Engaging our Employees and Enhancing Performance with Better Visual Communications
Clear, attractive presentation has improved communications at the Germiston site.
Surveys showed that people at our Germiston site in South Africa felt there was room to improve levels of employee engagement. Recognising this, the site developed and launched its ‘Visual Plant’ programme in 2008 to review and standardise its communication practices.
The Visual Plant initiative launched a three-pronged attack on the issue of better communication. First it raised the standard of general communication and plant appearance so that important information is communicated to everyone in the plant in a prompt, consistent way. Clear, attractive presentation can make the difference as to whether an important message is read or ignored. General communication includes corporate / historical information on Johnson Matthey, standardised notice boards throughout the plant and an LCD screen in the entrance hallway. The improvements have led to significantly increased levels of engagement within the site.
The second prong concerned performance communication: giving production line staff real time information about plant performance. As part of a pilot, a screen has been set up on one of the production lines showing information such as current batch reject rates, line efficiency and time to next changeover. This has significantly improved the ability of the operators on the line to monitor how they are performing and to react swiftly to situations that are starting to deviate. The pilot scheme has contributed to the reduction of rejects and the increase in efficiency seen over the last year.
The third prong of Visual Plant communication covers instructions on the workings of the plant itself: its general layout, an area or line flow map for each line / section and a job element sheet for each workstation. Communications here give a visual representation for each activity instead of using photographs. Work has begun to develop line flow maps showing overall flows through an area, with clear graphical guidance on personal protective equipment, training required and other health and safety matters. Communication on the job element sheets will also be developed to give a detailed work instruction for individual job positions and for use in training material.
Effective communication is not just an add-on management tool. It lies at the heart of employee engagement, efficient performance and safe working practices. Saying it with good visuals is important, too – at times, a picture is worth a thousand words.
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