It's Not Just About Minimum Wage

The recent announcement of the Fair Work Commission’s decision to increase the national minimum wage by 3.5 per cent, may have just sent some employer’s heads into a spin. It’s a classic Catch 22: With competition soaring, it’s not always feasible to pass costs onto consumer’s. Cutting back on labour costs by reducing hours might mean risking the engagement and retention of your valued employees.

So, what other options are available to businesses who are feeling the sting of an increase in wage payments?

This may just be the perfect opportunity for you to begin to look at your current structures and systems, and develop strategies that will ensure you are getting the most value from your people & talent investment. This could be as simple as implementing some small changes to streamline processes and enhance productivity in your business – ensuring you really are maximising your return on investment and achieving the results you know your team are capable of!

So how do you enhance the performance of your people? There are a few commonly overlooked areas that can lead to lacklustre performance from employees – ultimately impacting on your bottom line.

The first, is a lack of understanding of what high performance actually looks like. This might sound pretty obvious, but you may be surprised to know that many employees are not even aware of what the expectations are of their role, or what they should be working towards. Have you provided your employees with a current role description or measurable KPI’s? It’s a great starting point. Not only will this define expectations and purpose are, but it will also allow you to more effectively provide feedback on their performance – another method that will help drive performance. It doesn’t have to be ‘traditional’ or over engineered. The key – keep it Simple!

Are you still with me? I know, you may already be thinking this sounds way too complicated or time consuming especially when you are already overloaded with a million other important tasks, like running your business. But, with a little bit of time and effort you are sure to see some great results that make this a worthwhile exercise and place you in a position of competitive advantage. When you look after your employees and take the time to show them they are valued – they will reward you with increased performance and commitment to your business. Statistics will tell you this time and time again.

So, what are you waiting for?

Remember, complicated is not better. Once you have the frameworks in place, you may just find this was the golden ticket to achieving your business outcomes and helping to relieve some of the pain you feel with increased labour costs.

Think there are areas of your business that could do with some improvement? Get in touch and why not pick our brains over a free coffee!

P.S. It would be remiss of us not to remind you all to check your current employee pay rates against the relevant Modern Award ready for 1 July 2018 (Don’t panic – we can help with that too!)