Do you know the true value of your workforce?

With the recent passing of the secure jobs better pay bill, companies and union groups will be gearing up for conversations on pay and awards.

These conversations come with the inevitable topic of “efficiency” in order for an organisation to balance cost of wages against budgets. And that's fair! There are always improvements that can be made in the way an organisation operates to realise some savings that can be redirected to fair wages.

Are those around the negotiating table well enough informed to make decisions on efficiencies without detrimentally impacting the organisations capacity to deliver results? What metrics are being used?

Efficiencies can be found in the above measures where parts of the workforce fall outside a “desirable cost threshold". For example:

• A business unit with a headcount higher than the demand
• Employees falling into compa-ratio ranges that are too high for the award
• A lower average salary for one group doing the same work as another

Decisions based on those measures alone can lead to recruitment freezes, restructures, reassignments or even redundancies all in the quest to balance cost. These actions can be brutal, unintentionally short sighted and have significant impact on the efficacy of your organisation.

The value of the workforce goes far beyond its cost

"efficacy"
Noun, plural - the capacity for producing a desired result or effect

In this context the capacity refers to your workforce. They are after all your greatest asset. Any decision that affects them will impact your effectiveness as an organisation so it is vital that efficacy measures are also on the negotiation table.

​Analytics are key to having informed conversations when it comes to secure jobs and better pay. No negation is complete without weighing up all the facts and risks. The efficiencies against the efficacy.

So tell me truthfully … are you ready for this conversation?