The global and competitive nature of modern manufacturing has increased the drive for higher productivity in the UK. While there are many facets to achieving higher productivity, an important factor can be ensuring that lessons are learnt from pioneering companies and that best practice is applied across the manufacturing process.
This brief focuses particularly on a key aspect of effective human resources (HR) practice; High Performance Working (HPW). It aims to illustrate what HPW entails and how it can help to maximise the potential of employees and improve company performance.
If you are considering going down the HPW route, the key findings of the research on the topic (covered in the main sections of this brief) and the implications for your company are summarised below and form a set of broad guidelines.
In particular, it helps to identify for you what HPW involves, what drives its take-up, whether and how it improves company performance, why the take-up has been limited and how to go about introducing HPW.