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Workplace Innovationfor

better jobsand

organisational performance

Frank Pot

“National Productivity Forum”, SLCP, Zilina, 9 Octo ber 2014

Honored to be back again because

• Slovakia is the EU country with the relatively highest growth in product innovation, market share and competitiveness (labour productivity and/or return on investment) according to political economist professor Stefan Collignon, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Presentation 25 September 2014 in Brussels (ETUC/ETUI Congress “Europe at the crossroads”)

• The National Productivity Forum is not only about technological innovation and product innovation but also about work organisation, ergonomics and shop floor management

• SLCP includes also Health and Safety (e.g. HESAPRO project 2011 – 2013)

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Definitions

• Workplace innovations are new and combined interventions in work organisation, human resource management, work relations and supportive technologies.

• Workplace innovation• is a process of productive reflection as part of everyday

working life,• derives from interaction between stakeholders within and

outside the organisation,• builds bridges between the strategic knowledge of the

leadership, the professional and tacit knowledge of frontline employees and organisational design knowledge of experts,

• Works towards win-win outcomes as a creative convergence rather than a trade-off

Is job quality a luxury in times of crisis?

• Many countries focus on employment to combat poverty• Many countries focus on fair wages and a fair tax system as

well, as covered by the conceopt ‘decent work’ (ILO)• However, new jobs and higher wages can only be attained

if the economic sectors are competitive and innovative.• Competitiveness and innovativeness cannot be achieved by

new technology and capital alone.• Even more important is the optimal utilisation of the

potential workforce.• ‘Workplace innovation’ offers such an approach and

includes high quality jobs and higher productivity.

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Societal relevance workplace innovation

• Competitive economy:• Global competition and knowledge based economy �

development of competences and skills needed• Future decreasing workforce � increasing labour

productivity needed• General values• Democratic and prosperous society, societal wellbeing,

good work• Economic model based on the ‘high road’

• ‘National’ programmes in Finland, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, UK, Ireland, Sweden

Organisational relevance of workplace innovation (private and public organisations)• Workplace Innovation claims simultaneous improvement of

organisational performance (in particular productivity and innovation capabilities) and quality of working life (learning opportunities, wellbeing, stress prevention).

• Making new technology work through innovative work organisation

• Workplace innovation explains a larger part of innovation success than technological innovation does

• These claims are supported by a number of theories and research projects Unfortunately there is no time today to refer to those. The next slides give an impression.

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Overlap of OSH and workplace innovation

Workplaceinnovation

Health Wellbeing Performance

Work organisation ����

HRM ����Employment relationship ����

Ergonomics ����

Working times ����

Job autonomyEmployability

InvolvementComfort

Work-life-balance

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Empirical evidence: Best and poorest performers on both dimensions in Finland (409 self assessments)

Poorest group31 projectstop-down

interventions

Best group152 projectsparticipation

internal collaboration

Per

form

ance

+

-

Source: Ramstad, 2009

Quality of working life+ -

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Working Smarter and Performance (NL)

Performance criterionSMEs without

working smarterSMEs with

working smarter

Company results 2 18

Company turnover 7 15

Productivity 5 14

Employment 6 11

Economic Institute for SMEs. Source: Hauw et al., 2009; n = 650

% change in performance last 2 years

Core theories to support WPI-claims

• Job demands-control-support model (Karasek): active jobs, high strain jobs; mainly on individual task level

• Modern Sociotechnology (De Sitter), included JDC-model in 1981.. From complex organisations with simple jobs to simple organisations with complex jobs. Internal control capacity (individual task level) and external control capacity (department/organisation level)

• Single loop learning (autonomy on individual task level) and double loop learning (participation on department/organisation level) (Argyris & Schön)

• Action regulation theory (Hacker, Volpert): sequentially and hierarchically complete jobs; mainly on individual task level

• Democratic dialogue (Gustavsen) 10

Ergonomics

• Workplace ergonomics serves not only as the objective of reduction of physical workload (allowing better postures and movements; reducing lifting) and health promotion (physical exercise) but also that of productivity (easier and faster handling and processing; better lay-out)

• Ergonomics is an important field of interventions both for OSH and for workplace innovation

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Case Bronkhorst

Bronkhorst HIGH-TECHin Ruurlo, the Netherlands

• Develops and produces thermal mass flow meters andcontrollers

• Clients all over the world; surface treatment, processindustry, life sciences, automotive, bio-technology, etc.

• Continuous innovation of product technology andmanufacturing process

http://www.bronkhorst.com

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Innovation of manufacturing process

• Demand flow

• Lean Manufacturing

• Workplace innovation

• Training on the job (developingcompetences)

• Involvement

• Partner TNO

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Results• Productivity plus 20%

• Throughput time minus 30%

• More flexible work organisation

• Enthusiastic staff

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Case: company in climate control equipment

Company:- climate control equipment- 85 employees- development, engineering, process planning, sheet

metal, coating, assembly, packaging, installation

Old situation - long lead times, lot of stock on shop floor- Inflexible manufacturing by batches- material handling (physical workload); - searching for parts- unplanned overtime work (stress)

Impression of work sessions : involvement of various disciplines

Flow, factory lay-out and work organisation

Improvements:

Redesign of the factory and work organisation

according to demand flow & lean thinking

Redesign of factory lay-out, logistics and routing

Redesign of the product

Ergonomic improvements

Involvement of employees in work sessions, training

and implementation

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Effects

• An increase in organisational commitment: Employees motivated to improve their workstations on the shop floor = innovation capability

• Reduction of change-over-time: flexible production of small batches, less work in process

• Reduction of physical workload• Zero overtime work, less stress• Improvement of communication between engineering and

production: Design for assembly and work instructions• Increase of financial turnover by 40% with same number of

employees

• Commissioned by DG Enterprise and Industry for 2013 – 2015/2016

• International Consortium, coordination Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research TNO

• 6 regional events (Linköping; London; Vienna; Aveiro; Rouen 6 November), plus 2 major events (Sofia 29 September 2014; Leuven 2015), Trade Unions Event Copenhagen April 2014 and workshops/sessions at other conferences (ILERA/Amsterdam, Wellbeing at Work/Copenhagen; Bounderies of Work/Wroclaw 15 Nov 2014, etc.

• Networks coming together (innovation, productivity, HRM, occupational safety and health), practitioners, researchers

• Building alliances social partners, governments, researchers

• Examples through knowledge bank, videos, site visits, workshops

EUWIN: changing the political agenda

› Six regions :

› Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Finland, Norway

› France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Belgium (Wallonia)

› Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia

› Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Former Yugoslav Republics, Turkey

› UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium (Flanders)

› Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia

› Partners : TNO (NL), UKWON (UK), ARC Consulting (BG), KSU (LT), KUL (BE), Flanders Synergy (BE), PT-DLR (DE), ZSI (AT)

› Associate partners: TEKES (FI), ANACT (FR), Syntens (NL), ISSK-BAS (BG), IRES-ER (IT), SFS TU Dortmund (DE)

› Project Board : Steven Dhondt (coordinator, TNO), Peter Totterdill (UKWON)

EUWIN: changing the political agenda

Work organisation• Job autonomy• Self-managed teams• Integration of technology• Flexible working

Structure and systems• Reducing organisational walls

and ceilings• Supporting employee initiative• Fairness and equality• Trust

Workplace partnership• Dialogue• Representative participation• Involvement in change• Openness and communication• Integrating tacit and strategic

knowledge

Customer focus

Employee engagement

Enabling culture

Resilience

Positive employment relations

HIGH PERFORMANCE

GOOD WORK

SUSTAINABLE ORGANISATIONS

WORKPLACE INNOVATION

THE FIFTH ELEMENT

Learning and reflection• Continuous improvement• High involvement innovation• Learning and development • Shared knowledge and experience

Discussion 1

• Concept ‘workplace innovation’ has gained policy profile.• Core characteristic: direct employee participation reflecting

combined interventions in work organisation, HRM, work relations and supportive technologies

• All research shows wide variety of better performance• Quality jobs contribute to competitiveness through higher

productivity and innovation capability. Win-win outcomes as a creative convergence rather than a trade-off

• Research on organisational level focusses more on performance than on QWL, which is mostly investigated on individual level

Discussion 2

• National programmes can be supportive• Alliances of employers’ associations, trade unions,

governments and research institutes such as the SLCP • Slovakia can build on experiences on sector level during

crisis (e.g. working time adjustments, internal flexibility, and training rather than lay-offs)

• Different options: information, consultancy, workshops, research

• Funding: ESF, national and sector funds, private and public organisations themselves

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Concept workplace innovation used by• Eurofound, Dublin (2005 – recent EWCS, ECS, cases)• European Economic and Social Committee (opinion 2011)• EANPC Eur.Ass.Nat. Productivity Centres (incl. SLCP)• European Commission (since 10 October 2012)• EU OSHA, Bilbao (since 2012)• European Parliament (18 December 2013)• IndustriAll Eur. Trade Union( Manifesto 2 April 2014)• English translation of Finnish, Flemish and Dutch progr’s• National tripartite initiatives in UK and Ireland• Number of institutes in USA

• Disadvantage: Sometimes associated with individual workplaces or with work(ing) environment only.

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Examples national programmes

• Finland:• http://www.tekes.fi/en/programmes-and-services/tekes-

programmes/liideri/• Germany:• http://www.bmbf.de/pubRD/Zukunftsbild_Industrie_40.pdf• http://www.bmbf.de/pubRD/Umsetzungsempfehlungen_Ind

ustrie4_0.pdf• http://projekte.fir.de/elias/sites/projekte.fir.de.elias/files/mtm-

schriften-ie-ausgabe-1-lernforderlichkeit_20140625.pdf• http://www.bmbf.de/de/7771.php• http://www.bmbf.de/de/24637.php• http://www.bildungsspiegel.de/bildungsnews/verschiedenes/

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Join the network

• If you want to join EUWIN, if you want to become an ambassador, register at http://portal.ukwon.eu/

• Trade Union Group: http://portal.ukwon.eu/trade-unions

• For more information on DG Enterprise’s activities, visit the website at:

• http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/policy/workplaceinnovation/index_en.htm

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