IMPLEMENTING WORKPLACE CHANGE

Nedlac's Workplace Challenge projectencourages workers and managers to work together to improve the way in which South Africanindustry delivers products and services to the market. The Workplace Challenge providescompanies with a range of resources to assist them in improving their performance. Theseinc:

• The collective support of Nedlac's social partners - labour, business, government and community.
• Financial assistance.
• Capacity building for workers and managers.
• Learning from companies that have implemented workplace change.

The project currently funds seventeen firmsacross three sectors. The three sectors are petrochemicals, plastics and synfibres(PPSCI); capital equipment and footwear - Pietermaritzburg.

Four companies in the petrochemicals, plasticsand synfibres sector have been participating in the Workplace Challenge for the past year.They are Vynide, DPI (Roodekop), Ampaglas and Clausens Plastics. The companies range insize from 50 employees to nearly 600 employees.

Recently the four pilot companies, in conjunctionwith the Plastics Converters Association, held workshops in Gauteng, the Western Cape andKwaZulu-Natal. These workshops enabled managers and workers from the pilot companies toshare their experiences of workplace change with other companies in their sector.

The companies reported that whilst implementingworkplace change was a difficult and long-term process, the Workplace Challenge hadresulted in a number of positive changes.

In the first instance the WorkplaceChallenge's insistence on measuring success, had compelled companies to search forareas of improvement. Managers and shopstewards at the pilot companies acknowledged thatthe Workplace Challenge moved them away from talking about change to implementing it.Companies described the Workplace Challenge as a 'hothouse' for change.

All the companies found that a lack of trust wasinitially a considerable block to workplace change. The pilot companies discovered thatimproving workplace relations was an essential component of implementing sustainablechanges in the workplace. Shopstewards and managers shared with other plastics companiesthe multiple ways in which the Workplace Challenge helped to improve relationships betweenmanagers and workers in the pilot companies. The improvement in relationships has resultedin immediate benefits such as reductions in absenteeism and grievance hearings.

The Workplace Challenge's participatoryapproach has empowered workers. Shopstewards at DPI Roodekop led an attack on scrap rates.They asked workers to identify what they thought were the sources of scrap in the company.Through this process, the company was able to identify a fault in the mixing procedurewhich when rectified, reduced the scrap rate.

The four companies said that the first year ofthe Workplace Challenge had laid the foundations for a process that would result in manylong-term benefits. They will continue to participate in the Workplace Challenge and sharetheir experiences of workplace change with the country.

The PPSCI pilot companies have generatedsubstantial learning on how to implement and manage workplace change. A research reportand two implementation manuals have captured this learning. They are available from theNedlac website.

Nedlac anticipates that over the next two years,12 sectors will participate in the Workplace Challenge. The learning and experiencegenerated through this process will be a valuable resource in enabling South Africancompanies to increase performance for all. Should you wish to have more information visitour new.