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Australian Business Excellence Framework Copyright (c) Standards
Australia 2002
Where we are...
CQS has investigated a variety of continuous improvement programs for deployment within the Department.
We have selected the program which will provide the best outcomes for staff
in ITS, and for our clients. Each section's next step is to incorporate
existing practices into a unified departmental Continuous Improvement Program.
What it isn't!
There are a lot of misconceptions about the impact of continuous improvement
programs on workplaces and workloads. So perhaps we should be clear about some
of the things that the ITS Continuous Improvement Program is not here to do.
Continuous Improvement is not about:
- loads of extra documentation
- adding quality as a new layer, rather than being one part of strategic management
- creating extra workload
- a sneaky way of assessing staff performance
- unnecessary surveys
What it is?
It is when we ask ourselves “Are we doing things
right?” and also “Are we doing the right things?”
You may be asking yourself - “What does that mean?”
Well, what it may mean is:
- That we define our processes so that everyone understands them
- That we ensure that our current processes have a quality component built into them
- That over time we can remove unnecessary workload from staff
- That our processes are constantly focused on helping our clients to achieve their business objectives
What is in it for you!
- Reduced work, stress and frustration through re-engineering and re-design of inefficient work processes.
- Ownership - the processes that you map will be yours, not ones you have inherited from before.
- A system that ensures consistent, reliable, client-focused services to all our clients in a timely manner without costing us any more time and resources
than is necessary.
Why do it/Involvement
You might be asking yourself why we need you to be involved in the program.
One of the central and most important elements for any Continuous Improvement Program is to have staff involvement.
- As the person doing the job you are the best qualified person to know what
the problems are in your work area.
- It has also been shown in research that people who are allowed to influence
the decisions made about their work are less stressed and frustrated with their
work and they subsequently take more of an active interest and pride in their
work.
- This increased pride and interest as well as the reduced stress and frustrations
directly result in a happier work environment and improved quality, which in
turn makes the organization more effective.
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