New IR Policy - Early Adopter winning in the marketplace.

The newly introduced IR reforms are the most significant changes since the introduction of the Fair Work Act in 2009 and will shape the employment & business landscape in Australia for years to come. What is important right now is what your business is doing with it!

The good news is you have options.

Option 1: Man your weapons, organise the legal cavalry and prepare for potential confrontations with your employees, unions or regulatory bodies.

Option 2: Kick-off a strategic business review, ask your SMEs to create policies and procedures, then wait & see.

Option 3: View these changes as an opportunity for your business, develop a strategy (more than just meeting your obligations), build inhouse capability and embed the responsibility as part of your leaders’ skills.

Pivoting early to adopt Option 3 will bring you a competitive advantage and is the only way towards workforce enablement, retaining/attracting talents and winning in the marketplace.

An often-seen mistake in EA negotiation is to focus on only on compliance and approaching it as an "us against them" situation, with little consideration of creating a future focused IR strategy. A good IR strategy is set for years ahead and focusses on driving operations efficiency by rewarding employees. A vital question you need to be asking yourself & your business is: are you leveraging IR SMEs who know the landscape and can assist with developing an IR Strategy that balances the best outcomes for your business & employees?

It's important that any IR strategy is owned by the Business (P&L) leader and is supported by SMEs, not the other way around. This will become even more important as dealing with potential multi-enterprise bargaining will require you to understand the IR strategy of other organisations with a "common interest". Do you understand what is happening out there right now in the IR landscape and within your industry?

The new IR reforms are not yet fully understood in its execution details and are yet to be tested and shaped by case studies through bodies such as the FWC. Until then here are my top 3 recommendations for immediate action:

1. Widen the focus of your IR strategy with the introduction of multi-enterprise agreements. What happens outside my business in my industry?

2. Update policies & employee contracts with the ability to demonstrate how you meet your obligations. Would your business hold up to an external audit?

3. Build Capability of your P&L leaders through education & awareness programs. Who is owning the outcome?

Sustainability – From Accountability to Action

Many organisations talk about Sustainability and recognise its importance, but how many are really taking action? It’s easy to include Sustainability buzzwords in a business plan, but making real change requires an ongoing commitment to measuring, adapting, communicating and reviewing business processes.

Setting Sustainability goals and communicating them to stakeholders is no longer just good practice, it’s now a non-negotiable aspect of doing business. Modern businesses see the opportunity to use Sustainability as a differentiator and are happy to share their goals with their stakeholders, but how many are sharing the details of how they are working towards those goals, and their actual progress?

There are three main steps for a manufacturing business to consider when taking action on Sustainability:

1. Setting ambitious goals for the short and mid-term: It is important that these goals are not “easy wins” but ambitious goals that may require organisational transformation over time to achieve results that will make a significant impact.

2. Developing a Sustainability Roadmap: Using Sustainability goals as a framework for a step-by-step roadmap, utilising digitalisation, human resources and other tools to move towards an end result.

3. Measurement and re-evaluation: It is critical that the organisation implements ongoing measurement of its progress and can stop and re-assess at regular intervals, remaining flexible enough to make adjustments as needed.

If an organisation is following these steps at all levels – from the board of directors and senior management to the manufacturing floor, then they are really “walking the talk” when it comes to Sustainability.

Sustaining Profitable Operations Through a Supply Chain Crisis

There appears to be no end in sight to the Global Supply Chain Crisis that we have endured throughout 2022. Supply Chain issues will continue into 2023 due to ongoing labour shortages, shifts in consumer demand, and geopolitical factors affecting supply of oil and gas and other natural resources.

Procurement plays a pivotal role in helping modern organisations to remain competitive through such a crisis by making positive P&L impact.

At Orzinski Consulting, we’ve developed a structured, five-step approach to analyse and re-organise for optimal Procurement savings.

1. Diagnose: Assessing current processes, reporting and competencies together with the in-house team

2. Benchmark: Measure against global best practice

3. Quick-wins: Implement rapid changes for rapid results

4. Sustainability: Work with the team to develop a Procurement Scorecard, ensuring Sustainability is at the foundation of all decision-making

5. Governance: Utilise a Sourcing Board to maintain 3-4% annual savings and a strongly results-driven culture across the organisation

Analysing and re-organising Procurement should be one of the first steps for any organisation facing pain points in their Supply Chain, for short-term and long-term positive impacts on their P&L.