencies behind that. If you talk to the employees, they love this program".

Improving communication

In manufacturing, as in many other industries, communication with staff on the front-line can be challenging. Many operators work on a production line and do not have time to meet and discuss the actions being taken in response to their feedback. However, even more communication is needed in times of organisational change. So Cameron involved his employees in communicating changes through what he calls a 'visual feedback loop'. "A lot of the actions that we see happening on the floor, we could capture photographically and remind ourselves and our employees about the actions that we are taking". Displayed on posters in different parts of manufacturing, this innovative and effective form of communication generated so much excitement that Cameron soon had nearly 20 posters with 50 photographs each on his desk. "It seemed to create a mind of its own; it was certainly one of the most exciting projects that I have run here in terms of level of engagement throughout manufacturing".

Empowering staff with decision-making capability also meant facilitating better communication and cooperation across teams in the organisation. Although staff knew a lot about the parts they produced and assembled, they were not sure how those parts fit in with the rest of ResMed.So, an education program was run for the employees in manufacturing to give them a better understanding of the products ResMed manufacture. Opportunities were created for manufacturing staff to talk with staff from other parts of the organisation, for example, engineering. In the past, the engineers would design something without consulting the employees who work on it. Now, if a jig or fixture needs to be designed, the engineers work with manufacturing floor employees, asking them what size, location of handle, and colour they want it. Cameron said that when new equipment was made "the efficiencies were enormous, because it was everything staff wanted and more".

Cameron involved his employees in numerous ways. Firstly, he discussed the survey results and sought staff input in choosing priority areas to focus on. Secondly, he asked for their suggestions on ways to improve their job, involving them in the evaluation process and acknowledging their part in their unit's achievements. Furthermore, Cameron proactively encouraged staff to communicate progress in the priority areas visually using photographs. He enabled employees to see how they fit into the 'big picture', and facilitated communication across teams. He is looking forward to feedback on these improvements in ResMed Australia's next staff survey.

Top Tips for Involving Staff

· employee decision-making Encourage employees to make suggestions and empower them to make changes to their daily work processes.

· communication Facilitate information flow up and down the organisation. Set up opportunities for two-way communication between management and staff.

· clear organisation direction Regularly communicate the vision and strategy of the organisation to employees so that changes are in line with organisational goals.

· management commitment Management will need to proactively encourage, pay attention to, and act on employees' opinions. Education and training may be required to assist in changing management views and behaviour.

· structures for evaluation Have an evaluation process in place to decide the value of each idea made by employees. Always respond to ideas, without making promises that cannot be kept.

· feedback on action Communicate actions taken and explicitly link them with the involvement process, to encourage continued involvement from staff.