Continuous Improvement in
Your Organization
Apparently it’s not enough just to want to
improve your business processes—you need to
have a need to do it, says Charlie Jacobs, senior
project manager for continuous improvement
at APL Logistics. Once you have that, it will
drive the behavior that you must have in your
organization. The benefits will continue to flow
from that point.
from them and your plan.”
Can compensation plans create dissension within a company?
Of course, rather than build morale, some plans can create a diffi-
cult environment in which to work. “That is a challenge with some
customers,” Carroll acknowledges. “There are many different ways
to calculate incentive compensation, and doing a commission
approach is just one of them. Incentive compensation can actually
be a quite flexible tool for your company. It can be structured in a
way to get you balance.
“The best incentive plans have a balance between financial
and strategic metrics, a balance between individual and team per-
formance, a balance between short- and long-term goals. You
can craft an incentive plan that will fit the role. Some will be dif-
ferent for outside sales people, who may need to be more com-
petitive, and some will be for those within an organization, who
need to work more collaboratively.”
When the associates in your workforce know the
expected behavior they will also realize what they
need in order to deliver in the projects assigned to
them. “Once you have that program in place, when
you have the persistent and consistent drive from
management—from the top down—and you’re
pushing for the behavior you want in your culture,
they will continually be raising the bar on the
processes and delivering improved services to their
customers—and improved savings to the bottom
line,” Jacobs says.
Standards and Industry Collaboration
GSI is a not-for-profit standards organization with offices in
108 countries that supports adoption and usage of standardized technology worldwide related to specific industries and
